Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187-1291 2011017231, 9780754651253, 9781315600499

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Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

Denys Pringle

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

Crusade Texts in Translation Editorial Board Malcolm Barber (Reading), Peter Edbury (Cardiff), Bernard Hamilton (Nottingham), Norman Housley (Leicester), Peter Jackson (Keele) Titles in the series include Mary Fischer The Chronicle of Prussia by Nicolaus von Jeroschin A History of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia, 1190–1331 Peter Jackson The Seventh Crusade, 1244–1254 Sources and Documents Malcolm Barber and Keith Bate Letters from the East Crusaders, Pilgrims and Settlers in the 12th–13th Centuries G. A. Loud The Crusade of Frederick Barbarossa The History of the Expedition of the Emperor Frederick and Related Texts Susan B. Edgington and Carol Sweetenham The Chanson d’Antioche An Old French Account of the First Crusade Carol Sweetenham Robert the Monk’s History of the First Crusade Historia Iherosolimitana Damian J. Smith and Helena Buffery The Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon A Translation of the Medieval Catalan Llibre dels Fets

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

Denys Pringle Cardiff University, UK

First published 2012 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Denys Pringle 2012 Denys Pringle has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291. – (Crusade Texts in Translation) 1. Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages – Jerusalem – History – To 1500 – Sources. 2. Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages – Palestine – History – To 1500 – Sources. 3. Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages – Jerusalem – Early works to 1800. 4. Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages – Palestine – Early works to 1800. 5. Jerusalem – History – Latin Kingdom, 1099–1244 – Sources. 6. Palestine – History – 638–1917 – Sources. 7. Travellers’ writings, French – Translations into English. 8. Christian literature, French – Translations into English. 9. Christian literature, Latin – Translations into English. I. Series II. Pringle, Denys. 263’.0425694’09022–dc22 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pringle, Denys. Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291 / Denys Pringle. p. cm. – (Crusade Texts in Translation) Includes index. 1. Jerusalem – Description and travel – Early works to 1800. 2. Jerusalem – In literature. 3. Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages – Jerusalem – Early works to 1800. 4. Christian shrines – Jerusalem – Early works to 1800. I. Title. DS109.P68 2011 915.69404’330922–dc23 2011017231 ISBN 9780754651253 (hbk) ISBN 9781315600499 (ebk)

Contents List of Figures    List of Tables    Preface    Introduction  

vii ix xi 1

The Texts  

21

  1.

Wilbrand of Oldenburg: Journey in the Holy Land (1211–12)  

61

  2.

Thietmar: Pilgrimage (1217–18)  

95

  3. Ernoul’s Chronicle (c.1231) (extracts)  

135

  4.

165

The Holy Pilgrimages (1229–39)  

 5. Anonymous ix and Anonymous x (c.1229–39)  

173

  6. All the Land that the Sultan Retains (c.1239)  

181

  7.

Geoffrey of Beaulieu: The Pilgrimage of Louis IX from Acre to Nazareth (March 1251)  

187

  8.

Greek Anonymous i: A Partial Account of the Holy Places of Jerusalem (1253–54)  

189

  9.

Matthew Paris: Itinerary from London to Jerusalem (1250–59)   197

10.

The Ways and Pilgrimages of the Holy Land (1244–65)  

209

11.

Pilgrimages and Pardons of Acre (1258–63)  

229

12.

Friar Maurice ofm: Journey to the Holy Land (1271–73)  

237

13.

Burchard of Mount Sion op: Description of the Holy Land (1274–85)  

241

14.

Philip of Savona ofm: Description of the Holy Land (1285–89)   321

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

vi

15. Riccoldo of Monte Croce op: Pilgrimage (1288–89)  

361

16.

These are the Pilgrimages and Places of the Holy Land (Thirteenth Century)  

17.

Greek Anonymous ii: The Places of Jerusalem (c.1250–c.1350)  381

Sources   Index  

377

393 427

List of Figures 1 Map of Palestine 2a–d Plan of Jerusalem 3 Plan of the Holy Sepulchre 4 Map showing Wilbrand’s journey from Acre to Cilicia, Cyprus and the Holy Land [1] 5 Map showing Thietmar’s journeys to Damascus and Saydnaya, and to the Holy Land and Mount Sinai [2] 6 Map showing the lands held by the Sultan c.1239 [6] 7 Plan of Acre showing the location of the Pardons, 1258– 63 [11] 8 Map showing Friar Maurice’s voyage through the Western Mediterranean [12] 9 Matthew Paris’s map of the Holy Land (map b), 1250–59 (British Library, MS Roy., 14c.vii, fols. 4v–5r) [9]

xiii xiv–xvii xviii xix xx xxi xxii xxiii xxiv

List of Tables 1.

Papal indulgences granted to churches in the East in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries

2. Indulgences in Acre listed in ‘The Pilgrimages and Pardons of Acre (1258–64)

15 16

Crusade Texts in Translation Volume 23

About the volume This book presents new translations of a selection of Latin and French pilgrimage texts – and two in Greek – relating to Jerusalem and the Holy Land between the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187 and the loss of Acre to the Mamluks in 1291. It therefore complements and extends existing studies, which deal with the period from Late Antiquity to Saladin’s conquest. Such texts provide a wealth of information not only about the business of pilgrimage itself, but also on church history, topography, architecture and the social and economic conditions prevailing in Palestine in this period. Pilgrimage texts of the thirteenth century have not previously been studied as a group in this way; and, because the existing editions of them are scattered across a variety of rather obscure publications, they tend to be under-utilized by historians, despite their considerable interest. For instance, they are often more original than the texts of the twelfth century, representing first-hand accounts of travellers rather than simple reworkings of older texts. Taken together, they document the changes that occurred in the pattern of pilgrimage after the fall of Jerusalem in 1187, during its brief reoccupation by the Franks between 1229 and 1244, and during the period from 1260 onwards when the Mamluks gradually took military control of the whole country. In the 1250s-60s, for example, because of the difficulties faced by pilgrims in reaching Jerusalem itself, there developed an alternative set of holy sites offering indulgences in Acre. The bringing of Transjordan, southern Palestine and Sinai under Ayyubid and, later, Mamluk control also encouraged the development of the pilgrimage to St Catherine’s monastery on Mount Sinai in this period. The translations are accompanied by explanatory footnotes and preceded by an introduction, which discusses the development of Holy Land pilgrimage in this period and the context, dating and composition of the texts themselves. The book concludes with a comprehensive list of sources and a detailed index. About the author Denys Pringle is a Professor in the Cardiff School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University, UK

Annæ sorori piissimæ quae complurima loca in hoc libro descripta mecum visitavit

Preface In view of the close relationship between pilgrimage and crusading it seems very appropriate to include a book of pilgrim texts in a series of volumes of translated texts relating to the crusades. The timescale for the present volume runs from the fall of the first kingdom of Jerusalem after the battle of Ḥaṭṭīn in 1187 to the ending of the second kingdom with the loss of Acre in 1291. Two principal considerations influenced this choice. First, English translations of pilgrim texts relating to Jerusalem and the Holy Land before 1187 have already been published by John Wilkinson in a series of three books: Egeria’s Travels (1971), Jerusalem Pilgrims before the Crusades (1977), and Jerusalem Pilgrimage 1099–1185 (1988). The present volume of translated texts, accompanied by historical, topographical and archaeological commentary, therefore extends by another century a style of presentation already well established by its distinguished predecessors. Secondly, although a good translation of J.C.M. Laurent’s 1864 edition of Burchard of Mount Sion’s ‘Description of the Holy Land’ has been available since 1896 in a volume of the Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society and a French translation of Riccoldo of Monte Croce’s ‘Pilgrimage’ was published by the late René Kappler in parallel with a new edition of the Latin text in 1997, most of the other thirteenth-century texts published here are only available in nineteenth-century editions in Latin, Old French or Greek, published in a variety of different places, some of them relatively obscure. Bringing them all together in one book in a common language and format will, it is hoped, make them more accessible to historians and other scholars, as well as to those wishing to visit the Holy Land, whether in the imagination or in actuality. In the case of Wilbrand of Oldenburg’s ‘Journey in the Holy Land’, the identification of the thirteenth-century manuscript from which all later known manuscript versions of the text were derived has also made it possible to base the present translation on a new edition of the text, which effectively supersedes Laurent’s edition of 1864/73. Among those who have assisted me in translating and commenting on these texts, I am most grateful in the first place to the editors of the Crusade Texts in Translation series, in particular Malcolm Barber, Peter Edbury and Bernard Hamilton. I am also grateful for additional comments and assistance from my colleagues Massimiliano Gaggero, Helen Nicholson, Alasdair Whittle, and especially Frank Trombley, who provided invaluable help and advice in translating the two anonymous Greek descriptions of the Holy Places. The treatment of Matthew Paris’s ‘Itinerary’ and Burchard of Mount Sion’s ‘Description’ in particular has also benefitted considerably from fruitful discussions with Paul D.A. Harvey on the relationship between these texts and the maps with which they were associated. The illustration of Matthew Paris’s map of the Holy Land is reproduced by kind

xii

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

permission of the British Library, while the other maps and plans have been drawn by Ian Dennis (Figs I.1–2, T.1, 6–8), Kirsty Harding (Fig. 5) and the late Peter E. Leach (Fig. 3). Finally I am grateful to the Arts and Humanities Research Council and to the Cardiff School of History and Archaeology for sponsoring a period of research leave devoted to this project in 2007/8. Denys Pringle Cardiff, June 2011

Fig. 1

Map of Palestine

Fig. 2a–d

Plan of Jerusalem

Fig. 3

Plan of the Holy Sepulchre

Fig. 4

Map showing Wilbrand’s journey from Acre to Cilicia, Cyprus and the Holy Land [1]

Fig. 5

Map showing Thietmar’s journeys to Damascus and Saydnaya, and to the Holy Land and Mount Sinai [2]

Fig. 6

Map showing the lands held by the Sultan c.1239 [6]

Fig 7

Plan of Acre showing the location of the Pardons, 1258–63 [11]

Fig. 8

Map showing Friar Maurice’s voyage through the Western Mediterranean [12]

Fig. 9

Matthew Paris’s map of the Holy Land (map B), 1250–59 (British Library, MS Roy., 14c.vii, fols. 4v–5r) [9]

Introduction Pilgrimage Between 1187 and 1291 1187–1229 On 4 July 1187, the army of the kingdom of Jerusalem was crushed by Saladin at the Horns of Ḥaṭṭīn above Tiberias and the king, Guy of Lusignan, taken prisoner. With the army effectively destroyed, the cities and castles of the kingdom quickly fell, one after another.1 Finally on 2 October Jerusalem itself capitulated and, after some eight decades in Christian hands, the Holy Places of Christendom returned once again to Muslim control. Christian control of Jerusalem and the Holy Land during the earlier part of the twelfth century, together with the establishment of merchant colonies in the coastal cities linked to the West by sea lanes relatively safe from Muslim attack, had given a huge impetus to the development of Christian pilgrimage to Palestine, not only from western Europe but also from Byzantium, Russia, Armenia and Georgia.2 The churches and shrines associated with the Holy Places had been rebuilt and provided with facilities for receiving large numbers of pilgrims, especially around the time of Holy Week.3 Guidebooks and descriptions of individual pilgrimages show how the itineraries followed by pilgrims were adapted and developed as sites once again became accessible and as new churches were erected at them.4 The sudden loss of the Holy Land, however, was accompanied by the re-Islamification of former Muslim buildings like the Dome of the Rock, which the Franks had made into a church, by the destruction or conversion to Muslim use of others, and by the forced emigration or enslavement of much of the Latin population who had cared for them. In the immediate aftermath of Saladin’s conquest, however, while the Latin clergy were forced into exile in Tyre or overseas, the churches of the   Lists of the places captured or destroyed are given in various sources, both Christian and Muslim, including: De Expugnatione Terrae Sanctae Libellus, ed. Stevenson, in RS 66, pp. 209–62; Itinerarium Peregrinorum 4.23, in RS 38.1, p. 280, trans. Nicholson, p. 261; Ambroise, lines 6826–60, ed. Ailes and Barber, pp. 110–11, trans. 124–5; Bahā’ al-Dīn, trans. Richards, pp. 247–8; ‘Imād al-Dīn, trans. Massé, p. 99; Jaspert, ‘Zwei unbekannte Hilfsersuchen’, pp. 511–16, no. 2; Kedar, ‘Ein Hilferuf aus Jerusalem’; Gesta Regis Henrici II, in RS 49.2, pp. 22–4; Barber and Bate, Letters from the East, pp. 79–81, nos. 43–4 and pp. 83–8, nos. 46–8; cf. Kedar, ‘Civitas and Castellum’. 2   Richard, Royaume latin, pp. 11–18; Jacoby, ‘Pèlerinage médiéval’, pp. 27–8. 3   See Pringle, Churches 1–4; id., ‘The Planning of some Pilgrimage Churches’. 4   See IHC 1–4; Wilkinson et al., Jerusalem Pilgrimage, pp. 24–84. 1

2

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

oriental Christian communities – the Greek and Syrian Orthodox, Jacobites and Armenians – were left relatively unharmed. In such circumstances the prospects for maintaining the same level of pilgrimage from the West that had been possible in previous decades would have seemed bleak. Indeed, in a letter to western rulers written even before the fall of Jerusalem, Patriarch Heraclius had promised absolution to those who had bound themselves to visit the Holy Sepulchre but were unable to do so through illness, infirmity or for some other serious reason, so long as they paid to the canons of his church then visiting the West the money that they had set aside for their intended pilgrimage.5 The most that many western Christians could probably have hoped for was a restoration of the status quo before the First Crusade, in which Muslim rulers had permitted pilgrims from overseas to visit the Holy Places as guests of the local Christian community, on payment of taxes to the Muslim authorities. Pilgrimage controlled in this way had been a source of economic value to the Fatimids; and it appears from Saladin’s initial actions that he too saw its advantages. Shortly after taking Jerusalem, he therefore placed the church of the Holy Sepulchre in the hands of the Orthodox, allowing four priests to serve it and Latin pilgrims to visit it on payment of an entrance fee.6 In 1192, on the conclusion of the Treaty of Jaffa, by which the sultan recognized Frankish possession of Tyre, Acre and a strip of coastal territory as far south as Jaffa, three groups of pilgrims from the crusader army were permitted to visit the Holy Sepulchre and to view the relic of the Holy Cross. During one of these visits Hubert Walter, bishop of Salisbury and the leader of one of the groups, obtained from Saladin permission to install two Latin priests and two deacons in the Holy Sepulchre, the church of the Holy Nativity in Bethlehem and the church of the Annunciation in Nazareth respectively; these, like the eastern clergy, were to be supported by the alms rendered by pilgrims.7 In 1207, Saladin’s son, Malik al-‘Ādil of Egypt, also guaranteed pilgrims safety for their goods and persons when travelling to the Holy Sepulchre under Venetian auspices.8 In fact, although it might be expected that the volume of pilgrims visiting Jerusalem would have declined after the loss of the city, picking up again only between 1229 and 1244 when it was again in Christian hands, such a view is not entirely supported by the historical evidence.9 However, pilgrims certainly 5   Jaspert, ‘Zwei unbekannte Hilfsersuchen’, pp. 508–11, no. 1; Barber and Bate, Letters from the East, pp. 73–5, no. 39. 6   ‘Imād al-Dīn, trans Massé, p. 59; Abū Shāmā, in RHC Or 4, pp. 340–41; al-Maqrīzī, trans. Broadhurst, p. 85; Bar Hebraeus, ed. and trans. Budge 1, p. 327; Pringle, Churches 3, p. 31. 7   Itinerarium 6.30–34, in RS 38.1, pp. 431–8, trans. Nicholson, pp. 373–9; Ambroise, lines 11834–12158, ed. Ailes and Barber, pp. 191–6, trans. pp. 187–91; ‘Imād al-Dīn, trans Massé, p. 394. 8   Tafel and Thomas (eds), Urkunden 2, pp. 187–8, no. 244; Jacoby, ‘Il ruolo di Acri’, pp. 41, 49 n.95; cf. id., ‘Pèlerinage médiéval’, p. 30. 9   Jacoby, ‘Pilgrimage in Crusader Acre’, pp. 105–7.

Introduction

3

appear to have faced difficulties in visiting Jerusalem when it was fortified as a military base by the Ayyubids between 1192 and 1219–20. In this period they were not allowed to stay inside the city, but were housed instead in the Asnerie, or former Hospitaller donkey-stables, beside St Stephen’s church. Wilbrand, in 1212, describes being escorted from there through David’s Gate to the Holy Sepulchre, where each person was obliged to pay 8½ drachmas (or dirhams) to enter [1.5–6]. Thietmar, in 1218, tried to avoid Jerusalem altogether, but was arrested as he made his way towards Bethlehem and was detained in the same Asnerie, being released only through the intervention of some Hungarian Muslims, who recognized one of his companions [2.8]. The Muslim authorities’ nervousness about pilgrims visiting Jerusalem is also alluded to in the description of the city inserted into Ernoul’s chronicle, which relates how during that period pilgrims had to stay in the Asnerie, enter the city through the postern of St Lazarus, and go straight to the west door of the Holy Sepulchre along the street of the Patriarch, since ‘the Saracens did not want the Christians to see anything of the state of the city’ [3.17.3]. Another problem for those in Acre who relied on the advent of merchants and pilgrims for their livelihood was highlighted in a letter written by the bishops and abbots of the Holy Land to Philip II Augustus of France on 1 October 1220, complaining not only of the economic impact of the Muslim raids that had occurred during the absence of the king and army in Damietta, but also of the absence of merchants and pilgrims, who had almost all gone to Damietta as well.10 By this time, however, Jerusalem had ceased to have any strategic importance for the Ayyubids, as alMu‘aẓẓam ‘Īsā had already begun demolishing the city walls before the fall of Damietta to the crusaders in November 1219.11 Wilbrand’s journey in 1211–12 [1] was not a typical pilgrimage, since he began with a diplomatic mission from Acre to Cilician Armenia, travelling northward along the Syrian coast and returning through Cyprus. The second part of his account, however, describes his more conventional pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The route that he took was south along the coast to Jaffa, and then inland through Ramla and Bayt Nūbā. Although, as mentioned, his visit inside the city was restricted to the church of the Holy Sepulchre, he was able to observe some of the other sites in and around the city from the Mount of Olives. From there he proceeded to Bethany, Jericho and the River Jordan; but his narrative breaks off at the Mount of Temptation as he was returning along the same road. Thietmar’s account [2] describes two pilgrimages, both starting and ending in Acre. The first was to see the icon of the Virgin Mary in the Orthodox abbey of Saydnaya, north of Damascus. He travelled first through Galilee by way of Nazareth, Cana, Mount Tabor, Nain, al-Ṭābgha and Tiberias. From there he followed the shore of the sea of Galilee to the south and after crossing the Jordan proceeded through Nawā, Maliḥa and Ṣanamayn to Damascus and thence 10   Delaborde (ed.), Chartes de Terre Sainte, pp. 123–6, appx.; cf. Jacoby, ‘Il ruolo di Acri’, pp. 43–4, 50 n.114. 11   Prawer, Histoire 2, pp. 153–5, 161.

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

4

to Saydnaya. He does not say how he returned to Acre and one may only guess that it would have been by the same route, rather than the more direct one by Jacob’s Ford and Ṣafad. His second pilgrimage, to visit the tomb of St Catherine on Mount Sinai, began like Wilbrand’s by following the coastal road south to Jaffa and then inland to Ramla. From there he tried to make directly for Bethlehem, avoiding Jerusalem; but, as already mentioned, he was arrested and detained for two days. After his release, he proceeded to Bethlehem and Hebron, then back to Bethlehem and on to Bethany and Jericho, avoiding Jerusalem once again. After Jericho he crossed the Jordan. He then claims to have visited Zoar and En-gedi; but since these lay on the south and western sides of the Dead Sea respectively, that seems improbable – unless he went by boat, which he does not mention. More likely he simply continued eastwards to the area around Mount Nebo and Madaba, and then south through the mountains of Moab along the King’s Highway, the ancient road rebuilt by the emperor Trajan in ad 106 as the Via Nova Traiana. He passed through Heshbon (Hisbān), Rabbath (al-Rabba), al-Karak and al-Shawbak, then through the deserted site of Petra, past Jabal Hārūn and down into the Wādī ‘Araba. When he reached the Red Sea, he followed the western side of the Gulf of ‘Aqaba, passing the castle on Pharaoh’s Island (Jazirat Fara‘ūn), until he came to Mount Sinai and its monastery. As with his pilgrimage to Saydnaya, he does not say by what route he returned to Acre. His account of his visit to Sinai, however, is the fullest that we have by any pilgrim of the twelfth or thirteenth century. Although these two accounts are somewhat unusual, the pilgrimages that they describe both differ from those described in twelfth-century texts and anticipate ones followed in later years. For example, although Latin pilgrims, including Philip of Milly, lord of Montreal, had visited Mount Sinai in the twelfth century,12 the pilgrimage is not described in any surviving pilgrimage text. Similarly, although Burchard of Strasbourg visited and described Saydnaya in 1175 while on a diplomatic mission,13 the pilgrimage does not feature in other pilgrimage texts of the period. Both of these sites, however, became immensely popular pilgrimages in the thirteenth century and afterwards. On the other hand, the coastal route south from Acre to Jerusalem was followed by pilgrims in the twelfth century and is described – albeit from south to north – by Theoderic in 1172;14 but, as will be seen, in the thirteenth century it came to be the usual route for pilgrims to take between Acre and Jerusalem, and additional stations were added at supposed holy sites along its route, most of them apocryphal and some of them quite possibly newly invented.

  De Brousillon, Maison de Craon 1, p. 101, no. 138; cf. Pringle, Churches 2, pp.

12

51–2.

13   Account in Arnold of Lübeck 7.10, MGH SS 21, pp. 235–41, repr. in IHC 2, pp. 393–412; cf. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 219–20. 14   Ch. 39–40, ed. Huygens, pp. 185–6, trans. in PPTS 5, pp. 58–60.

Introduction

5

1229–44 Pilgrimage to Jerusalem was boosted after 1229, when Sultan al-Kāmil of Egypt ceded the city, apart from the Ḥaram al-Sharīf, to Frederick II, along with Bethlehem, some surrounding villages and a corridor of land linking them to the coast. At the same time Nazareth and the road to it from Acre also passed back under Christian control, though the sultan may have retained control of the castle of Saffūriyya.15 The treaty was to run for ten years. In anticipation of its expiry, a new crusade was summoned for 1239, led by Tibald, count of Champagne, and supported by an impressive array of the French nobility. The first objective of the so-called Barons’ Crusade was Gaza, held by al-Malik al-‘Ādil II of Egypt; but in November 1239 the Frankish army was annihilated near Bayt Ḥānūn, north of the city, and those leaders who survived were taken prisoner. Meanwhile in December 1239, al-Nāṣir Dā’ūd, ‘amīr of Karak, took the opportunity to raid Jerusalem and demolish the Citadel, also known as the Tower of David. However, a treaty subsequently negotiated in 1240–41 between Richard, earl of Cornwall, on behalf of the emperor, and al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ of Egypt allowed the prisoners from Bayt Ḥānūn to be set free and extended Christian control once more over much of Palestine west of the Jordan rift valley. The only parts remaining under Muslim control were southern Palestine south of a line running a little south of Ascalon, Bayt Jibrīn and Hebron, which remained in Egyptian hands, and the hill country of Judæa and Samaria north of Jerusalem, including Nāblus, which was retained by al-Nāṣir Dawud of Karak. The result was that the kingdom now extended along the whole Mediterranean coast from Ascalon in the south to its northern border with the county of Tripoli, while inland it included Galilee, with the castles of Beaufort, Hunīn, Tibnīn (Toron), Ṣafad and Belvoir, the towns of Tiberias and Nazareth, and the monastery and dismantled Ayyubid castle on Mount Tabor, as well as the area around Jerusalem (including the Ḥaram al-Sharīf) and Bethlehem. Jerusalem and Bethlehem were lost in 1244, however, when they were sacked by the Khwarizmian Turks.16 Notarial documents show an increase in pilgrimage through this period. One reason for this was the rising to prominence of Acre, following its reconquest by the Third Crusade in 1191, as the most important commercial centre of the East Mediterranean, serving both as an entrepôt affording western merchants access to trade from the Far East operating through Damascus, Mosul, Baghdad and the Persian Gulf, and as the centre of pilgrim traffic to the Holy Land itself.17 As in the twelfth century, most pilgrims arrived within the spring or autumn sailing period, or passagium, and departed during the same one, while the winds were still favourable for the return voyage; those wanting to stay longer would 15   Prawer, Histoire 2, pp. 198–201, map vii. Saffūriyya, Mount Tabor and Dabburiyya were listed among the sultan’s possessions c.1239 [6.13–14]. 16   Prawer, Histoire 2, pp. 265–312. 17   Jacoby, ‘Il ruolo di Acri’.

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

6

alternatively arrive in the autumn and depart in the spring, thus taking in both the Christmas and Easter festivals.18 Some ships carried both cargo and passengers, but those specializing in passengers were able to carry them in large numbers.19 In 1184, the Andalusian Muslim Ibn Jubayr had embarked on a Genoese ship from Acre to Messina carrying what he estimated to be over 2,000 Christian pilgrims (balaghriyyūn) returning from Jerusalem.20 Thirteenth-century Italian ships were equally capacious. In October 1233, for example, the merchants of Marseilles living in Acre agreed to allow the Templars and Hospitallers to transport annually from Marseilles to Acre two shiploads of 1,500 pilgrims each, making 6,000 in all.21 The general increase in the size of ships in the later twelfth and thirteenth centuries seems to have had the effect of lowering the individual cost of passage, thereby making a pilgrimage to the East easier to afford for larger numbers of people.22 This also had economic benefits for the kingdom itself. Laws dating from the early twelfth century had permitted pilgrims to import free from customs tolls clothing and goods for their own use and other goods up to a value of 40 bezants;23 the goods of those dying intestate in the kingdom, however, went to the king.24 Shippers were also normally required to pay as tax a third of the cost of passage of pilgrims both entering and leaving the kingdom. This right had been asserted in 1123 in the agreement made with the Venetians by Patriarch Warmund on behalf of King Baldwin II, then in captivity, though in compensation the Venetians were granted an annual 300 bezants from the market (funda) of Tyre;25 but when the agreement was ratified in May 1125, after the king’s release, the third was charged only on pilgrims leaving the kingdom.26 In his report as Venetian baili compiled between 1242 and 1244, Marsilio Zorzi affirmed that this latter agreement was still in force, though he added that during his time in the East no Venetian had ever paid it, as they had not received anything from the market of Tyre.27 In this period, although the Hospital of St John in Jerusalem was reoccupied and the Teutonic Order was able to acquire the properties that had formerly belonged   Jacoby, ‘Aspects of Everyday Life in Frankish Acre’, pp. 93–4.   On the ships of this period, see Pryor, Geography, Technology and War, pp. 25–39. 20   Riḥla, trans. Broadhurst, p. 325, Fr. trans. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, p. 364; Kedar, 18 19

‘Passenger List’, p. 269. 21   CGOH 2, pp. 462–4, no. 2067 and p. 469, no. 2079; Jacoby, ‘Pilgrimage in Crusader Acre’, p. 106; id., ‘Il ruolo di Acri’, p. 34. 22   Jacoby, ‘Pèlerinage médiéval’, p. 29. 23   Bresc-Bautier, Cartulaire, pp. 91–2, no. 29 (1129). 24   CGOH 2, pp. 183–4, no. 244; RRH, p. 82, no. 321 (1156); Richard, Royaume latin, p. 16. 25   Tafel and Thomas (eds), Urkunden 1, p. 86, no. 40. 26   Tafel and Thomas (eds), Urkunden 1, p. 92, no. 41. 27   Tafel and Thomas (eds), Urkunden 2, p. 397, no. 299; Berggötz, Der Bericht des Marsilio Zorzi, p. 179; cf. Jacoby, ‘Pèlerinage médiéval’, pp. 29–30, 50–51 nn.17–20.

Introduction

7

to St Mary of the Germans, including the German hospital, the Holy Sepulchre seems to have been left largely in the hands of the Orthodox under their patriarch, Athanasius II (c.1231–44). The Latin patriarch, Gerold, had opposed Frederick II’s treaty with Malik al-Kāmil and dispatched the archbishop of Cæsarea to place the city under interdict.28 The next Latin patriarch, Robert of Nantes, may have intended returning with his chapter to Jerusalem, but although he visited it the formal return was never effected before the Khwarizmian sack of the city, when Latin clergy and the Greek patriarch were included among the slain.29 The bishop and chapter of Bethlehem, however, do appear to have returned from Acre to their cathedral in this period, and Benedictines are mentioned by pilgrim sources on Mount Tabor in the 1230s, before the area’s formal return to Christian hands in 1241.30 Nazareth had to wait until after 1250 for its bishop and chapter to return, but the bishop was back in Acre by 1255.31 The principal surviving pilgrim texts of this period are ‘The Holy Pilgrimages’ [4] and Anonymous ix and x [5]. Although the former is in French and the latter two in Latin, the itineraries that they describe are quite similar. In each case there is a major circuit to Jerusalem, starting and ending in Acre. This follows the coast southwards from Ḥayfā to Jaffa, and from there to Jerusalem through Ramla, Bayt Nūbā and Nabi Ṣamwīl (Mountjoy). After entering St Stephen’s gate and visiting the Holy Places inside the city, shorter circuits took the pilgrim to Bethlehem and Hebron, to the Mount of Olives, Bethany, Jericho and the Jordan (with the possibility of continuing on to Sinai), and to the Monastery of the Cross and Emmaus (Abū Ghosh). The pilgrim then returned to Acre through Samaria, by way of Nāblus, Sebaste, Janīn and Mount Tabor, Nazareth, Saffūriyya and Shafa ‘Amr. In ‘The Holy Pilgrimages’ there is also a shorter Galilean circuit, going from Acre through Shafa ‘Amr and Saffūriyya to Nazareth, with a diversion to Cana, and then on to Mount Tabor and Tiberias, Capernaum and Ṣafad, returning to Acre through St George (al-Ba‘ina). In Jerusalem itself, the relatively low numbers of Latin clergy and, more especially, the destruction of the major Latin religious houses that had occupied the city before 1187 are reflected in the pilgrim texts’ rather summary descriptions of the holy sites to be visited there, many of them now in the hands of the Greeks, Syrians (Malkites) and Armenians. As the Haram al-Sharīf was still inaccessible to Christians during most of this period – and was to be more decisively so after 1244 – the pre-1187 Way of the Cross (Via Dolorosa) that had begun at the Sheep-Pool and sites associated with the Praetorium on the north side of the Temple precinct and had passed through the Haram, emerging again from it at the Sorrowful Gate   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 31–2, 198, 229.   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 32. 30   Pringle, Churches 1, p. 139 and 2, p. 68. For Benedictines on Mount Tabor see 28 29

below [4.3], though according to [6.14] it was still held by the sultan c.1239. 31   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 120–21.

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

8

(Bāb al-Nāẓir)32 in order to reach the Holy Sepulchre, shifted its course to establish the route that it has followed, with minor changes, to the present day.33 1244–91 Tiberias and Ascalon were lost to the Ayyubids in 1247, but during the period from May 1250 to April 1254 when King Louis IX of France was in the Holy Land the coast between Jaffa and Beirut remained in Frankish hands, as did Beaufort, Ṣafad and Nazareth in Galilee.34 In March 1251, Louis visited Nazareth as a pilgrim and may have made donations to the church [7]. However, after the Mamluks of Egypt had neutralized – for the time being, at least – the threat from the Mongols and ousted the last Ayyubid princes from Syria in 1260, the remaining Frankish centres were gradually picked off. Sultan Baybars took Nazareth in 1263 and destroyed the church there along with those of Mount Tabor and al-Ṭābgha in April of that year. Arsūf and Cæsarea fell to him in 1265, Ṣafad in 1266, Jaffa and Beaufort Castle in 1268, and Montfort Castle in 1271.35 The following year, Baybars signed a ten-year truce with Hugh I of Jerusalem (III of Cyprus);36 but when this was renewed by his successor al-Manṣūr Qalāwūn in 1283, the detailed description that it contained of the Frankish territory dependent on Acre amounted to no more than the coastal strip between Sidon and Pilgrims’ Castle (‘Atlīt), including Ḥayfā, the plain of Acre and parts of the Carmel range, the Hospitaller estates in the lordship of Cæsarea, and joint control of Iskandarūna and some other villages.37 By the terms of a similar treaty made with Margaret, lady of Tyre, in 1285, only ten villages (casalia) remained in Christian hands and five in the sultan’s, with the other seventy-eight being administered as condominiums.38 Similar treaties were made with Beirut, but their texts have not survived.39 In the summer of 1290, Qalā’ūn began preparations for a final assault on Acre, but he died in November before being able to launch it. Acre was besieged, however, by his successor, al-Ashraf Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Khalīl, in April 1291. On 18 May the Mamluks broke into the city and ten days later the last strongpoint, the Templar Castle, was taken and the remaining inhabitants massacred. The other   See Ernoul [3.17.4].   Vincent and Abel, Jérusalem nouvelle, pp. 610–41; Wilkinson, Jerusalem

32 33

Pilgrimage, pp. 73–7; Storme, Voie Douloueuse, pp. 67–73, 82–112, 125–39; Pringle, Churches 3, p. 4. A good late thirteenth-century description is given by Philip of Savona [14.6]. 34   Prawer, Histoire 2, pp. 315–57. 35   Prawer, Histoire 2, pp. 426–504. 36   Holt, Early Mamluk Diplomacy, pp. 71–2; Prawer, Histoire 2, p. 504. 37   Holt, Early Mamluk Diplomacy, pp. 69–91; Barag, ‘New Source Concerning the Ultimate Borders of the Latin Kingdom’. 38   Holt, Early Mamluk Diplomacy, pp. 106–17. 39   Cf. Holt, Early Mamluk Diplomacy, pp. 42–7.

Introduction

9

coastal cities that remained in Christians hands were evacuated, Pilgrims’ Castle being the last foothold on the Syrian coast to be abandoned by its Templar garrison on 14 August.40 The volume of western pilgrims travelling to Acre does not appear to have declined immediately after 1244. It was still quite normal for ships to arrive with a thousand or more pilgrims on board; one, for instance, the Oliva of Genoa, had 1,100 places on board in 1248, while the Provençal vessel St Victor, en route to the East in 1250, had 453 passengers listed on board in Messina.41 In 1284, Venice restricted the size of vessels sailing to the East to those over 250 tonnes.42 An indication of the rates charged to pilgrims for a passage to the East in this period is given in Provençal sources. In 1248, for instance, the St Francis of Marseilles was charging 38 sous per passenger, while the statutes of Marseilles of 1268 set a tariff of 25 sous for a fourth-class passage and 60 sous for first-class.43 This disparity in rates was evidently reflected in the conditions provided on board, as some of the larger vessels, which could attain 477 tonnes or more, even provided private cabins.44 Pilgrims do not appear to have been put off visiting Palestine either by the Mongol raids or by the Mamluks’ struggle to gain power there. Following Baybars’ accession to the sultanate after his assassination of Qutuz in October 1260, for instance, a large group of Latin pilgrims then in Jerusalem were detained by the ‘amīr of the city; on their eventual release, many were killed and robbed as they made their way back to Acre.45 In the later thirteenth century, the pilgrim traffic from the West came to be dominated by Venice.46 A group of guidebook texts from the 1260s [10–11], contemporary with the Mamluk conquests, were continually updated to take account of the fall of towns and castles to Baybars. Even after Baybars had destroyed the churches of Nazareth, Mount Tabor and al-Ṭābgha in April 1263, the truce that he made with Hugh I on 21 April 1272 made provision for Christian pilgrims to continue to be allowed access to Nazareth;47 and in 1271 Marco Polo, accompanied by his father Matteo and his uncle Niccolò, visited Jerusalem from Acre to obtain oil from the lamp in the Holy Sepulchre.48 In the   Prawer, Histoire 2, pp. 539–57; Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 11–15.   Byrne, Genoese Shipping, pp. 9–10, 81, no. 15; Kedar, ‘Passenger List’; Jacoby,

40 41

‘Pilgrimage in Crusader Acre’, pp. 106–7; id., ‘Il ruolo di Acri’, p. 34. 42   Jacoby, ‘Pèlerinage médiéval’, p. 30. 43   Richard, Royaume latin, p. 16; Jacoby, ‘Pèlerinage médiéval’, p. 29. 44   Jacoby, ‘Pèlerinage médiéval’, pp. 30–31, 51 n.24. 45   Continuation de Guillaume de Tyr … du manuscrit de Rothelin 82, in RHC Occ 2, pp. 638–9; cf. Jacoby, ‘Il ruolo di Acri’, pp. 41–2; Holt, Age of the Crusades, pp. 88–9. 46   Jacoby, ‘Pèlerinage médiéval’, p. 31. 47   Sanudo 3.12.11, ed. Bongars, p. 224. 48   Thiébault de Cépoy, Voyages en Syrie de Nicolo, Maffeo et Marco Polo, ed. Michelant and Raynaud, in Itinéraires, pp. 223–4; cf. Jacoby, ‘Pilgrimage in Crusader Acre’, p. 107.

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

10

treaty of 3 June 1283 the Latins were also permitted by Sultan Qalāwūn to hold services in the church in Nazareth – or what was left of it – and to have four houses near by for the use of the pilgrims and clergy; the clergy also appear to have been allowed to retain the offerings of the pilgrims, but they were not permitted to rebuild any part of the church that became dilapidated.49 In 1290, in the treaty that he made with King Alfonso III of Aragon, Qalā’ūn also promised that anyone bearing a sealed letter of the king would be permitted to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem and back safely and securely.50 Even after the fall of Acre in May 1291, pilgrimage traffic did not stop. In September 1304, a treaty made between the Venetians and the Mamluk governor of Ṣafad allowed their nationals to reside within the territory of Acre and to travel through it under escort to and from the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.51 In later times, however, many pilgrims preferred to disembark in Jaffa rather than Acre to avoid the dangers of the overland route.52 The routes taken by pilgrims in the Holy Land between 1244 and 1291 seem to have been the same as in the period 1229–44. Indeed, the guides dating from this period are virtually identical to earlier ones, the main differences being their remarks as to which of the places passed through were now in Mamluk hands. The two different versions of ‘The Ways and Pilgrimages’ [10], for example, contain essentially the same itineraries as ‘Holy Pilgrimages’ [4], but in a different order. One version also adds a few words about the pilgrimage from Acre through Damascus to Saydnaya, which Thietmar [2] had undertaken in 1217, and the one northwards to the church of Our Lady in Tortosa (Ṭarṭūs), which Wilbrand had visited en route to Cilicia in 1211 [1]. The first part of ‘Pilgrimages, and Pardons of Acre’ [11] is similar. When the guide comes to the River Jordan from Jericho, however, it states, ‘and you can go no further by that road’ [11.6], indicating that the route to Sinai through Transjordan was now closed to pilgrims. In fact, following the Mamluk conquest of the area, the usual route taken by pilgrims between Jerusalem and Sinai seems to have shifted west of the Wādī ‘Araba to one passing through Gaza, al-‘Arīsh and the oases directly to the south. Of the two Greek texts of this period, the first, though somewhat confused at this point, appears to describe a journey from Gaza to Raythou (al-Ṭūr) on the Gulf of Suez and from there to Mount Sinai and on to Alexandria [8.28–30]. In the case of the second text it is unclear whether the outward journey from Jerusalem was through Jericho or Gaza; the return, however, was by way of Raythou, Cairo and Gaza [17.6a, 9–10]. In the fourteenth century, the Gaza route to Sinai often formed part of a circuit taking in Cairo, Alexandria and Damietta, with pilgrims either travelling entirely overland from Jerusalem as James of Verona did in     51   52  

Holt, Early Mamluk Diplomacy, p. 86; Pringle, Churches 2, p. 121. Holt, Early Mamluk Diplomacy, p. 137. De Mas Latrie, ‘Traité des Vénitiens’, p. 407; Pringle, Churches 4, p. 26. Tzewers, Itinerarius, p. 370; Suriano, Treatise on the Holy Land, p. 156; Pringle, Churches 4, p. 27. 49 50

Introduction

11

1335,53 arriving in and departing from Egypt by sea as Niccolò da Poggibonsi did in 1349,54 or arriving by sea directly from Venice and leaving by land to Jerusalem as the Florentine pilgrims did in 1384.55 The first part of ‘Pilgrimages and Pardons of Acre’ [11] also mentions the journey north from Acre as far as Beirut, and the pilgrimage to Saydnaya. The second part of the text, however, marked a new departure in setting out a circuit of pilgrimages to churches within the city of Acre itself; these were associated with indulgences, of which more will be said below. The existence of a pilgrimage circuit in Acre itself, however, meant that pilgrims who were only able to spend a short period in the East or who were unable for whatever reason to venture much outside the city would still have been able to complete a Holy Land pilgrimage of a sort, even though Acre was technically not itself part of the biblical Holy Land.56 The Motivations of Pilgrims and the Practicalities of Pilgrimage Our texts say little about the purpose of pilgrimage, although some of the hardships that pilgrims had to endure are clear enough in personal accounts such as that of Thietmar. Contemporary sermons, however, are more informative. Two sermons delivered to pilgrims survive among a collection of sermons given by James of Vitry, bishop of Acre between 1216 and 1228 and later cardinal bishop of Tusculum. The first stresses above all the penitential aspect of pilgrimage and the necessity of enduring hardship in order to obtain salvation. Privations included the leaving behind of home and family and the experience of hard beds, early rises and extreme physical exertion. James’s injunction to pilgrims not to stray to left or right from the path finds echoes in some of the texts presented here [4.10, 10.1.3]. Pilgrims are also told to take few possessions: a scrip and staff would suffice. The embracing of simplicity and poverty had the additional benefit that by not displaying his wealth the pilgrim would be less likely to attract robbers. Unlike the first sermon, which was evidently intended for ordinary people, the second appears to have been intended for a more educated audience. It is therefore less concerned with the practicalities of pilgrimage than with developing the theme of pilgrimage as a metaphor for man’s life on earth.57 Pilgrimage could be undertaken as a voluntary penitential exercise, but it was also sometimes imposed by bishops or the pope as a punishment for misdeeds.58   ‘Pèlerinage’, ed. Röhricht, pp. 168–9, 225–59.   Libro d’Oltramare, ed. Bacchi della Lega, pp. 96–150. 55   Frescobaldi, Gucci and Sigoli, Visit to the Holy Places, trans. Bellorini and Hoade, 53 54

pp. 37–71, 93–127, 159–80. See also Hyde, ‘Navigation of the Eastern Mediterranean’. 56   See the discussion in Jacoby, ‘Pilgrimage in Crusader Acre’; id. ‘Il ruolo di Acri’, p. 42. 57   Birch, ‘Jacques de Vitry and the Ideology of Pilgrimage’. 58   Webb, Pilgrims and Pilgrimage, pp. 51–63.

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

12

Håkon Paulsson, earl of Orkney, for example, travelled to Palestine and bathed in the River Jordan to expiate the part that he had played in the martyrdom of St Magnus on Egilsay in 1117, returning a better man;59 but at a lower level in the social scale, in 1203 the prior of Osney Priory near Oxford was enjoined to impose a fitting penance on a man who had committed incest and adultery with his wife’s sister ‘and says he is too poor to go to Jerusalem’, implying that this would otherwise have been an option.60 From the mid-thirteenth century onwards the inquisition in Languedoc listed major and minor pilgrimage destinations to which convicted heretics might be sent according to the seriousness of their offences, though it seems that the Holy Land occupied a category of its own.61 The effects of such practices on Palestine, and especially Acre, in the later thirteenth century are elaborated upon by Burchard of Mount Sion: The Holy Land contains inhabitants from every nation under heaven and each lives according to its own rite; and to tell the truth, we Latins are worse than all the other inhabitants. The reason is this, as it seems to me: when anyone has been an evil-doer, such as a murderer, a bandit, a thief or an adulterer, he crosses the sea as a penance, or because he fears for his skin and thus does not dare stay in his own country. Thus, they come hither from different regions, such as Germany, Italy, France, England, Spain, Hungary and other parts of the world; but in truth they change their sky, but not their inclination. For living there, after they have spent what they brought with them, they have to go in search of more, and thus once again ‘they return to their vomit’, committing evil deeds far worse. They receive pilgrims of their own nation in their lodgings; and these people, if they do not know how to look after themselves, put their trust in them and lose their possessions and honour. They produce children who imitate the crimes of their fathers, making from bad parents worse children and from these even worse grandchildren, who trample upon the Holy Places with polluted feet. Thus it comes about that, because of the sins of its inhabitants before God, the land itself with the place of sanctification comes into contempt [13.13].62

Examples of people fleeing justice through pilgrimage to the Holy Land are to be found in English court records of the period. In 1221, for example, a Worcester carter who had killed a robber in self-defence fled to Jerusalem, but was subsequently allowed to return without fear of prosecution; and in 1218–19, a woman whose son was found drowned was said by the villagers of Walton in   Orkneyinga Saga 44, trans. Hjaltalin and Goudie, p. 68; Magnus’ Saga 16, trans. Pálsson and Edwards, p. 34. 60   Innocent III, Register 6, pp. 5–6, no. 2, trans. in Webb, Pilgrims and Pilgrimage, p. 56. 61   Webb, Pilgrims and Pilgrimage, pp. 51, 59. 62   Compare the sinfulness of Acre as described by James of Vitry on his arrival there in 1216: Lettres 2, ed. Huygens, pp. 86–8, trans. Barber and Bate, Letters, pp. 101–4. 59

Introduction

13

Yorkshire to have gone to Jerusalem, though in this case she was not suspected of wrongdoing.63 In the treaty made between Qalā’ūn and the Franks of Acre in 1283, the oath sworn by the Franks also included among the penalties to be incurred if anyone violated or abrogated it the obligation to undertake thirty pilgrimages to Jerusalem, barefoot and bareheaded.64 Another concern of successive popes while the Holy Land was in Muslim hands was the economic benefit that the Muslims might derive from Christian pilgrims visiting their lands or from trade conducted in the guise of pilgrimage. At the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, Innocent III prohibited any dealings with the Muslims and forbade western ships from visiting the Holy Land for four years, while preparations were being made for the Fifth Crusade.65 This prohibition was reiterated by Urban IV in October 1263, only a few days after he had conferred on Walter, bishop of Worcester, the power to absolve ‘those who contrary to the prohibition of the holy see or of its legates have visited the Lord’s Sepulchre and those who have conveyed iron, arms, timber and prohibited goods to the Saracens.’66 It is impossible to tell to what extent western pilgrims complied with the requirement to obtain the permission of the pope or his legates before visiting the Holy Land. Among the pilgrims whose accounts are presented here, Wilbrand of Oldenburg obtained the permission of the patriarch of Jerusalem before visiting the Holy City from Acre in 1212 [1.2.1] and Riccoldo of Monte Croce that of Pope Nicolas IV before leaving Italy in 1288 [15.1]; but the other texts are silent concerning the need for such authorization. The fact that general prohibitions continued to be renewed and individual permissions and absolutions granted through most of the fourteenth century, however, indicates that the church continued to regard commercial contact with the Mamluks as a problem. By the later fourteenth century, however, a form of regulation for western pilgrims was effected by the Franciscans becoming the official Latin guardians of the Holy Places and the Venetians operating a virtual monopoly of the shipping route from the West.67 In medieval texts it is not always clear who was a pilgrim and who a crusader, as the word peregrinus was applied to both.68 The nature of the oath taken by crusaders, however, was quite different to that taken – or not, as may be – by pilgrims. By the thirteenth century English lawyers were distinguishing between   Webb, Pilgrims and Pilgrimage, p. 168.   Holt, Early Mamluk Diplomacy, p. 91; cf. Jacoby, ‘Il ruolo di Acri’, p. 49 n.96. 65   Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta, pp. 267–71; Webb, Pilgrims and 63 64

Pilgrimage, p. 86. 66   Registres 2, ed. Guiraud, pp. 226–9, nos. 467–8; Webb, Pilgrims and Pilgrimage, p. 87. 67   Webb, Pilgrims and Pilgrimage, pp. 86–7, 105. 68   See Kedar, ‘Passenger List’, p. 268; Tyerman, Invention of the Crusades, pp. 49– 55. Thietmar [2], however, who in 1217 set out from Germany with his peregrini, ‘signed with and protected by the cross’, was evidently a pilgrim rather than a crusader.

14

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

the legal rights of those who went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and those taking part in a crusade or ‘general passage’.69 Early fourteenth-century penitential tariffs, like that drawn up in Oudenarde in 1338, listed the monetary values of different pilgrimages.70 Once a monetary value had been attached to a pilgrimage, however, it then became possible for pilgrimage vows to be commuted for payment, as also happened in the case of crusading vows.71 The practice may be observed in wills, in cases where the testator had promised to go on pilgrimage but had not done so and therefore left a legacy to allow someone else to go on his behalf. In other cases, however, there did not even have to be an initial promise to go, simply the belief that pilgrimage could be performed vicariously by one person on another’s behalf. The surrogate pilgrim could be a relation, or sometimes a clerk who would also say masses along the way. The practice of leaving bequests for pilgrimages in wills became common from the fourteenth century onwards, most of the pilgrimages themselves being within Europe itself.72 In Florence, however, the Holy Land features as a destination for pilgrimages sponsored in wills from 1275 onwards and continued to be through the fourteenth century.73 In England, John de Holegh, a London hosier, left £20 in 1352 to anyone going to Jerusalem and St Catherine’s monastery on Mount Sinai; and in 1410, Queen Margaret of Denmark’s will provided, among other pilgrimages, for six men to go to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Sinai.74 One of the most significant changes in the practice of pilgrimage to have occurred in the thirteenth century was the establishment of scales of indulgences, measured in years and days of remission from purgatory, that pious and penitent visitors to particular churches and holy places could hope to obtain. This practice had had its origins in the twelfth century and was to become more fully developed in the fourteenth and fifteenth. In 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council limited the amount that a bishop could grant to 40 days, which was the level that the pope normally set, and this remained the limit for most of the thirteenth century.75 The Franciscan pope, Nicolas IV, took an especial interest in indulgences, confirming those issued by his predecessors to St Peter’s in Rome in 1289.76 The indulgences recorded in churches in the Holy Land in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are listed in Tables 1 and 2.

69   Webb, Pilgrims and Pilgrimage, pp. 163–4; Tyerman, Invention of the Crusades, pp. 55–62. 70   Webb, Pilgrims and Pilgrimage, pp. 55, 60–61. 71   Webb, Pilgrims and Pilgrimage, p. 68; Tyerman, Invention of the Crusades, p. 36. 72   Webb, Pilgrims and Pilgrimage, pp. 133–47; Epstein, Wills and Wealth in Medieval Genoa, pp. 197–8. 73   Pirillo, ‘La Terrasanta nei testamenti fiorentini’. 74   Webb, Pilgrims and Pilgrimage, pp. 140–41. 75   Webb, Pilgrims and Pilgrimage, pp. 64, 74. 76   Registre, ed. Langlois 2, no. 653; Webb, Pilgrims and Pilgrimage, pp. 64–5.

Introduction

Table 1: Date

15

Papal Indulgences granted to Churches in the East in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries Pope

Church Years Days

1163, 18 July77 Alexander III Jerusalem 1 1171, 11 Sept.78 Alexander III Holy Sepulchre 1 1226, 13 Dec.79 Honorius III Hospital and church of St John the   20 Baptist, Acre 1256, 11 July80 Alexander IV Friars Minor in Acre and Tyre 100 1257, 6 March81 Alexander IV Carpitanæ (Benedictine nuns), 100 Antioch 1257, 7 May82 Alexander IV Holy Cross, Tyre 100 1288, 22 Sept.83 Nicolas IV St John the Baptist, Acre 1   40 1288, 22 Sept.84 Nicolas IV St Michael (Hospitaller cemetery 1   40 chapel), Acre 1290, 23 Oct.85 Nicolas IV St John the Baptist, Acre   40 1291, 9 March86 Nicolas IV Poor Clares, Nicosia 1   40 1291, 30 June87 Nicolas IV Friars Minor, Nicosia 1   40

In the 1250s–60s, because of the difficulty that pilgrims were experiencing in reaching Jerusalem and the other Holy Places themselves, there also developed an entirely new circuit of holy places offering indulgences in the churches of Acre, a city that in previous centuries had not merited a single holy place of its own. This 77   Reference to an existing indulgence: Epistolæ et Privilegia, in PL 200, cols. 250– 51, no. 185. 78   Reference to an existing indulgence: Epistolæ et Privilegia, in PL 200, cols. 860– 61, no. 980; cf. Bagatti, in Niccolò da Poggibonsi, Libro d’Oltramare, p. xxvii. 79   On the feast of St John: Regesta, ed. Pressutti 2, p. 452, no. 6097; CGOH 2, p. 357, no. 1849. 80   Within the octaves of the feasts of St Francis, St Antony and St Clare: Golubovich, Biblioteca 1, pp. 234, 417; Bagatti, in Niccolò da Poggibonsi, Libro d’Oltramare, p. xxvii; Governanti, pp. 33–4, appx 1. 81   Bagatti, in Niccolò da Poggibonsi, Libro d’Oltramare, p. xxvii. 82   Within the octaves of the feasts of the Holy Cross and St John the Evangelist: Registres, ed. Bourel de la Roncière et al. 2, p. 600, no. 1940. 83   On the feasts of St John the Baptist, St Mary and St Michael: Registres, ed. Langlois 1, p. 64, no. 334. 84   On the same feasts as for St John’s church: Registres, ed. Langlois 1, p. 64, no. 333; CGOH 3, pp. 523–4, no. 4020; RRH Ad, p. 101, no. 1479e. 85   On the day of the solemn procession: Registres, ed. Langlois 1, p. 537, no. 3457; CGOH 3, pp. 576, no. 4128. 86   Bagatti, in Niccolò da Poggibonsi, Libro d’Oltramare, p. xxvii. 87   Bagatti, in Niccolò da Poggibonsi, Libro d’Oltramare, p. xxvii.

16

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

Table 2: Indulgences in Acre listed in ‘The Pilgrimages and Pardons of Acre’ (1258–64) Stations mentioned in the text

Identification

a la bourde la vile a Seint Nicholas as Alemayns   chescun jour a Seint Leonard a Seint Romant a Seint Estevene a Seint Samuel a Seint Lazer de Bethayne a Sepulcre a Nostre Dame de Chevalers a Nostre Dame de Sur a Seinte Croyz a Seint Marc de Venyse a Seint Lorenz a Iosaphat a La Latyne a Seint Pere de Pyse a Seint Anne a Seint Esprit a Bedlehem a Seint Andre al Temple a Freres preschours a Seint Michel a Freres desakes a le Hospital Seint Iohan   e tant de foyz come     vous alez entour le     paleis de malades   e le digmangt a   processioun a Seint Gyle a la Magdalene a la Katerine a la Trinite a Seinte Bryde a Seint Martyn de Bretons a Lazer de Chevalers a Seint Thomas e chescun mardi a Seint Bartholomeu a Seint Antoyne as Freres menours a Repentires a Seint Denys a Seint George

at the edge of the city St Nicolas St Mary of the Germans   (and) each day (thereafter) St Leonard St Romanus St Stephen St Samuel St Lazarus of Bethany Holy Sepulchre Our Lady of the Knights Our Lady of Tyre Holy Cross St Mark of the Venetians St Laurence of the Genoese St Mary of the Valley of Jehoshaphat St Mary Latin St Peter of the Pisans St Anne Holy Spirit Church of Bethlehem St Andrew Templars Dominicans St Michael Brothers of the Sack Hospital of St John   and each time that     you go around the     infirmary   and at the procession on     Sunday St Giles St Mary Magdalene St Catherine Holy Trinity St Brigid St Martin of the Bretons St Lazarus of the Knights St Thomas and each Tuesday St Bartholomew St Antony Franciscans Magdalenes St Denys St George

Years

Days

4 40 4 160 4 – – 100 1 100 – 40 4 40 1 40 8 160 7 160 5 – 3 – 3 40 5 – – 40 4 40 1 – 5 – 5 – 7 – 7 – 5 – 8 120 3 40 4 160 – 140 8 – – 40 –

240

– 200 11 – 4 160 1 – 8 – 4 40 2 70 15 – 7 – 4 160 3 40 1 35 1 40 4 160 7 –

Introduction

17

text, ‘The ‘Pilgrimages and Pardons of Acre’ [11], is arranged topographically and describes a tour of Acre’s churches and hospitals, beginning at the city gate and ending in the walled suburb of Montmusard (see Fig. 7). Lists of indulgences such as this become much more common in the fourteenth century.88 Archaeological Evidence for Pilgrimage Very little evidence of thirteenth-century building work survives at the sites in Syria and Palestine that were visited by pilgrims in the thirteenth century as most of the structural changes of this period involved demolition rather than construction. In Ṭarṭūs, however, the cathedral of St Mary, which incorporated the supposed remains of the church erected by the Apostles, had been left incomplete when the town fell to Saladin and was finished and subsequently fortified in the thirteenth century.89 In Nazareth, a seventeenth-century engraving and surviving architectural fragments indicate that the antechamber to the Holy House of the Virgin within the church of the Annunciation was covered by rib-vaults. Camille Enlart proposed dating these to the mid-thirteenth century; but the only plausible context would have been the period 1251–57, when the chapter briefly returned from Acre and the church benefited from the patronage of Louis IX. It is possible therefore, as Bellarmino Bagatti suggested, that they should be dated before 1187.90 Nothing identifiably medieval remains visible of the buildings that must once have adjoined the cave of Elijah at the foot of Mount Carmel.91 The Latin Carmelite monastery of St Mary, however, which pilgrims also mention, is entirely a thirteenth-century construction. It includes a two-bayed church, built in the first two decades of the century, which was extended east by another two rib-vaulted bays in the 1250s–60s.92 A little further south, Pilgrims’ Castle, built by the Templars at ‘Atlīt from 1217 onwards, enclosed the centrally planned chapel in which the relics of St Euphemia were displayed to pilgrims. The castle’s suburb also contains another church, albeit never finished; and outside the walls of the suburb lies a walled cemetery containing over 4,000 tombs, a number too high to be accounted for by deaths among the inhabitants of the castle and suburb alone and probably therefore including pilgrims and others who either died while travelling along the coastal road or whose bodies were brought here from

  They are conveniently tabulated by B. Bagatti, in Niccolò da Poggibonsi, Libro d’Oltramare, pp. xxii–xxx, xliv–liii. 89   Enlart, Monuments des croisés 2, pp. 395–426; Deschamps, Terre Sainte romane, pp. 231–6, pls. 79–94. 90   Enlart, Monuments des croisés 2, pp. 300, 308; Bagatti and Alliata, Scavi di Nazaret 2, pp. 54–9, figs. 18–21, pl. 16; Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 130–33. 91   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 226–9. 92   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 249–57. 88

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elsewhere, possibly Acre.93 South of ‘Atlīt, the pilgrimage church of St Mary of the Marshes has not yet been found.94 In Cæsarea, however, there is evidence for the thirteenth-century rebuilding of the east end of the cathedral church of St Peter, marking the site of the house of Cornelius.95 In Acre, little survives from the twelfth or thirteenth centuries as a result of the comprehensive destruction that was carried out by the Mamluks after they seized the city in 1291 and of the rebuilding of the city and its walls in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.96 Recent excavations, however, have uncovered much of the headquarters building (or palais) of the Order of St John and have elucidated details of the adjacent conventual church of St John. Part of the church of St Andrew, which served in the thirteenth century as a beacon to sailors entering the harbour of Acre and is also known from seventeenth-century drawings, has also been identified, incorporated into the present Greek Catholic church of the same name.97 Excavations continue to shed light on the layout of the walls, streets and buildings of the city in which most western pilgrims of the thirteenth century would first have set foot on Palestinian soil. The importance of pilgrimage for the economy of Acre is also shown archaeologically by the objects that were manufactured there for pilgrims to purchase and take home with them as souvenirs of their visit. These include leadalloy phials (ampullæ), tokens, reliquaries and crosses.98 Phials made of clay, glass or lead-alloy and intended to contain holy oil or water had been produced in the Holy Land since the sixth century and were held to confirm – or even to continue to confer – the eulogiæ or ‘blessings’ that the pilgrim had obtained by visiting a particular holy site.99 A series of slate moulds excavated from a workshop in Acre, however, show that the phials being manufactured in Acre in the thirteenth century were not intended to relate to any one specific site, but could have been purchased and filled by pilgrims wherever they chose. Finds of such phials in Corinth and Braunschweig hint at a potentially extensive distribution of them by pilgrims returning to the West.100 Studies of the distribution of pilgrim tokens found in archaeological excavations in northern France, England and Holland, however, also emphasize the extreme rarity of objects from the Holy Land and even Rome   Johns, Guide to ‘Atlit, pp. 52–5, 70, 77–81, 92–4, figs. 16, 27, 33, 37; id., ‘Excavations at Pilgrims’ Castle, ‘Atlit (1931–2): An Unfinished Church’; Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 69–80; Thompson, ‘Death and Burial in the Latin East’, pp. 152–81. 94   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 257–8. 95   Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 166–79. 96   Makhouly and Johns, Guide to Acre, pp. 44–64; Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 24–35. 97   Stern, ‘Center of the Order of Hospitalers in Acre’; Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 63–70, 82–114. 98   Syon, ‘Souvenirs from the Holy Land’; Rozenberg, ‘Metalwork and Crosses’; Jacoby, ‘Il ruolo di Acri’, pp. 42–3; id., ‘Aspects of Everyday Life’, pp. 95–6. 99   Hahn, ‘Loca Sancta Souvenirs’; Vikan, Byzantine Pilgrimage Art. 100   Syon, ‘Souvenirs from the Holy Land’, pp. 112–15. 93

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and Compostela in comparison with the numbers derived from local pilgrimage sites.101 From the 1250s onwards Acre was also producing finely illustrated books and icons, many of which were purchased by visiting westerners.102 Some of the icons would doubtless have been acquired as aids to personal devotion; but a group of over a hundred ‘Crusader’ icons surviving in St Catherine’s Abbey on Mount Sinai also raises the possibility that some of them may have been bought by pilgrims in Acre or Tripoli with the intention of presenting them as votive offerings to the abbey church or its dependent chapels.103

  Bruna, ‘Diffusion des enseignes de pèlerinage’.   Folda, Crusader Manuscript Illumination; id., Crusader Art in the Holy Land, pp.

101 102

282–356, 369–479; Jacoby, ‘Aspects of Everyday Life’, p. 96–7. 103   Folda, Crusader Art in the Holy Land, pp. 305–8; id., Crusader Art, pp. 86, 164. Note, however, that, pace Folda, there is no evidence for the presence of Latin monks – still less the existence of a Latin chapel – at St Catherine’s in the twelfth or thirteenth century; if any ‘western-influenced’ icon-painters were working there in that period, they are therefore more likely to have been doing so under the auspices of the Orthodox abbot than of the Latin hierarchy. It seems more probable in any case that most of the portable icons came from elsewhere, some of them quite possibly arriving there after the fall of Tripoli and Acre to the Mamluks, when eastern markets were full of goods taken from churches and religious houses in the conquered Frankish cities.

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The Texts Like the pilgrimage texts of earlier centuries, thirteenth-century ones fall into a number of different categories. First of all there are some relatively brief ones, which typically begin with a sentence like, ‘Whoever wants to go to Jerusalem correctly must first go from Acre to Ḥayfā’ [9]; or ‘If anyone should want to go from Joppe to Jerusalem’, this is what he must do [5]; or ‘These are the Holy Pilgrimage sites that one must seek out in the Holy Land’ [4]. A very basic text of this type simply begins, ‘These are the Pilgrimages and Places of the Holy Land’ [16]. Like the two Greek pilgrimage texts from this period [8, 17], such texts are in effect short guidebooks. By this date many of the western ones are also in French (or in some cases Anglo-Norman), rather than Latin. Often they are prescriptive, telling the pilgrim what must be done in order to complete the pilgrimage correctly. This suggests that some of them – or at least the texts on which they were based – may have had some kind of official status, perhaps related to the taking of pilgrimage vows or the imposition of penances. Also included in this category is the document already mentioned, which gives a list of the indulgences that could be obtained from visiting the churches of Acre [11]. Next there are accounts of actual pilgrimages. Thirteenth-century examples include: Wilbrand of Oldenburg [1], whose pilgrimage was combined with a diplomatic mission to Armenia in 1211–12; Thietmar [2], whose itinerary in 1217– 18 included the pilgrimages to Saydnaya and Mount Sinai; Geoffrey of Beaulieu’s account of the pilgrimage of St Louis to Nazareth in 1251 [7]; an account of a completely fictitious pilgrimage written by Albert of Stade around the same time;1 the accounts of the journeys to Acre and Palestine by Niccolò, Maffeo and Marco Polo in 1269–71;2 and the pilgrimage of Friar Maurice, a Norwegian Franciscan from Bergen who accompanied Andrew Nicolasson on crusade in 1271–73 [12]. With all such accounts, quite apart from those that are clearly fictitious, the modern reader must take great care, since the pilgrim does not always report what he actually saw. Like some of the journalists who compile the travel sections of weekend newspapers today, the writers of pilgrimage accounts often relied heavily on existing guidebooks or other pilgrims’ accounts and were not averse to simply copying out sections from them. They also often describe places that they had not been to. In order to winnow out original first-hand information from repetition,   Itinerarium Terrae Sanctae, ed. G. Golubovich, Biblioteca Bio-Bibliografica 1, pp. 181–5; IHC 4, pp. 1–9. 2   Rusticello of Pisa, Voyages en Syrie de Nicolo, Maffeo et Marco Polo, ed. Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, pp. 203–12; Thiébault de Cépoy, Voyages en Syrie de Nicolo, Maffeo et Marco Polo, ed. Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, pp. 213–26. 1

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one therefore needs to be aware of all the earlier sources that might have been available to the writer. In the case of thirteenth-century western pilgrims the favourite earlier sources include: Jerome’s letter to Eustochium in 404, describing his travels with Paula nineteen years before;3 Jerome’s ‘Book of the Places’ (Liber Locorum), which is a Latin translation of Eusebius’s Onomasticon, a gazetteer of places mentioned in the Bible together with their fourth-century identifications;4 the account of the late fourth-century pilgrimage of the Spanish lady, Egeria, including sections of her account that have only survived in the composite pilgrimage account compiled by Peter the Deacon in the mid-twelfth century;5 the description of the Holy Places by Bishop Arculf, as related to Adomnán, abbot of Iona around 685;6 and more especially the Venerable Bede, whose account of the Holy Places was based on all these earlier texts and was widely used in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.7 Thirteenth-century writers also had the accounts of twelfth-century writers to follow, in particular a ‘Description of the Places lying round about Jerusalem’ dating from the 1130s,8 which had already been utilized by Rorgo Fretellus of Nazareth (1137–38)9 and the German pilgrims John of Würzburg (c.1165)10 and Theoderic (1172).11 They also copied each other. A third category of pilgrim text comprises straightforward descriptions of the Holy Land, usually arranged geographically. These follow in the tradition of Eusebius, Jerome and Bede. The distinction between these and pilgrimage guides is not always clear cut, since the locations of places are often described according to their distance from a fixed place, such as Jerusalem or Nazareth, or in the context of an itinerary along a particular road. They are also used by the writers of pilgrimage guides and travelogues, thus further blurring the distinction between them. Texts of this type dating from the thirteenth century include: Aymar the Monk,12 whose description was based on the late twelfth-century Tractatus de   Epistula 108, ed. Tobler and Molinier, Itinera hierosolymitana, pp. 27–40, partial trans. in Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims, pp. 47–52, cf. pp. 1–2. 4   Ed. Klostermann, Das Onomastikon der Biblischer Ortsnamen, in GCS 11.1. 5   Egeria, Itinerarium, in CCSL 175, pp. 27–90, trans. Wilkinson, Egeria’s Travels, pp. 89–147; Peter the Deacon, Liber de Locis Sanctis, in CCSL, vol. 175, pp. 93–8, 252–78, in IHC 2, pp. 171–205, extracts trans. in Wilkinson, Egeria’s Travels, pp. 179–201. 6   Adomnán, de Locis Sanctis, in CCSL 175, pp. 175–234, trans. in Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims, pp. 93–116. 7   Bede, de Locis Sanctis, in CCSL 175, pp. 245–80. 8   Descriptio locorum circa Hierusalem adjacentium, ed. de Vogüé, in Les Églises de la Terre Sainte, pp. 414–33, in IHC 2, pp. 78–115, trans. in PPTS 5 (Fetellus), pp. 8–54. 9   Liber Locorum, ed. Boeren, Rorgo Fretellus de Nazareth et sa description de la Terre Sainte. 10   Descriptio Locorum Terrae Sanctae, ed. Huygens, in CCCM 139, pp. 78–141, trans. (based on a faulty earlier edition) in PPTS 5. 11   Libellus de Locis Sanctis, ed. Huygens, in CCCM 139, pp. 143–97, trans. in PPTS 5. 12   Tractatus de Locis et Statu Terre Iherosolimitanae, in IHC 3, pp. 163–93. 3

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Locis and on Bede; James of Vitry, who was bishop of Acre between 1216 and 1228;13 Oliver of Paderborn (or Cologne), whose description dates from the same period;14 Burchard of Mount Sion (1274–85) [13]; Philip of Savona (1285–89) [14]; Riccoldo of Monte Croce (1289–89) [15]; and Marino Sanudo (1306–1309, revised 1320).15 There are also some French descriptions, including the celebrated description of Jerusalem at the time of its conquest in 1187, that are woven into the chronicle of Ernoul and Bernard the Treasurer [3] and into one of the continuations of William of Tyre’s chronicle.16 Some of these writers had evidently visited the places that they describe and occasionally they slip in an anecdote or a particular observation that they can only have known about from personal experience. One major difficulty in relating what they say to actuality, however, is that the geography that they are describing is usually that of the Old Testament, their understanding of which is often at variance with what is know about it today. The supposed biblical and medieval geographies – and their place names – therefore tend to become merged and confused, making it sometimes difficult to disentangle one from the other.17 Some of the thirteenth-century medieval descriptions were originally accompanied by maps, though none has survived apart from Matthew Paris’s ‘Itinerary from London to Jerusalem’ [10], which is itself a map with blocks of text describing the places along the route. Burchard of Mount Sion’s map does not survive; but an early fourteenth-century map in Florence corresponds closely with his description.18 Marino Sanudo’s description, which is incorporated into his treatise on the proposed reconquest of the Holy Land, written in 1306–1309 and published in 1321, also has a coloured map with a grid referring to the text, as well as plans of Acre and Jerusalem.19   Historia Hierosolimitana, Orientalis et Occidentalis, ed. Moschus (Douai 1597), ed. and trans. Donnadieu. 14   Descriptio Terrae Sanctae, ed. Hoogeweg, Die Schriften des Kölner Domscholasters, pp. 1–24, extracts in IHC 4, pp. 377–401. 15   Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis super Terrae Sanctae Recuperatione et Conseruatione, ed. Bongars. 16   Continuation de Guillaume de Tyr de 1229 à 1261, dite du manuscrit de Rothelin, chs. 2–11, in RHC Occ 2, pp. 490–515, ed. Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, pp. 141–75, trans. Shirley, Crusader Syria, pp. 13–29. 17   This is not just a medieval problem: the post-1948 Israeli renaming of settlements and natural features in Palestine on the basis of the Old Testament – and in many cases of pure fantasy – in an attempt to blot out two millennia or more of post-Israelite history raises similar difficulties for those wanting to identify medieval – and in some cases even the correct Old Testament – sites on the ground today. See Benvenisti, Sacred Landscape, pp. 11–54. 18   See section 13 below. 19   On Sanudo’s maps, see Röhricht, ‘Marino Sanuto sen. als Kartograph Palästinas’; Edson, ‘Reviving the Crusade’; Delano-Smith, ‘The Intelligent Pilgrim’, pp. 117–19. For 13

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Marino Sanudo’s treatise also contains a portolan chart and guide for sailors,20 which is in fact a translation of a thirteenth-century Italian one, Il Compasso da navigare.21 This describes landmarks, reefs and islands along the Syrian and Palestinian coasts and gives instructions, for example, on how to enter the harbour of Acre. There is only one surviving portolan guide from the very end of the twelfth century, the Liber de Existencia Riveriarum et Forma Maris Nostri Mediterranei, though the chronicle accounts of the Third Crusade suggest that others existed and had been in use at an earlier date.22 Many more such guides and charts exist from the fourteenth century onwards. Because of the way in which they were compiled, incorporating information from earlier texts, many of these texts have depths of meaning that can only be separated out and understood by detailed study and comparison with other texts. Even so, any given text was usually compiled at a certain point in time and therefore represents a view of the situation at that time, whatever sources of information it may contain. Some such texts, such as that of the pilgrim Theoderic (1172), are also well-balanced literary works, despite their composite nature. In selecting texts for translation, the policy adopted here has therefore been to present the selected texts in their entirety and not to attempt either to suppress passages that appear to have been derived from earlier sources or to reconstruct a hypothetical ‘original text’ on which others were supposedly based. Readers should be aware, however, of the different levels of information that these texts may contain and be cautious about taking anything that they find in them at face value. 1.  Wilbrand of Oldenburg: Journey in the Holy Land (1211–12) Wilbrand of Oldenburg was the son of Henry II, count of Oldenburg (1167–98), and Beatrix of Hallermund. By the time of his journey to the East in 1211 he was already a canon of the church of Hildersheim. After his return he became prior of Hildersheim in 1218. In 1225, he was appointed to the see of Paderborn and also administered the sees of Münster and Osnabrück between 1226 and 1227. From 1227 until his death in Zwolle in July 1233, he was archbishop of Utrecht, where he was also buried in the abbey church of St Servaas.23

discussion of thirteenth-century Holy Land maps in general see: Nebenzahl, Maps of the Bible Lands; Harvey, Maps of the Crusaders’ Holy Land. 20   Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis 3.14.2, ed. Bongars, pp. 244–6, pl. p. xii; cf. Rey, ‘Périples’. 21   Ed. Motzo; index in Dalché, Carte marine et portolan au xiie siècle, pp. 239–53. 22   See Dalché, Carte marine et portolan au xiie siècle. 23   Hucker, ‘Wilbrand’; Halfter, ‘Beschreibung’, p. 177; Laurent, Peregrinatores (1864), pp. 161, 191; Graboïs, ‘Terre sainte’, p. 261; Delpech and Voisin, ‘Mission’, pp. 294–5.

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Wilbrand’s eastern travels were undertaken with two specific purposes and his account of them falls into two parts (see Fig. 4). The first part, beginning with his landing in Acre on 25 August 1211 and ending the following spring, involved his participation in a diplomatic mission to King Levon I of Armenian Cilicia for the German emperor, Otto IV, in the company of Hermann of Salza, grand master of the Teutonic Order, and the envoys of Leopold VII, duke of Austria. His visit to Cilicia lasted eighteen weeks from his arrival in Tarsus [1.19]. In 1195, the Rupenid Baron Levon II (as he then was) had requested a royal crown from the emperor, Henry VI, and Pope Celestine III. After protracted negotiations while a suitable formula was agreed to describe the relationship of the Armenian church to the papacy, Levon was finally crowned King Levon I on 6 January 1198 in the presence of the papal legate, Conrad, archbishop of Mainz, with the crown brought to the East by the imperial chancellor, Conrad of Querfurt, bishop of Hildersheim.24 Although the precise purpose of Wilbrand’s mission in 1211–12 is not stated, it was evidently intended to assist in cementing relations between Levon I and the new German emperor, Otto IV, who had been invested with the imperial crown by Pope Innocent III in 1209. Levon at this time was involved in a continuing dispute with the pope and the Templars over the succession to the principality of Antioch and was in need of support. In 1211, his envoys returned from the West with a new crown from Otto IV, which on 15 August Levon placed on the head of his heir, his great-nephew Raymond Rupen. His favour towards the Teutonic order is shown by a charter of April 1212, in which he identified himself as a confrater of the order and granted it the castle of Amuda along with a number of villages in the Cilician plain.25 It seems, however, that some of the places included in this grant would already have been in the order’s possession at the time of Wilbrand’s visit, for he describes Amuda as a castle of the German Hospital in January 1212 and Cumbetefort (Cumbethfor), which he calls a house and residence of the order, was already in their hands in June 1209.26 Wilbrand returned to Acre in the spring of 1212, taking ship from Korykos to Kyrenia and then travelling across Cyprus by way of Nicosia, Limassol and Stavrovouni monastery to Famagusta, for the final sea crossing to the mainland. The second part of Wilbrand’s itinerary was a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Places. No dates are given for this portion of his account. The text breaks off at the Mount of Temptation (Quarennia) on his way back from Jericho to Jerusalem. From remarks made earlier in the text, it appears that the missing portion would have included descriptions of Ramah (al-Rām) in Judæa and Capernaum in Galilee; but it is uncertain whether this abrupt ending was the result of Wilbrand’s   Smbat, Chronique 34, edd. Dédéyan, pp. 72–3; Der Nersessian, ‘Kingdom of Cilician Armenia’, pp. 645–8; Boase, Cilician Kingdom, p. 19; Hamilton, ‘Armenian Church and the Papacy’, pp. 70–73; id., Latin Church, pp. 335–6; Halfter, ‘Beschreibung’, pp. 177–9. 25   TOT, pp. 37–9, no. 46; Cahen, Syrie, p. 618; Riley-Smith, ‘Templars and Teutonic Knights’, p. 111. 26   TOT, pp. 266–9, no. 298. 24

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failure to complete the text or – as seems more likely – of the accidental loss of the final pages of the exemplar on which the surviving manuscript tradition is based. The earliest surviving manuscript (p) is a thirteenth-century one, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris but originally from the Premonstratensian abbey of St.-Yved in Braisne, near Soissons.27 In this, Wilbrand’s Itinerarium (fols. 19vb–30vb) is wedged between other texts: it is preceded by brief histories of the kings of France and dukes of Normandy respectively, both in French (fols. 1ra– 19vb), and followed by a Latin chronicle of Fécamp, to which is appended in other hands some historical events of the years 1218–46 relating solely to Braisne (fols. 31ra–38vb). The manuscript appears to have been copied around 1220–30 and until the early seventeenth century represented the final 38 folios of a composite collection comprising 140 folios in all.28 The Bibliothèque Nationale also contains another manuscript of the Itinerarium, which was copied along with other texts from the abbey of St.-Yved by Nicolas de Beaufort, canon of St.-Jean in Soissons, in the sixteenth century.29 During the seventeenth century, when this manuscript formed part of the library belonging to the descendants of the humanist Claude Dupuy (1546–94), it was itself copied by or for Lucas Holstein on behalf of Leo Allatius, who in 1653 published an edition of it.30 Another manuscript version now in Hanover appears to be no more than an eighteenth-century copy of Allatius’s text, made in preparation for a new edition, which never materialized, by Johann Daniel Gruber, the director of the Hanover library from 1729 to 1748.31 When J.C.M. Laurent prepared a new edition (l) of Wilbrand in the midnineteenth century, he based it on Allatius’s edition (e) and on Holstein’s copy (b), which was by then in Berlin.32 His edition was published with a German translation and notes in Hamburg in 1859,33 and was reprinted with just the Latin text and footnotes in a collection of pilgrim texts in 186434 and again in 1873.35 This version was also reprinted with a parallel Italian translation by S. de Sandoli 27   Paris, BN, Fonds français, 10130, fols. 19v–30v; cf. G. Labory, in Careri et al., Album de manuscrits français du xiiie siècle, pp. 111–14; Kohler, ‘Inventaire sommaire’, p. 152. 28   Labory, op. cit., p. 110–13; Baron, ‘Note’, pp. 500–505. 29   Paris, BN, Fonds lat. 3088, fols. 52–61v; Kohler, ‘Inventaire sommaire’, p. 135; cf. Baron, ‘Note’, pp. 500, 503–4; Laurent, Peregrinatores (1864), p. 161. 30   Σύμμικτα 1, pp. 122–52. 31   Hanover, Ms. 1805, fol. 36ff.; Röhricht, Bibliotheca Geographica, p. 46; Baron, ‘Note’, pp. 505. 32   Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Ms. Diez C fo. 60, fols. 39r–58v; Baron, ‘Note’, pp. 499– 500, 503–4; Laurent, Peregrinatores (1864), p. 161. 33   Wilbrands von Oldenburg, Reise nach Palästina und Kleinasien (1859). 34   Peregrinatores Medii Aevi Quatuor (1864), pp. 159–91. 35   Peregrinatores Medii Aevi Quatuor, accessit Mag. Thietmari peregrinatio (1873), pp. 159–91.

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in 1983;36 and a French translation of it also appeared in 2003.37 The present translation is based on the Braisne manuscript in Paris (p) and includes references to its folio numbers, while retaining the numbering of chapters and sections found in Laurent’s 1864 edition.38 2.  Thietmar: Pilgrimage (1217–18) Little is known of the author of this text. The chronicle of the Franciscan Friar Nicolas Glassberger of Moravia, written in Nuremburg between 1491 and 1508, refers to a certain Dithmar, who went on pilgrimage in 1217 and prepared a book on the state of the Holy Land for the pope. In the same year, 1217, a certain monk named Dithmar set out through the Holy Land, passing through the lots of [the tribes] of Zebulun and Naphtali, and came to the town of Sepphoris (Semphoram), in which St Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin, was born; he similarly passed through the city of Nazareth. He wrote a book of the Holy Land and made known the state of that Land to the lord Pope, who – Pope Honorius [III], that is – preached in the city of Rome the Jerusalem journey [i.e. the Fifth Crusade] of which Innocent [III] had laid the foundations.39

If Dithmar was indeed Thietmar, however, as indeed seems probable, Glassberger’s source of information about him was most likely Thietmar’s own book. The implication that it was intended for the pope should therefore be treated with caution, as there is nothing in the text itself to support the idea. Equal caution should apply to the suggestion that Thietmar was a Franciscan,40 especially as Glassberger describes him as a monk (monachus). The true purpose of Thietmar’s journey, however, is difficult to determine. At the beginning of his account he describes himself as setting out from home along with his pilgrims (peregrini), ‘signed with and protected by the cross.’ This suggests that he was the leader of a pilgrimage and therefore a cleric, rather than a crusader, which being signed with the cross might otherwise imply. It also appears from his account of the German prisoners in Damascus that he himself came from Westphalia. When Thietmar landed in Acre in the autumn of 1217, he would have found it buzzing with activity as the marshalling point for a vast army of people drawn from all western Europe, including Germany, who had answered the call of the late pope, Innocent III, for a new crusade against the Muslims – the series     38   39   40   36 37

IHC 3, pp. 194–249. Delpech and Voisin, ‘Mission en Cilicie’, pp. 300–342. A new edition based on manuscript p will appear in Crusades 11 (2012). Chronica fratris Nicolai Glassberger, p. 12. Cf. C. Deluz in Régnier-Bohler, Croisades et pèlerinages, p. 928.

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of campaigns that would later be called the Fifth Crusade.41 In contemporary sources these crusaders are also called ‘pilgrims’. The odd thing about Thietmar’s account of his journey is that he makes no reference at all to the crusade or to the preparations for it, even though hostilities broke out while he was still travelling in Palestine. Indeed, when he set out for Damascus and Saydnaya (Sardenay) a month or more later (see Fig. 5), perhaps around the end of September, the truce between the Franks and the Ayyubids was about to be broken. Thus he was able to have an amiable conversation with the Muslim castellan of Mount Tabor about the political state of Europe only two or three weeks before the castle was unsuccessfully besieged by the crusaders from 20 November to 7 December; and while he was in Damascus on St Martin’s Eve (10 November), the crusader army crossed the Jordan south of the sea of Galilee and advanced as far as Khisfīn and Nawā in the Ḥawrān along the road that he had passed along only a few days before.42 It is difficult to believe that he was unaware of what was going on; and one may even suspect his apparent naïvety of being somewhat overplayed. Indeed, he admits that he had probably told the castellan more than he should have done; and when he set out again from Acre for Sinai, probably sometime after Christmas, he went disguised as a Georgian monk. On his way to Bethlehem he also took care to avoid going near Jerusalem, which by this time would have been in a state of high alert – and with good reason, for he miscalculated and was apprehended and imprisoned in the Asnerie beside St Stephen’s church. He gives us no dates for his journey through Transjordan to Mount Sinai or for his return to Acre. It is therefore uncertain whether or not he had already left for home by the time that the crusaders’ fleet set sail from Acre for Damietta towards the end of May 1218. Some eighteen manuscript versions of Thietmar’s pilgrimage are listed by Röhricht.43 Editions of one of these, an incomplete and somewhat abbreviated version from a fourteenth-century manuscript in Basel,44 were published by J.A. Sprecher von Bernegg in 184445 and by Titus Tobler in 1851,46 the latter being subsequently reprinted with a parallel Italian translation by S. de Sandoli in 1983.47 Meanwhile, in the same year as Tobler’s edition, a similar version appearing in a thirteenth-century manuscript in Ghent was also published by J.   Prawer, Histoire 2, pp. 128–35.   Ibn al-‘Athīr, al-Kāmil, trans. Richards 3, pp. 174–5; al-Maqrīzī, trans. Broadhurst,

41 42

pp. 164–5; Abu Shāmā, in RHC Or 5, pp. 160–64; Oliver of Paderborn, Historia Damiatina 2–3, ed. Hoogeveg, pp. 163–7, trans. Gavigan, pp. 51–5; idem, Epistolae 3, ed. Hoogeveg, pp. 288–90; Eracles, in RHC Occ 2, pp. 323–4; Prawer, Histoire 2, pp. 135–43; Powell, Anatomy of a Crusade, pp. 130–35. 43   Bibliotheca Geographica, p. 47. 44   Basel b. x. 35. 45   In Malten (ed.), Neueste Weltkunde (1844), pp. 184–93. 46   Magistri Thetmari Iter ad Terram Sanctam (1851). 47   IHC 3, pp. 251–95.

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de Saint-Génois.48 In 1852, however, J.C.M. Laurent published a much fuller version of the pilgrimage on the basis of a thirteenth-century manuscript in Hamburg,49 which he also collated with seven other manuscripts.50 This edition was reissued in 185751 and 1873.52 Laurent’s analysis of the nine texts that he studied indicated that they divided into two distinct traditions.53 The first, which included the manuscript versions in Hamburg, Berlin54 and Wolfenbüttel,55 appeared to be closest to Thietmar’s original text, while the second, including the published texts from Basel and Ghent and others from Munich56 and Berlin,57 represented an abbreviated and confused version including interpolations from other sources; this had evidently been put together by another hand, as Thietmar himself is at times referred to in the third person. Laurent placed the version of the pilgrimage from the Rhediger Library in Wroclaw (Breslau) in a category of its own, standing somewhere between the other two but descended from another source.58 He was unable to trace a ninth manuscript, a description and illustrative fragment of which, published in 1774 by its then owner, Andreas Theophilus Maaschius, suggested that it belonged to the first group. Röhricht, however, was later able to identify this in Rostock.59 The present translation is based on Laurent’s 1857 edition. 3.  Ernoul’s Chronicle (c.1231) The text known to historians as the ‘Chronicle of Ernoul and Bernard the Treasurer’ is a composite work produced by at least three different hands and covering the history of the kingdom of Jerusalem up to 1231. It appears to be based in part on a pro-Ibelin account of the years leading up to Saladin’s conquest of Jerusalem in 48   Ghent, 486, fols. 101–28; J. de Saint-Génois, ‘Voyages faits en Terre Sainte par Thetmar en 1217 et par Burchard d. Strassbourg en 1175, 1189 ou 1225’, Mémoires de l’Academie royale de Belgique 26 (1851), pp. 19–58. 49   Hamburg, 143b. 50   Magistri Thietmari Historia de Dispositione Terre Sancte (1852). 51   Mag. Thietmari Peregrinatio (1857). An abbreviated French translation of this by C. Deluz has also appeared in Régnier-Bohler (ed.), Croisades et pèlerinages (1997), pp. 928–58. 52   Peregrinatores Medii Aevi Quatuor, accessit Mag. Thietmari peregrinatio (1873), appx. (80 pp.) 53   See discussion in Mag. Thietmari Peregrinatio (1857), pp. 55–60. 54   Berlin, 277 (Codex Stenzlerianus), fols. 70r–114r. 55   Wolfenbüttel, Cod. Guden. 42, 3, fols. 187–97. 56   Munich, Univ. 102, fols. 203–15. 57   Berlin, Theol. Lat. iv, 141, fols. 17–43. 58   Wroclaw (Breslau), 290/3 fol. 59   Rostock, Cod. Hist. 10 (Codex Maschianus), fols. 105–20.

30

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1187, written by a squire of Balian of Ibelin named Ernoul. In five manuscripts Ernoul is identified as the writer at the point when, on 1 May 1187, he and Balian reached the castle of la Fève (al-Fūla) in Galilee just after its garrison had been almost completely wiped out in the battle of the Springs of the Cresson.60 It seems unlikely that he was the same person as Arnais (or Herneis) of Gibelet (Jubayl), a lawyer active in Cyprus between 1220 and 1239, whom John of Ibelin, lord of Beirut, placed in charge of the government there in 1232,61 since Ernoul/Arnaldus and Arnais/Ernesius are different names.62 It is also uncertain precisely where Ernoul’s text ended; for although the manuscripts which mention him by name begin by explaining that the purpose of the text is to recount how the land of Jerusalem and the Holy Cross were lost to the Muslims in 1187, the chronicle actually continues up to 1229. The name of Bernard the Treasurer, on the other hand, appears in a colophon placed at the end of two other versions of this text, which continue to 1231.63 There Bernard is described as the treasurer of the abbey of St Peter in Corbie and the person who had the chronicle made in the year 1232. Three other manuscripts also belong to this group, though without mentioning Bernard.64 In all versions of the chronicle, the years up to 1185 are covered in a fairly summary fashion. At various points between 1182 and 1185, however, the text is interrupted by passages describing the biblical geography of the Holy Land, which appear to have been interpolated from another source. Similarly, in the more expansive narrative covering the years after 1185, the account of Saladin’s siege of Jerusalem in 1187 is prefaced by a chapter giving a detailed description of how the Holy City appeared at that time.65 Similar geographical passages also occur in the Estoires d’Outremer et de la Naissance de Salehadin, a text composed no earlier than 1230. This incorporates an abridged version of the Ernoul-Bernard texts’ account of the fall of the kingdom interwoven with some purely fictional elements and occasional historical passages of uncertain origin.66 Three manuscripts of this text survive.67 60   Brussels, 11142 (c); Berne, h.41 (d); Berne, 115; Paris, BN, Mss. français, 781; St.-Omer, 722 (z); cf. de Mas Latrie, Chronique d’Ernoul, pp. xxxvii–xxxviii, 149; Riant, ‘Inventaire’, p. 249 (nos. 12–16); Morgan, Chronicle of Ernoul, pp. 11–12, 41, 190–92. 61   Morgan, Chronicle of Ernoul, pp. 41–6; cf. Edbury, Philip of Novara, pp. 326–7. 62   I am grateful to Peter Edbury for advice on this point. 63   Paris, Arsenal, 677 (a); Berne, 340 (b). 64   Berne, 113 (f), and two eighteenth-century copies of it. Cf. de Mas Latrie, Chronique d’Ernoul, pp. xxxvi–xxxvii, xxxix–xl, xliii; Riant, ‘Inventaire’, p. 249 (nos. 20–24); Morgan, Chronicle of Ernoul, pp. 12–13, 46–50. 65   A general discussion of this chapter is given by Croizy-Naquet, ‘Description de Jérusalem’. 66   Morgan, Chronicle of Ernoul, pp. 13–16; Jubb, Critical Edition, pp. 1–13, 277–92. 67   Paris, BN, Mss. français, 770, 12203 and 24210; cf. Riant, ‘Inventaire’, p. 249 (nos. 17–19); Jubb, Critical Edition, pp. 15–33.

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Sometime after c.1231, the Ernoul-Bernard chronicle was also adapted to form the beginning of the Continuation of a French translation of William of Tyre’s Chronicle, which would otherwise have ended in 1184. To this end the initial part of the Ernoul-Bernard text, including the geographical excursuses, was simply lopped off and the remainder joined on to the end of William’s French text.68 The chapter describing Jerusalem was also omitted, possibly because it held up the story at a critical point, but also perhaps because William of Tyre’s chronicle already contained a description of Jerusalem at the time of its capture in 1099.69 One version of the Continuation, however, does include the description of Jerusalem, apparently because the copyist made direct use of an Ernoul-Bernard text when copying that section of the narrative.70 Later still, the so-called Rothelin version of the Continuation, which goes up to 1261, reintroduced a slightly altered version of the description of Jerusalem immediately after Frederick II’s departure from the city in 1229.71 This is followed by another quite separate pilgrimage text, which appears to be related to texts such as ‘The Holy Pilgrimages’ (1229–39) [4] and ‘The Ways and Pilgrimages’ (1244–63) [10].72 Titus Tobler argued in 1874 that the description of Jerusalem in the ErnoulBernard manuscripts represented a pre-1187 text that had simply been inserted into the later text.73 Riant pointed out, however, that, while most of the description is written in the present tense, there are also a number of places where the imperfect is used, suggesting that the text had been altered and expanded by the writer of the chronicle, whom he identifies as Ernoul, sometime after 1187. He also noted that the description of Jerusalem in the Estoires, despite being severely truncated, is all set in the present tense. This suggested to him that, while most of the historical narrative of the Estoires, including the geographical descriptions, was drawn, albeit imperfectly, from the Ernoul-Bernard text, the compiler of the Estoires made use of an earlier pre-1187 version of the description of Jerusalem.74 Margaret Jubb has subsequently nuanced this view by suggesting that it is more plausible to see the Estoires as having simply made use of an earlier version of the ErnoulBernard text.75 Neither of these suggestions is entirely convincing, however, for the description of Jerusalem in the Estoires covers no more than the first quarter   Edbury, ‘The Lyon Eracles’, pp. 152–3.   Chronicon 8.1–4, ed. Huygens, pp. 381–90. 70   Paris, BN, 9086 (j) = RHC Occ 2, text c; cf. de Mas Latrie, Chronique d’Ernoul, p. 68

69

xli; Riant, ‘Inventaire’, p. 250 (no. 34). 71   Chs. 2–9, in RHC Occ 2, pp. 490–507, ed. Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, pp. 137–63 (chs. renumbered 1–8), trans. Shirley, Crusader Syria, pp. 13–23. 72   Chs. 10–11, in RHC Occ 2, pp. 507–15, ed. Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, pp. 163–75 (chs. renumbered 9–10), trans. Shirley, Crusader Syria, pp. 23–9; cf. Morgan, ‘Rothelin Continuation’, p. 249. 73   Descriptiones Terrae Sanctae, pp. 453–4. 74   Riant, in Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, pp. xiii–xviii. 75   Critical Edition, pp. 290–91.

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of that given in Ernoul-Bernard, which, as it happens, is all in the present tense. Furthermore, the Estoires version also includes an added passage in the imperfect tense, which does not appear in Ernoul-Bernard (see below). Overall, however, the description in the Estoires is so abbreviated and generally confused as to result in places in complete nonsense; and, although it does add some information not found in Ernoul-Bernard, the additions are mostly of very dubious value. It claims, for example, that Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Persians, was responsible for bringing the Holy Sepulchre within the city walls, and that the southern city gate was called the Tiberias Gate, because the road to Tiberias led from it.76 It also mentions an otherwise unknown church of St Paul, served by Augustinians canons, which is evidently to be identified as the church of St Mary of Mount Sion.77 The one piece of new information that might have been useful is where it states (in the imperfect tense, and referring to before 1187): And there is a place there where were located the basins of a burgess who used to live in Jerusalem, of whom I have told you before, he who did so much good in Jerusalem to provide drinking water to the poor people, the same who was called Germain.78

The only problem with this is that it is not at all clear where this place was, other than in the general area of the street of the Temple (Tariq Bāb al-Silsila) or street of the Tannery (Tariq al-Wād). The description of Jerusalem given in the Ernoul-Bernard texts therefore appears to be essentially a description of how the city appeared before Saladin’s siege of August 1187. The original version may have been written either before that event for some other reason, or after it by someone who evidently knew the city well before the siege. At any rate, it is detailed and accurate, unlike the truncated version of it in the Estoires. When this text was incorporated into the chronicle, by Ernoul or one of the later compilers, it was modified by changing the tense of some verbs into the imperfect and by adding other material, also usually in a past tense. In some places the changes of tense appear somewhat arbitrary and lacking in consistency. We are told at one point, for instance, that in the valley of Jehoshaphat ‘there is an abbey of black monks’ and at another that ‘there was an abbey of black monks’. There are few clues as to when these modifications occurred. In describing St Mary in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, however, the text relates that when the Muslims took Jerusalem they pulled down the abbey in order to take the stones for fortifying the city, but that they left the church intact. This would appear to relate to the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s wall that was begun by Saladin in 1192 and continued by al-Mu‘aẓẓam ‘Īsā   Ed. Michelant and Raynaud, p. 25, ed. Jubb, pp. 213–14.   Ed. Michelant and Raynaud, p. 27, ed. Jubb, p. 215. 78   Ed. Michelant and Raynaud, p. 26. ed. Jubb, pp. 214–15. The story of Germain has 76 77

already been repeated from the Ernoul-Bernard account on pp. 180–82 of Jubb’s edition.

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between 1202 and 1212.79 Still more significant is the reference to the Christians demolishing St Stephen’s church before the siege of 1187, while leaving standing the adjacent donkey-stable (Asnerie), which was subsequently used as a lodging place by pilgrims when they came to Jerusalem during periods of truce with the Muslims. On these occasions, we are told, the pilgrims were made to enter the city by the postern of St Lazarus. These arrangements for pilgrims evidently relate to the period after the treaty of Jaffa of 1192 and reflect the conditions prevailing when Wilbrand [1] and Thietmar [2] visited Jerusalem in 1212 and 1218 respectively. The reference to them in the past also confirms the general impression that the text in its present form dates to the period immediately after 1229, when Jerusalem was again in Christian hands and freely accessible to pilgrims. An edition of the entire Chronicle of Ernoul and Bernard the Treasurer was published by L. de Mas Latrie in 1871, utilizing all the principal manuscripts apart from Berne 115 and St.-Omer 722.80 Earlier, in 1854, Tobler had published the description of Jerusalem alone on the basis of Berne 41, 113 and 115 and Brussels 11142;81 and, in 1856, E. Robinson had done the same using just Brussels 11142.82 Tobler published another edition of this in 1874, in which he confused the text with the version appearing in the Rothelin Continuation.83 In 1882, Michelant and Raynaud included both the description of Jerusalem and a selection of fragments relating to Galilee in their collection of French pilgrimage texts; in doing this they used de Mas Latrie’s edition as well as St.-Omer 722 and Berne 115.84 An English translation of their texts was published by C.R. Conder in 1888;85 and they were reprinted with an Italian translation by S. de Sandoli in 1983.86 The present translation is based on de Mas Latrie’s edition, taking account of Michelant and Raynaud’s corrections; however, it includes some geographical sections that Michelant and Raynaud omitted. The descriptions of Jerusalem and Galilee in the Estoires were also edited by Michelant and Raynaud;87 and the whole text has now been edited by Margaret Jubb.88 As explained above, however, the descriptions all appear to be derived from Ernoul-Bernard and add little of value to them. They are not therefore     81   82   83  

Pringle, Churches 3, p. 307. de Mas Latrie, Chronique d’Ernoul et de Bernard le Trésorier. Topographie von Jerusalem 2, pp. 984–1005. Biblical Researches in Palestine 2, pp. 556–62. Descriptiones Terrae Sanctae, pp. 196–224. The version published by M. de Vogüé in Églises de la Terre Sainte (1860), pp. 433–51, is also based on the Rothelin text. 84   Itinéraires, pp. 29–76. 85   PPTS 6. 86   IHC 3, pp. 393–437. 87   Itinéraires, pp. 21–8, 77–86. 88   Estoires d’Outremer et de la naissance de Salehadin, Westfield Publications in Medieval Studies 4, London (1990). 79 80

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translated here. The Rothelin descriptions, on the other hand, are not included here as they have already been translated by Janet Shirley in another volume in this series.89 4.  The Holy Pilgrimages (1229–39) This text comes from a single fourteenth-century manuscript, formerly in the library of the late Sir Thomas Phillips in Cheltenham,90 a copy of which was communicated to Count Riant by Paul Meyer and published by Michelant and Raynaud in 1882.91 The text describes two pilgrimage circuits: the first from Acre to Nazareth and Tiberias and back again, and the second from Acre to Jerusalem, going by the coast and returning through Nāblus. Its tone is prescriptive as well as descriptive, telling the pilgrim how he should proceed and in what order; but although this might seem to hint at the existence of a series of authorized routes for pilgrims to follow, the text is not particularly consistent in its instructions, nor does it say on whose authority they are given or what the rewards might be. For instance, there is no mention of indulgences. Internal evidence within the text gives a number of indications as to its date: • The reference to the loss of the relic of the True Cross indicates a date after 1187. • The mention of the church of St Saviour in Gethsemane might be taken to indicate a date before its destruction sometime between 1187 and 1192; however, the site of the church seems to have been recognizable after that and is mentioned in thirteenth-century texts.92 • The existence of a monastery and church of St Mary of Carmel suggests a date after 1205–14, when the patriarch, Albert of Vercelli, granted the Carmelite friars a ‘form of life’, which also required them to build a chapel.93 • The description of the church of Mount Sion as having being destroyed indicates a date after Thietmar’s visit in 1217, and probably after 1219–20, when the church was most likely destroyed by al-Mu‘aẓẓam ‘Īsā at the time when he also destroyed Jerusalem’s town walls.94 • The designation of the owners of St Mary the Great as the Nuns of Tyre suggests a date between 1229 and 1239 (or at the latest 1244), since they only acquired that name after they had become established in Acre after     91   92   93   94   89 90

Crusader Syria, pp. 13–29. Cheltenham, 6664. Itinéraires, pp. 104–1047, repr. in IHC 3, pp. 465–77; cf. Riant, ibid., p. xx. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 359–60. Pringle, Churches 2, p. 249. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 268, 285.

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1191, and between 1229 and 1239 there is evidence that they also regained some of their Jerusalem properties.95 • The description of the church of Mount Tabor as still standing and containing Benedictines also indicates a date after 1229, when al-Malik alKāmil returned the area to the Christians.96 The date should also be before 1255, when Mount Tabor was granted to the Hospitallers, and certainly before April 1263, when the church was destroyed by Sultan Baybars.97 • The reference to the church of Nazareth as still standing also indicates a date before its destruction by Baybars in April 1263.98 • The reference to the stone of St James in the church of St Peter in the castle of Jaffa also points to a date before the fall of Jaffa to Baybars in 1268.99 The conditions described in the text therefore appear to relate to the period in the thirteenth century when Jerusalem was briefly once more in Christian hands between 1229 and 1239 (or in extremis 1244). This supports the idea that the text relates to the same period as Ernoul’s description [3] and certainly before Baybars’ conquests. 5. Anonymous ix and Anonymous x (c.1229–39) Five manuscripts of this brief pilgrim guide were identified by Röhricht, who dated its compilation to c.1175.100 An edition based on two of these manuscripts, those in Munich101 and Salzburg102 respectively, was published by W.A. Neumann in 1874.103 Subsequently G. Golubovich edited another version existing in a codex copied by Felice Feliciano in Verona in March 1458.104 Golubovich attributed the compilation of the Verona text to the early thirteenth century, largely on the basis of its reference to the coronation of Levon I of Armenia (in January 1198) as having only recently occurred.105 This reference, however, occurs in the second part of the text, which represents another text altogether, the Tractatus de locis     97   98   99  

Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 254–5. Prawer, Histoire 2, pp. 197–20. Pringle, Churches 2, p. 68. Pringle, Churches 2, p. 121. Pringle, Churches 1, p. 266. 100   Bibliotheca, pp. 40–41, no. 97. 101   Clm. 5362, fol. 157b (15c.). 102   Bibl. St Peter, lat. 234, 7. 103   Tübinger Theologische Quartalschrift (1874), pp. 534–9. 104   Verona, Biblioteca capitolare, 317, fols. 19v–26v. Published in Golubovich, Biblioteca Bio-bibliografica 1, pp. 405–8, no. 115, repr. in IHC 3, pp. 91–9. 105   Golubovich, Biblioteca Bio-bibliografica 1, pp. 405, 407 n.3. 95 96

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et statu sancte terre (and is omitted from the present translation).106 As Kedar has argued, the passage in it referring to Levon I appears to be a secondary addition made to the Tractatus, which should otherwise be dated between 1168 and 1187.107 Thus, while the combination of Anonymous ix with this version of the Tractatus would evidently have occurred after 1198, it was not necessarily soon after. The dating of Anonymous ix should in any case be based on its own internal evidence. Golobovich drew attention to a reference in Anonymous ix to Muslims praying in the Temple precinct, in the place associated with the killing of Zechariah son of Barachiah, and argued that this implied that the author had been writing many years before the definitive return of Muslims to the city around 1240.108 It appears, however, that this passage was derived from a twelfth-century source, for John of Würzburg, writing around 1165, mentions Muslims praying in the same place.109 Other indications in the text, however, do support an early thirteenth-century date for its compilation, most likely in the years when Jerusalem was in Christian hands between 1229 and 1239 (or at the latest 1244). These include the reference to the abbey of St Mary the Great as that of the sisters of Tyre, a name that they acquired only after their move to Acre sometime after 1191,110 and the description of the church of Mount Sion as ‘destroyed’ (devastata). Anonymous x represents a different version of the same text, including some additional elements, excluding others and evidently derived from the same source; it also excludes the Tractatus. It was published by Golobovich from a manuscript in Milan.111 Although he placed it in the second half of the thirteenth century, there appears to be no reason for placing it either earlier or later than Anonymous ix. Both texts have subsequently been reprinted with parallel Italian translations by S. de Sandoli.112 The present translation is based on Golubovich’s editions. 6.  All the Land that the Sultan Retains (c.1239) This text, an edition of which was published by Paul Deschamps,113 comprises a list of the places in the Holy Land that were in the hands of the Ayyubids around 1239 (see Fig. 6). It survives in five manuscript versions, all of which appear to     108   109   110   111   106

Kedar (ed.), ‘Tractatus’, pp. 116–18. Kedar (ed.), ‘Tractatus’, pp. 119–21. Golubovich, Biblioteca Bio-bibliografica 1, p. 406 n.2. Ed. Huygens, CCCM 139, pp. 91–2; cf. Churches 3, p. 405. Pringle, Churches 4, p. 142–3. Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, O.35; cf. Golubovich, Biblioteca Bio-bibliografica 1, pp. 408–10, no. 116, repr. in IHC 3, pp. 101–7. 112   IHC 3, pp. 91–107. 113   ‘Étude sur un texte latin énumérant les possessions musulmans dans le royaume de Jérusalem vers l’année 1239’, Syria 23 (1942–43), 86–104, pls. vii–viii., text repr. in IHC 3, pp. 479–83. 107

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represent copies, with minor variations, of an earlier original. The earliest copy (a), in Latin, dates from the end of the thirteenth century.114 Another (b), dating from the end of the seventeenth century, was first published by E.-G. Rey in 1877.115 Two other Latin copies (c–d) date from the fifteenth century.116 Finally, there is a partial translation into Provençal (e) in the British Library, which Deschamps also published in full.117 The document was evidently composed after 18 February 1229, when Sultan Malik al-Kāmil restored to Emperor Frederick II Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Lydda, Jaffa, Cæsarea, Toron (Tibnīn), Montfort and part of the territory of Sidon, while retaining Belvoir Castle, Mount Tabor, Tiberias, Ṣafad, Beaufort and Transjordan. Similarly, it appears to pre-date the crusade of Tibald IV, count of Champagne and king of Navarre (1239–40), which resulted in the Franks’ reoccupation of Ascalon and the return to them of Beaufort and Ṣafad. The dating of the document may be further narrowed, however, by its mention of certain properties in the lordships of Toron (Tibnīn) and Transjordan as belonging by right to the daughter of ‘Prince Ruben’. The last Frankish lord of Transjordan to have resided in Karak, Reynald of Châtillon, had obtained the lordship through his marriage to the heiress, Stephanie of Milly. Stephanie’s daughter from her previous marriage to Humphrey III of Toron was Isabel, who subsequently married Rupen III, prince of Armenia (1175–87). Their daughter, Alice, outlived her brother, Humphrey IV of Toron (d. 1198), and, after the return of Toron to Frankish hands by Sultan Malik al-Kāmil in February 1229, she was invested with it by the emperor Frederick II in April of the same year.118 She is last mentioned, as ‘princess and lady of Toron,’ in Acre on 10 August 1236.119 The daughter of ‘Prince Ruben’ mentioned in the document, however, is referred to as a ‘young lady’ (domicella). She may therefore be identified with Alice’s grand-daughter, Maria, the daughter of her son, Raymond Rupen, who was prince of Antioch from 1216 to 1219. The document should therefore date sometime after August 1236, when Maria inherited the lordships from her grandmother, and before 1240, when she married Philip of Montfort. As Deschamps suggests, a likely context for its composition would have been the eve of the crusade of September 1239, when it may have served as a list of the places whose return the crusaders had it in mind to demand in the event of a successful military outcome.120

  University of Leiden, Voss., lat. fol. 31, fols. 221v–222.   Paris, BN, Ms. lat. 8.985, pp. 235–6. Published in Rey, Recherches, pp. 15–17 116   Paris, BN, Supplément lat., 17.522, f.83; St Paul, Carinthia, Stiftsbibl., 114 115

unnumbered, fols. 91v–92. 117   BL, Egerton, 1500, fols. 66v–67. 118   TOT, 54, no. 66; RRH, 263-4, no. 1003; cf. Edbury, Philip of Novara, p. 325. 119   TOT, 66–7, no. 84; RRH, 280, no. 1073. 120   ‘Étude’, pp. 92–3.

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7. Geoffrey of Beaulieu op: The Pilgrimage of Louis IX from Acre to Nazareth (March 1251) The Dominican Geoffrey of Beaulieu accompanied King Louis IX as his confessor on his crusade of 1248–54. The pilgrimage to Nazareth was made for the feast of the Annunciation in March 1251, when Louis was in Acre having been released from captivity in Egypt the previous May.121 Geoffrey began writing his life of St Louis at the request of Pope Gregory X in 1272, two years after the king’s death in Carthage; but after his own death in January 1273 or 1274, it was completed by his fellow friar, William of Chartres. The manuscript remained in the Dominican house in Fécamp and was first published in an edition of Joinville’s Life of St Louis in 1617.122 The present extract has been translated from the text in the Acta Sanctorum.123 8. Greek Anonymous i: A Partial Account of the Holy Places of Jerusalem (1253–54) This text survives in an early sixteenth-century paper codex in the National Library in Naples.124 An edition of it was published by A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus in 1895, with a Russian translation by Gabriel S. Destuny.125 A German translation was also published by Andreas Külzer in 1994.126 The present translation is made from the Greek edition. Although it is written in a somewhat abbreviated and at times confused manner, the text takes the form of a pilgrimage guide, which appears to be based on an actual journey. Although the beginning is missing, what remains describes the journey from Antioch to Damascus, Tiberias, Mount Tabor and Nazareth, and then through Samaria to Jerusalem. After describing the places in and around Jerusalem, the itinerary continues to Jericho and nearby sites. It then jumps to Lydda and Gaza, from which it proceeds to Raythou in Sinai, St Catherine’s monastery and Alexandria, where it ends. It may be assumed that there the pilgrim would have taken ship back for wherever it was that he had started out from. A particular feature of the text is the brief chronology with which it ends, setting out the dates of certain events since the foundation of the world. This includes mention of the emperors   Richard, Saint-Louis, p. 252; Prawer, Histoire 2, pp. 343–4.   S. de Sandoli, in IHC 4, p. 103; Monfrin, Joinville, p. cxxv. 123   Vita S. Ludovici francorum regis 4.38, in AA SS, Aug. 5 (Paris 1868), col. 550, 121 122

repr. in IHC 4, pp. 104–5. 124   Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, III.13.27, fols. 174r–80r. A copy of this was also found among the papers of the Comte de Riant after his death in 1888: see de Vogüé, ‘Le comte Riant’, p. 14. 125   Pravoslavnyi Palestinskii Sbornik 40 (St Petersburg). 126   Peregrinatio graeca in Terram Sanctam, pp. 305–12, cf. pp. 41–2.

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John III Doukas Vatatzes, emperor of Nicæa (1221–54), and his son and successor, Theodore II Doukas Laskaris (1254–58), and gives a final date of Anno Mundi 6762. This establishes the date of composition as AD 1253–54, during the joint reign of John III and Theodore II, besides suggesting that the empire of Nicæa and its port of Smyrna may well have been the pilgrim’s point of departure. 9.  Matthew Paris: Itinerary from London to Jerusalem (1250–59) Three slightly different versions of Matthew Paris’s map of Acre and the Holy Land occupy two facing folios at the front of each of the three volumes of his Chronica Majora, following in each case an illustrated strip-map of the route from London to southern Italy. The maps to volumes one and two (texts c and d) of the chronicle are now in the Parker Library in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,127 while that to volume three (b)128 and a late sixteenth- to early seventeenth-century copy of it (a)129 are housed in the British Library. The British Library also contains a near-contemporary, though fire-damaged, copy of the map from volume one.130 Although doubt has been raised as to whether the strip-map and the Acre map were originally intended to represent together an itinerary from London to the Holy Land, stylistic links between them suggest that they were and that their physical juxtaposition in the volumes was deliberate.131 Most of the Holy Land map is taken up by a diagrammatic representation of Acre, around which are placed other places in the Holy Land, but without any attempt at consistency of scale. Like most medieval maps of the Holy Land, east is to the top. Much of the space on the folios, however, is taken up with lengthy geographical captions and explanations, written mostly in French but also partly in Latin. In volume three the captions are shorter and contain proportionally more Latin than the others; the depiction of Acre is also more accurate, suggesting that it may be earlier than the other two.132 The maps and texts are in Matthew’s own hand and appear to be his own work. P.D.A. Harvey and others have identified various factors that seem to indicate a date of composition between 1250 and 1259:     129   130   127

Cambridge, Corpus Christi Ms. 26, fols. 3v–4r (c), Ms. 16, fols. 2v–5r (d). London, BL, Ms. Roy. 14.C.vii, fols. 4v–5r (b). London, BL, Lansdowne Ms. 253, fols. 230v–231r (a). London, BL, Cotton Ms., Tiberius e.vi, fols. 3v–4r. On the manuscripts, see Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, pp. xxii–xxiv; Harvey, ‘Matthew Paris’s Maps of Palestine’, pp. 169–77. Further discussion is forthcoming in Harvey, Maps of the Crusaders’ Holy Land. 131   Harvey, ‘Matthew Paris’s Maps of Palestine’, pp. 170–71; Connolly, ‘Imagined Pilgrimage’. 132   Harvey, ‘Matthew Paris’s Maps of Palestine’, p. 171. The speculative suggestion by Connolly, Maps of Matthew Paris, pp. 173–91, that it is later and by a different hand seems very questionable. 128

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• The Tower of the Pisans (La tur de pisanz) in Acre is probably the ‘new’ Pisan tower, first mentioned in 1249.133 • The inclusion of al-Manṣūra (La Masceir) probably recalls the battle of 1250. • The caption relating to Armenia parallels the description given by Armenian visitors to St Albans in 1252 and included in the Chronica Majora.134 • Matthew died in 1259. Harvey also remarks that a date between 1250 and 1259 accords with the likely dating of the volumes of the chronicle itself, the third part of which (from 1254 onwards) is tacked on to the end of Matthew’s abridged Historia Anglorum, which was begun in 1250.135 It may be noted in addition that the reference to the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad in the volume-one and volume-two maps would suggest a date before 1258, when Baghdad fell to the Mongols, while the reference to friction between the ‘caliph’ of Egypt and the Muslim rulers of areas to the east also points to the period of strife between the coming to power of the Mamluks in Egypt in 1250 and their conquest of Palestine and Syria from the Ayyubids in 1260. Various photographic reproductions of the three maps have been published.136 The present translation of the texts from the part of the map representing the Holy Land is based on the edition by Michelant and Raynaud, in which the texts from the volume-one map (c) and the volume-three copy (a) were presented in parallel, with variations in versions b and d noted below.137 Here, however, the original volume-three text (b) is used for the principal text, rather than the copy (a). 10.  The Ways and Pilgrimages of the Holy Land (1244–65) This text is closely related to ‘The Holy Pilgrimages’ [4], but differs from it in sufficient detail to justify presenting it in its entirety here. It exists in two versions: a fourteenth-century Provençal copy in the Vatican Library (a);138 and a fifteenthcentury English copy in Norman French in Cambridge (b).139 Editions of both versions have been published by Michelant and Raynaud under the title, Les chemins et les Pelerinages de la Terre Sainte.140     135   136   133

Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, pp. 25–6. RS 57.3, pp. 161–4 and 57.5, pp. 340–41. Harvey, ‘Matthew Paris’s Maps of Palestine’, p. 171. See ‘Sources’ below, and especially Harvey, Maps of the Crusaders’ Holy Land (forthcoming). 137   Itinéraires, pp. 123–39. 138   Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, 3136, fols. 19–25. 139   Cambridge University Library, Gg vi, 28, fols. 52a–57a. 140   In Itinéraires, pp. 177–99, repr. with Italian translation in IHC 4, pp. 58–79. 134

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Like ‘The Holy Pilgrimages’, both versions of ‘The Ways and Pilgrimages’ present two separate pilgrim itineraries starting from Acre: one leads through Galilee and back again to Acre, while the other leads to Jerusalem by the coastal route and returns through Samaria and Galilee, though it ends abruptly at Mount Tabor. In ‘The Ways and Pilgrimages’, however, the order is reversed. Both versions therefore begin with the itinerary to Jerusalem through the Sharon Plain and Ramla. Like ‘Holy Pilgrimages’, they tell the reader how to enter Jerusalem correctly and to visit the Holy Places in the correct order. When it comes to the places round about Jerusalem, however, such as the road to the Jordan through Bethany and Jericho (including its continuation to Sinai) and the way to Hebron via Bethlehem and back through ‘Ayn Karim and Emmaus (Abū Ghosh), the two versions differ considerably in their ordering of the places mentioned. Both versions then take the pilgrim back towards Acre through Samaria as far as Mount Tabor. However, while version b continues from there with a tour around Galilee and back to Acre, version a stops at Mount Tabor with the words, ‘Now we shall leave off speaking of the Holy Places of Jerusalem and of the places round about it.’ A final section then presents a separate itinerary through Galilee, beginning from and ending in Acre, similar to the first part of ‘Holy Pilgrimages’. To this are added some brief words about the pilgrimage from Acre through Damascus to Saydnaya (Sardenay), and the one northwards to Tortosa (Ṭarṭūs). Riant proposed, on internal evidence, to date version a before 1265, when Arsūf and Cæsarea fell to Baybars. Version b he dated after 1268, because unlike version a it does not refer to Jaffa as the residence of a count, reflecting, as he saw it, its capture by Baybars on 7 March 1268.141 It may perhaps be possible, however, to narrow the dating a little. In the case of version a, the following may be noted: • The statement that Pilgrims’ Castle was (ffu) a Templar possession could suggest a date after its fall to the Mamluks on 30 July 1291; but this must be a later copyist’s alteration, since the text goes on to say that St Euphemia lies there in the present tense. • Cæsarea is described as belonging to a baron of the kingdom. John Laleman, the last lord of Cæsarea to be recorded before the town and castle fell to Baybars on 5 March 1265, is last mentioned in 1257. His son, Hugh, was described as the ‘heir of Cæsarea’ when he was killed after falling from his horse in 1264; but this does not necessarily mean that his father was still alive then, as Hugh could still have been a minor and due to inherit when he came of age. John’s other two sons, however, Nicolas (died 1277 or soon afterwards) and Thomas, both subsequently inherited the title, even though by that time there was little left of the lordship.142   In Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, pp. xxvii–xxviii.   Hazard, ‘Caesarea and the Crusades’, pp. 88, 100, cf. La Monte, ‘Lords of

141 142

Caesarea’, pp. 158–60.

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• Arsūf is described as belonging to the Hospital. This indicates a date between 1 May 1261, when the Hospital acquired it, and 30 April 1265, when it fell to Baybars. • Jaffa still appears to be in Christian hands, with a count, suggesting a date before it fell to Baybars on 7 March 1268. • Muslims are recorded praying in the Dome of the Rock, suggesting a date after 1244. • The church of St Mary of Mount Sion had been destroyed. In the case of version b, the following indications of date occur: • Pilgrims’ Castle is described as belonging to the Templars, indicating a date between 1217–18 and August 1291. • Cæsarea and its district are still in Christian hands and the town intact, indicating a date before 5 March 1265. • Jaffa and its castle are still intact, suggesting a date before 7 March 1268. Although the count is not mentioned as in version a, it is referred to as a county. The reference to the Tower of the Patriarch also indicates a date after 1225–39. • The mosque referred to in Ramla was probably the White Mosque, whose restoration was begun by Saladin in 1190 and completed by Baybars in 1267–68. • The reference to the battle of Harbiyyā (La Forbie) indicates a date after 17 October 1244. • The church of the Annunciation in Nazareth is still standing, suggesting a date before its demolition by Baybars in April 1263.143 • Saphet of the Germans is described as being destroyed. This destruction may possibly have occurred during the raids on Acre in April 1263 by Badr al-Dīn Aydamurī and Baybars, which preceded the destruction of Nazareth.144 Taken together these pieces of evidence might therefore suggest a date of composition for version a between 1 May 1261 and 30 April 1265, and for version b between 17 October 1244 and April 1263, perhaps in April 1263 itself. It is important to remember, however, that the termini ante quos that may be adduced assume that the compiler would have been aware of recent developments in the Holy Land, such as the destruction of the church in Nazareth, and would have reported them had he known of them: such assumptions are not necessarily justifiable in every case. Michelant and Raynaud also published under the title Les pelerinaiges por aler en Iherusalem, another guide for pilgrims to Jerusalem and Galilee.145 This   Pringle, Churches 2, p. 121.   Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 10–11. 145   Itinéraires, pp. 87–103. 143 144

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is found at the end of a thirteenth-century manuscript of a French translation and continuation of William of Tyre’s chronicle up to 1275, copied in Rome in May 1295 (text p).146 An earlier edition of this by the marquis de Vogüé, in 1860, included interpolations from the Rothelin Continuation of William of Tyre, which render it of dubious historical value.147 Another fuller version of the same text also appears in a fourteenth-century manuscript, tacked on to a secular work, the Livre de la fontaine de toute science (text v).148 This text is essentially the same as version a of ‘The Ways and Pilgrimages’, with some additions and some omissions, suggesting that they are both descended from a common stem rather than one being copied from the other. Riant dated the text of Les pelerinaiges around 1231, roughly the same period as the chronicle of Ernoul and Bernard the Treasurer.149 Like ‘The Ways and Pilgrimages’ it certainly appears to be based on a text belonging to the period between 1229 and 1239, when Jerusalem was in Christian hands, and like other texts of that period it also contains earlier material, such as the descriptions of the Temple area, that was probably derived from twelfth-century sources; however, other indications, which Riant dismissed as the additions of later copyists, suggest a date of compilation in the 1260s. These include the same indications of date that are listed above for version a of ‘Ways and Pilgrimages’. The v text, however, states that Arsūf is in the hands of the Hospitallers, suggesting a date for it between 1 May 1261 and 30 April 1265, while the p text says the same in the past tense, indicating a date after 30 April 1265. In addition, both texts say that Mount Tabor belongs to the Benedictines and text v adds a description of the church suggesting that it was still intact. Like the reference to St Mary Latin being in the hands of the Benedictines (which is also found in ‘Ways and Pilgrimages’), this is probably an uncorrected anachronism derived from an exemplar from the 1230s or earlier, since the Benedictines transferred Mount Tabor to the Hospitallers on 1 April 1255 and Baybars destroyed the church there in April 1263. Allowing the same reservations about dating as for ‘Ways and Pilgrimages’, text v may therefore perhaps have been compiled between 1261 and 1263 and text p between 1265 and 1268, both of them, in other words, around the time of Baybars’ conquests. In the present translation, versions a and b of ‘The Ways and Pilgrimages’ from the edition of Michelant and Raynaud are presented in parallel, with additions to version a from Les pelerinaiges included in the footnotes.

146   Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 9082 (anc. supp. fr. 104, Noailles), fols. 343a–435a; cf. Folda, Crusader Manuscript Illumination, p. 203; Edbury, ‘The French Translation’, p. 97, no. F77. In RHC Occ 2, this is referred to as g. 147   de Vogüé, Les églises de la Terre Sainte, pp. 444–51. 148   Vienna, Bibl. Imp. R., 2590 (Eug., f. 122), fols. 96a–99a. 149   Itinéraires, pp. xix–xx.

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11.  Pilgrimages and Pardons of Acre (1258–63) This text is represented by a single fourteenth-century manuscript in AngloNorman French now in the British Library.150 It comprises two parts. The first, Pelrinages, is essentially a condensed version of the pilgrimage guide to the Holy Land presented above as ‘The Ways and Pilgrimages’ [10]. It takes the pilgrim from Acre down the coast to Ramla and then up to Jerusalem by way of the road passing through Bayt Nūbā, al-Qubayba and Nabi Ṣamwīl. From Jerusalem the route leads on to Jericho and the place of Baptism; but it stops there, as the route onwards through Transjordan to Sinai was at this time closed to travellers. The itinerary therefore returns to Jerusalem to continue the circuit south to Bethlehem and Hebron, then back to the city by way of the Monastery of the Cross and ‘Ayn Karim. After this, the pilgrim is taken back to Acre through Samaria, visiting Mount Tabor, Tiberias and Nazareth en route. Tacked on to the end is a brief description of another itinerary north from Acre to Tyre, Sidon and Beirut. Of the pilgrimages to Sinai and Saydnaya the author says nothing, ‘for the journeys are difficult and the ways long.’ The writer gives very few clues as to the date of compilation of the first part of the text, though its close relationship to ‘The Ways and Pilgrimages’ and Les pelerinaiges suggests sometime in the 1260s as being most likely. The description of the route to Jerusalem and back, despite its abbreviated form, is closer to version a of ‘The Ways’, though the ending, from Mount Tabor onwards, is similar to version b. It differs from both versions, however, in two respects. First, it identifies Biblical Emmaus with al-Qubayba on the northerly road up to Jerusalem, rather than Abū Ghosh on the southerly road through Bāb al-Wād. This shift in identification was not immediately taken up by all writers of geographical or pilgrimage texts, but it came to be more securely established over the following centuries because the road from Ramla to Jerusalem through al-Qubayba was more frequented by pilgrims and other travellers than the other possible routes. The second change is the closure of the route to Sinai through Transjordan. This is probably to be connected with the coming to power of the Mamluks in Egypt from 1250 onwards and their progressive ousting of the Ayyubids from control of Palestine and Syria, which was finally achieved after the defeat of the Mongol army at ‘Ayn Jālūt in 1260.151 After that time Christian pilgrims travelling from Palestine to Sinai normally went through Gaza, al-‘Arīsh and the oases to the south of it. While this gives an approximate terminus post quem for the date of compilation, termini ante quos may be provided by the account of the church on Mount Tabor as if it was still standing, which suggests – though with the usual caveats – a date before its destruction in April 1263, and the reference to the stone of St James in Jaffa, which would not have been visible after Baybars’ destruction of the castle and church in March 1268.   BL, Harl. 2253, fols. 68b–70b.   Holt, Age of the Crusades, pp. 82–9.

150 151

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The second part of the text, Pardouns d’Acre, sets out a list of the indulgences – or numbers of days or years of remission from purgatory – that could be obtained by visiting some forty churches or hospitals in the city of Acre. As David Jacoby has demonstrated,152 the list actually represents a tour (see Fig. 7), beginning at the church of St Nicolas in the main cemetery west of the city and proceeding into the old city, most likely through the Gate of the Pilgrims (Turris peregrinorum) facing St Nicolas. From there it proceeds through the eastern part of the old city and the Venetian, Genoese and Pisan quarters to the Templars at the south-western side of the promontory. It then returns northward up the western shore to St Michael’s church near the old city wall, before moving east to the Hospitallers’ conventual buildings and hospital. Then, leaving the old city, probably through the Gate of Our Lady, it proceeds to St Giles in the walled suburb of Montmusard and from there in a clockwise direction up the western shore to St Lazarus and St Thomas of Canterbury at the north end, then south alongside the city wall to St Antony and the Franciscans in the suburb’s south-eastern corner. The remaining sites, the Magdalene sisters, St Denys and St George, lay west of there, near St Giles where the circuit of Montmusard began. As Riant noted, the compilation of the Pardouns must have been made after the foundation of the hospital of St Martin in 1254.153 Jacoby also argues that it most probably also post-dated the War of St Sabas, which ended in 1258, since the impoverished state of the Genoese church of St Laurence seems to be reflected in its indulgence of only forty days, whereas the Venetian church of St Mark and the Pisan one of St Peter each offered indulgences of five years.154 As for a terminus ante quem, Jacoby suggests that it should predate 1264, when the hospital of St Brigid was first mentioned as an existing institution;155 but there is no logical reason why that should necessarily be the case, since St Brigid’s evidently already existed before 1264 and it probably continued to exist until 1291. Indeed, Riant suggested a date of c.1280 for the text on the grounds that the level of prosperity illustrated by the number of pilgrimages favoured a date closer to 1291.156 This argument too is unconvincing, since almost all the churches listed are known from other sources to have existed by the 1260s. In any case, since the purpose of granting indulgences to churches was usually to boost their economic resources, the picture presented by the Pardouns is just as likely to be a reflection of straitened circumstances as of prosperity.157 The dating of the Pardouns is therefore consistent with that of the Pelrinages, between 1258 and 1263. Although most likely originating as separate   ‘Pilgrimage in Crusader Acre’, pp. 108–11, cf. Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 16–18,

152

fig. 3.

    155   156   157  

Riant, in Michelant and Raydaud, Itinéraires, pp. xxx–xxxi. Jacoby, ‘Pilgrimage in Crusader Acre’, pp. 111–12. Jacoby, ‘Pilgrimage in Crusader Acre’, p. 111. Riant, in Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, p. xxxi. On the Latin church’s economic difficulties in the thirteenth century, see Hamilton, Latin Church, pp. 282–309. 153 154

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compositions, they form a complementary pair of texts, guiding the pilgrim to the sites to be visited from Acre and inside the city itself. The present translation is based on the edition published by Michelant and Raynaud in 1882.158 12.  Friar Maurice ofm: Journey to the Holy Land (1271–73) Friar Maurice was a Franciscan of the convent of Bergen in Norway. In 1271 he accompanied Andrew Nicolasson on crusade to the Holy Land, leaving Selsey on 17 January and sailing west of Britain and Ireland to the straits of Gibraltar and then to Marseilles. From there the fleet sailed to Sardinia, Sicily and Rhodes, before following the coast of Asia Minor to Port St Simeon, the port of Antioch, and the Syrian coast to Acre. Andrew Nicolasson died in 1273, probably on the return voyage. After his own return, Friar Maurice undertook a diplomatic mission to Scotland in 1281 to negotiate the marriage between Princes Margaret and Prince Eric of Norway. His account of his travels was written after that, when he had returned home.159 Friar Maurice’s account of his voyage survives in a manuscript in the State Archive of Norway in Oslo.160 It was published by Gustav Storm in 1880.161 The text contains two lacunae, one at the beginning and one in the middle. Of the two surviving fragments, the first covers the voyage around the coast of Spain from Cape St Vincent to Cartagéna and thence to Marseilles and Sardinia, where it breaks off. The second describes Ṭarṭūs in the county of Tripoli, and ends there. It is clear, however, that Friar Maurice had come to Ṭarṭūs from Acre, apparently overland, and was to return there. The journey between Acre and Ṭarṭūs would therefore have already been described and it is particularly unfortunate that it is missing. The present translation is based on the edition by Storm. 13.  Burchard of Mount Sion op: Description of the Holy Land (1274–85) The description of the Holy Land by Burchard of Mount Sion is the most detailed such account to have come down to us from the thirteenth century. Its popularity in later centuries is also attested by the survival of over a hundred manuscripts   In Itinéraires, pp. 227–36, repr. with Italian trans. in IHC 4, pp. 109–17.   Riant, Expéditions et pèlerinages des Scandinaves, pp. 72, 357–8, 412; Golubovich,

158 159

Biblioteca Bio-Bibliografica 1, pp. 279–80; de Sandoli, in IHC 4, p. 85. 160   Ms. 29 (c.1300), fols. 139–144; cf. Röhricht, Bibliotheca Geographica, p. 55, no. 139. 161   Monumenta Historiae Norvegiæ, pp. 165–8, repr. in Golubovich, Biblioteca BioBibliografica 2, pp. 413–15, repr. with an Italian trans. in IHC 4, pp. 88–93.

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and the appearance between 1475 and 1746 of some twenty printed editions of it. Translations of it were also printed in French in 1488, in German in 1534, and in Dutch in 1717.162 Burchard’s description appears in two different recensions. One of these (the ‘short version’) takes the form of a private letter, apparently accompanied by a map (tabula) on parchment, addressed by Burchard of Mount Sion to Brother Burchard, lector of the Preaching Friars in Magdeburg. This recension is represented by three manuscripts in the University Library in Wroclaw (Breslau) and others in Melk, Regensburg (Ratisbon) and Rome.163 An edition of it by H. Canisius was published in 1604;164 and, in 1879, a new reading based on Canisius’ edition, the Melk manuscript and others in Vienna and Uppsala was prepared by W.A. Neumann and circulated in printed form in preparation for a new edition, which never materialized.165 This version not only names the writer, but also includes passages that betray his German origins and his connections with Magdeburg. The distance from Acre to Nazareth, for instance, is described as being comparable to that from Magdeburg to Barby, and Jerusalem is described as being much longer than the old city of Magdeburg. J.C.M. Laurent even raised the possibility that Burchard might have been one of the counts of Barby, among whom Burchard was a common name,166 while R. Röhricht added the suggestion that he might have been sent to the Holy Land by Rudolf I of Germany (1273–91).167 That Burchard was a Dominican is indicated by rubrics and colophons added by later copyists,168 while his scholarship is evident from his own writing. Indeed, although the manuscript source for it is uncertain, the text of the edition published in Lübeck in 1475 begins: ‘I, Burchard, the least of professors of holy scripture, have examined as much as I can that land, which I frequently traversed on foot as much as I could.’169 Many historians have asserted that Burchard was named ‘of Mount Sion’ because he had stayed for a long time at the monastery of Mount Sion in Jerusalem,   Röhricht, Bibliotheca Geographica, pp. 56–60, no. 143; Laurent, Peregrinatores, pp. 5–18. 163   Described in Laurent, Peregrinatores, pp. 6–11, nos. 3–5, 17, 22–3; Röhricht, Bibliotheca Geographica, pp. 56–7. BL Add. Ms. 15835 also represents the short version (information kindly supplied by P.D.A. Harvey). 164   Canisius, Antiquae lectiones 4, Ingolstadt (1604), pp. 295–322, repr. ed. J. Basnage, Thesaurus monumentorum ecclesiasticorum et historicorum, sive, H. Canisii Lectiones antiquae 4, Antwerp (1725), pp. 1–26. 165   Societé de l’Orient Latin, Burchardus de Monte Sion, Liber de Descriptione Terre Sancte: Textus Conferendus [1879], pp. 92–117. 166   Peregrinatores, pp. 3–4. 167   Die Deutschen, p. 129, cf. Graboïs, ‘Christian Pilgrims’, p. 288 n.15. 168   E.g. Mss. in Hamburg, Florence, Melk and Oxford listed by Laurent, Peregrinatores, pp. 6–9, nos. 2, 12, 17, 18. 169   Laurent, Peregrinatores, pp. 4, 11. 162

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and some have stated that he wrote his book there;170 but there is no evidence to support either assertion. In any case, the Augustinian abbey of St Mary of Mount Sion no longer existed after 1187, when the canons left, finally settling in Acre; and although in later centuries the Franciscans were able to recolonize some of the former abbey buildings and to add others, their presence on Mount Sion is not recorded before 1309 and their first conventual buildings were established only in the 1330s.171 Around 1288–91, the Dominican Riccoldo of Monte Croce mentions a former Dominican house near Mount Sion, probably below it in the Hinnom Valley; but this does not seem to have been occupied after 1244.172 A more plausible explanation put forward by Laurent is that ‘of Mount Sion’ was Burchard’s Dominican agnomen, replacing his original family name.173 That this name may indeed have been Barby is possibly suggested by a sixteenth-century manuscript in Hamburg, which names him as Brother Borchard de Berghe.174 The other recension of Burchard’s description (the ‘long version’) includes everything that is found in the short version together with a great deal more geographical detail. Laurent argued that Burchard had written the short version while he was still in the East and that the long version represents an expanded version of it made after his return home.175 Recent analysis of both texts by Professor P.D.A. Harvey, however, has resulted in a convincing case being made for regarding the short version simply as a précis of the longer one and secondary to it.176 The long version, which should therefore be regarded as the earlier of the two recensions, is represented by manuscripts in Hamburg, Basel, Florence, Oxford and Turin and by J.C.M. Laurent’s edition, published in 1864.177 The latter, however, was based on only three manuscripts: one of around 1400 from St Peter’s church library in Hamburg; a sixteenth-century copy, also in Hamburg;178 and a third in Berne, apparently thirteenth century but in a very fragmentary condition.179 Laurent also consulted the three fifteenth-century manuscripts in Wroclaw (Breslau), though it remains unclear what use he made of them in his

  Stewart, Burchard of Mount Sion, p. iii; Graboïs, ‘Christian Pilgrims’, p. 290; de Sandoli, in IHC 4, p. 119. 171   Pringle, Churches 3, p. 269 and 4, p. 158. 172   Pringle, Churches 3, p. 92. 173   Laurent, Peregrinatores, p. 3. 174   Laurent, Peregrinatores, p. 6. 175   Laurent, Peregrinatores, pp. 3–4, 10–11. 176   Harvey, Maps, ch. 9. I am grateful to Professor Harvey for allowing me to read and refer to the relevant sections of his book prior to publication. 177   Peregrinatores Medii Aevi Quatuor (Leipzig 1864, repr. 1873), pp. 1–100. The Mss. are described on pp. 5–10, nos. 1–2, 6, 12–13, 18, 24. 178   Hamburg, Stadtbibliotek, Cod. Geog., 18, fols. 27ff., and 59, fols. 10–71; cf. Laurent, Peregrinatores, pp. 5–6, Rohricht, Bibliotheca Geographica, p. 56. 179   Berne, 46 fol. 170

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edition since they represent the short version.180 The present translation, like that of Aubrey Stewart, published by the Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society in 1896,181 is based on Laurent’s edition. Burchard’s book, as represented by the earlier, longer version, is not so much an itinerary as a description of biblical geography, related as far as possible to contemporary actuality on the basis, in part at least, of his own firsthand experience. In his introduction he explains that he had frequently passed through the land on foot and that he had included nothing that he had not seen for himself, even if only from a distance, or had learnt from conversations with local Syrian Christians or Muslims. To have travelled on foot to all the places that he describes must have taken him more than a year and this is corroborated by his few references to feast days. He says, for instance, that he was at al-Ṭābgha on the feast of St Augustine (28 August) and again the following Annunciation Day (25 March). He also celebrated mass a number of times in Nazareth, including on the feast of the Annunciation itself, which would evidently not have been in the same year that he was in al-Ṭābgha on that day. He spent a third Annunciation Day with the Armenian catholicus in Armenian Cilicia, presumably in Sis. Burchard’s method for setting out his description is singular. He takes Acre as the ‘centre’, even though it is on the western edge of the Holy Land. From it he draws four lines to the cardinal points and then divides each quarter into three, making twelve divisions corresponding to the twelve ‘winds of heaven.’ It is not entirely clear what this means, and there is no map to explain it. It seems, however, that the description was meant to be read using a diagram or map. One manuscript is even accompanied by one, dated to the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century, though it has no divisions marked on it and it is uncertain how it relates – if at all – to any map known to Burchard.182 Other surviving maps mirror his description closely and repeat the same errors, such as placing Dothan and Bethulia near the sea of Galilee and portraying the Kishon brook extending from the Mediterranean to the Jordan. These include two in Florence, one dating from the twelfth century183

180   Wroclaw (Breslau) University Library, I.F.221, fols. 230–40 (copied 1407); I.F.227, fols. 4–10 (copied 1468); I.F.191, fols. 142–51 (15c.). These were copied by Laurent in Hamburg, Stadtbibliotek, Cod. Geog., 80. 181   Burchard of Mount Sion. a.d. 1280, with geographical notes by C.R. Conder, in PPTS 12, London (1896). Laurent’s edition was also reprinted with an Italian translation by S. de Sandoli in 1984 in IHC 4, pp. 119–219. 182   Bibl. Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 76.56, fols. 97v–98r; cf. Röhricht, ‘Marino Sanuto sen. als Kartograph Palästinas’, pp. 104–5 (no. 26), pl. 7; Delano-Smith, ‘The Intelligent Pilgrim’, p. 118. Professor P.D.A. Harvey kindly informs me, however, that the copy of the long version of the text in BL Add. Ms. 18929 contains a diagram of Burchard’s division of the land at fol. 51r. 183   Bibl. Medicea Laurenziana, Ashburnham, Lib. no. 1882; cf. Röhricht ‘Karten und Pläne, vi’, pp. 177–8, pl. 5.

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and the other from c.1300,184 a fragmentary map in Bruges,185 and the maps with an added grid that accompany Marino Sanudo’s Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis.186 Burchard’s written sources include the Bible, Josephus, Eusebius, Jerome and other early Christian literature, as well as the accounts of some twelfth- and thirteenthcentury travellers, including John of Würzburg, Theoderic, Thietmar and James of Vitry. These he uses critically, balancing what they say against his own experience and correcting them where appropriate. He also occasionally comments on what the sites looked like in his day or to whom they belonged. There are a number of pointers as to when the text was composed. It would have been after the destruction of the church of Mount Tabor in April 1263 and after Sultan Baybars’ conquest of the castles of Ṣafad in July 1266, Beaufort in April 1268, Crac des Chevaliers in February 1271 and Montfort in June 1271. It also post-dated the fourth session of the Second Council of Lyons on 6 July 1274. On the other hand, it would have been before the fall of Marqab on 27 May 1285 and that of Tripoli in April 1289.187 The date of writing should therefore be between July 1274 and May 1285, rather than between 1271 and 1285 as Laurent argued.188 Laurent attempted to narrow the dating further by deducing that the Armenian king whom Burchard visited would have been Levon II (whom he refers to as Leo III), who reigned from 1270 to 1289, and his Mongol suzerain Arghun (1284– 91). He therefore proposed that Burchard would have gone to Armenia in 1283 or 1284, in a period of peace after Levon’s wars against Baybars had come to an end in 1282.189 This is quite possible, though the battle of Ḥimṣ at which Baybars defeated the Mongols and their Armenian and Hospitaller allies took place in September 1281 and peace between the Armenians and Baybars was only made in 1285. Indeed, it is not impossible that Burchard made the journey from Cilicia to Damietta, where his account concludes, as a member of the embassy sent to Cairo to negotiate the terms of the treaty. At one point he specifically mentions having visited the sultan in Cairo and being taken to see the balsam plantations there [13.7]; but whether the sultan in question was Qalā’ūn (1280–90) is not recorded.   Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte nautiche, geografiche e topografiche 4; Röhricht, ‘Karten und Pläne, i’, pp. 8–11, pl. 1. 185   Van de Walle, ‘Deux fragments d’une carte médiévale’. 186   a: London, BL 27376; cf. Prawer, ‘Foreword’, in Marino Sanudo, Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis, p. ix; Röhricht, ‘Marino Sanuto sen. als Kartograph Palästinas’, pp. 84–126, pl. 2 (no. 18). b: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Ms. Vat. Reg. Lat. 548, fols. 141v–142r, cf. Nebenzahl, Maps of the Bible Lands, pp. 42–5, no. 15. 187   The assertion by Graboïs, ‘Christian Pilgrims’, p. 288, that it was written before the death of King Hugh III of Cyprus in 1284 and during the reign of Sultan Qalāwūn (1280–90) appears to be based on a misreading of Laurent, Peregrinatores, p. 4, as Burchard mentions neither ruler by name. 188   Peregrinatores, p. 4. 189   Peregrinatores, p. 91 n.654. 184

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The early years of Levon’s reign, however, were also relatively peaceful and it is equally possible that Burchard went to Cilicia and to Egypt before going to the Holy Land, rather than afterwards. The Mamluks under Baybars I (1260–77) had invaded Armenia in 1266, when Levon himself had been captured and his brother T‘oros killed in battle. They then ravaged the country, sacking the capital, Sis, and imposing crippling terms before withdrawing. Levon was released from captivity in return for a Mamluk ‘amīr captured by the Mongols and, following Het‘um I’s abdication in 1269, he received the throne as a vassal of the Mongol ruler Abaqa (1265–82). Mamluk attacks on Cilicia began again in 1275.190 Burchard could therefore have been there sometime between 1269 and 1275, as Marco Polo was, and have gone to Egypt and Palestine afterwards. Another consideration to bear in mind, however, is that the businesses of trade and pilgrimage often appear to have been less affected by warfare than one might suppose. Thietmar, for instance, makes no mention of the Fifth Crusade, which was going on around him as he travelled through Palestine and Sinai in 1217–18. The date of the recension of Burchard’s text would also have been later than his dates of travel and it is possible that he, or a copyist, took account of historical events that occurred after his return to Europe. The date of the text as suggested by internal evidence would therefore still be 1274–85, even though Burchard could have begun his travels before that. 14.  Philip of Savona ofm: Description of the Holy Land (c.1280–89) Röhricht identified fifteen manuscripts of a description of the Holy Land by a certain Philip dating between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, thirteen of them in Latin and two in Dutch.191 Five of the Latin ones had earlier been used in an edition by W.A. Neumann, published in 1872,192 namely three fourteenthcentury manuscripts from Bruges (b),193 Klosterneuberg (n)194 and Melk (m)195 respectively, and two fifteenth-century ones from Troppau (t)196 and Vienna (v).197 Of these the Bruges text appears to represent a different tradition to the others. More recently the late Fr Sabino de Sandoli published an edition with an Italian translation of another of the manuscripts recognized by Röhricht in Munich (s).198 He also published an unattributed thirteenth-century text, also in Munich, entitled     192   193   194   195   196   197   198   190 191

Der Nersessian, ‘Kingdom of Cilician Armenia’, pp. 653–5. Bibliotheca Geographica, pp. 60–61, no. 145. Neumann, ‘Drei mittelalterliche Pilgerschriften, iii’. Bruges, 243 (14c.). Klosterneuberg, 306, fols. 325–31 (14c.). Melk h17, fols. 259b ff. Troppau Museum, fol. i (15c.). Vienna, Hofbibliothek, 1663, fols. 73b–98a (15c.). Munich, Clm. 18413, fols. 238–52 (15c.), published in IHC 4, pp. 221–54.

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Liber de Civitatibus Terrae Sanctae (l).199 This transpires, however, to be no more than a poorly transcribed copy of the fuller version of the Descriptio that appears in the Bruges manuscript, but with the last part missing. The translation presented here is based on Neumann’s edition, with additional or alterative readings noted from the two Munich texts (l and s) where appropriate. The Philip whose name appears in a number of the manuscripts was identified by Röhricht with the Franciscan, Philip Busserius (or Brusserius), otherwise known as Philip of Savona. Details of Philip Busserius’ life are somewhat hazy, though parts of a lost Franciscan chronicle of 1351 quoted by Giovanni Battista Galenni in 1669 and by other seventeenth-century writers provide some clues. He appears to have been born of noble parentage in Savona around 1260 and on his death there in October 1340 he was buried in the Franciscan church, which he and his family had patronized. As a young man, after entering the Franciscan order he had studied and taught in Paris and was a contemporary of St Louis of Toulouse (1274–97) and Brother Nicolas of Lyra (c.1270–1349). Papal letters show that in August 1301 he was at the court of Boniface VIII in Anagni soliciting papal support for a new crusade that was being organized in Genoa against the Mamluks of Egypt and in support of the Syrian campaign of the Mongol il-khan, Maḥmūd Ghazan (1295–1304). On 28 June 1306, Clement V also wrote from Bordeaux to Philip of Savona and to Porchetto Spinola, the archbishop of Genoa, directing them to procure a treaty between Genoa and Henry II of Cyprus; and on 2 July he responded to them concerning letters that had been sent requesting assistance for the kingdom of Armenia by promising money and encouraging the Armenian catholicus, Gregory VII, the king, He‘tum II, and the princes to await the forthcoming crusade. The 1351 chronicle quoted by Galenni asserts that Philip acted as an ambassador to many princes on behalf of Clement V (1305–1314) and John XXII (1316–34). Finally he was sent to the sultan of Babylon [Cairo] for the purpose of recovering the Holy Land, which he precisely surveyed, described and represented in pictures before the eyes of the High Pontiff and other Christian princes, who were striving to retake it; and he set out the various ways in which it could be conquered for the Christians, which are clearly comprehended in the book that he compiled, called ‘The Mirror of the Holy Land’ (Speculum Terræ Sanctæ): and because of these things he was sent by the High Pontiff with great authority over the Genoese fleet.200

It is uncertain exactly when Philip of Savona visited the Holy Land or how many missions he undertook to the East. The papal letters and chronicle cited above 199   Munich, Clm. 14731, fols. 84–93 (13c.), published in IHC 4, pp. 340–67; cf. Röhricht, Bibliotheca Geographica, p. 64, no. 170. 200   From the 1351 chronicle as reported by Galenni, quoted in Golubovich, Biblioteca Bio-Bibliografica 3, p. 33.

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seem to imply that he had intended participating in the projected Genoese crusade led by Benedetto Zaccaria; but Zaccaria abandoned his earlier objective of taking and fortifying Tripoli or one of the other coastal towns of Syria when he learnt that the pope had forbidden individuals or communes from acquiring possessions on their own account. In 1304, he therefore opted instead for occupying the island of Chios.201 In 1322, Philip of Savona was in Genoa, acting as guardian of the Franciscan convent there. He seems to have spent the last few years of his life in the convent in Savona, where he died. In addition to the Speculum, the 1351 chronicle records him as the author of many chronicles of the Franciscan order and the editor of collections of privileges granted to the order from its beginnings and acts of the general ministers.202 Philip of Savona’s Speculum has not survived and, as Golubovich and Surdich have pointed out,203 it does not seem possible to identify it as the text published by Neumann, which is simply a description of the Holy Land, not a treatise on how to reconquer it. This does not necessarily mean, however, that he could not have been the author of Neumann’s text. Indeed, a number of considerations suggest that to be quite possible. The first of these is the date. Neumann proposed a date of c.1285–91,204 and this appears to be generally supported by the internal evidence. A date before 1291 is indicated by the references to the Hospitallers, Templars and Teutonic Knights still living in the Holy Land and by the descriptions of Pilgrims’ Castle as still in Templar hands and containing the body of St Euphemia, of the Carmelites still occupying St Mary of Carmel, of Origen’s tomb in Tyre, and of Ṭarṭūs and Sidon still apparently in Christian hands. The inclusion of Tripoli among the Christian possessions narrows the date to before April 1289. As for the terminus post quem, the description of the Tower of David, or Jerusalem Citadel, as ‘now destroyed’ indicates a date between its dismantling by Malik al-Nāṣir Dā’ūd of Karak in 1239 and the commencement of its renovation by the Mamluk sultan al-Nāṣir Muḥammad in 710 h/ad 1310–11. The reference to the breaking by the Khwarizmians of the stone that once blocked the door to the Holy Sepulchre indicates a date after 1244. Philip mentions that the Christians had built a church (or monastery) on Mount Tabor, but without indicating whether or not it was still standing; on the other hand he fails to mention the churches at Nazareth and alṬābgha, which Baybars destroyed at the same time as that on Mount Tabor in April 1263. Such evidence is therefore of little help in deciding whether the text should be placed before or after 1263. The absence of any information about who owned Cæsarea, Arsūf or Jaffa, however, would seem generally consistent with a date   Schein, Fideles Crucis, pp. 165–6.   Surdich, ‘Busseri (Brusserio), Filippo’, in Dizionario biografico degli italiani 15,

201 202

pp. 556–7; Golubovich, Biblioteca Bio-Bibliografica 3, pp. 29–36; de Sandoli, IHC 4, pp. 221, 254. 203   See especially Golubovich, Biblioteca Bio-Bibliografica 3, p. 36 204   ‘Drei mitteralterlichten Pilgerschriften’, pp. 5–9.

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after Baybars’ conquests of 1265–8. The internal evidence would therefore seem to suggest a date of compilation between 1268 and 1289. The Philip who wrote the description makes considerable use of descriptions belonging to the family of texts associated with Rorgo Fretellus (1137) and John of Würzburg (c.1165), from whom some sections are directly copied; but he also includes material found in texts of the 1230s onwards, such as that relating to Mount Carmel, Saydnaya and Egypt. His references to the Roman churches of Santo Stefano fuori le Mura and Santa Maria Maggiore and to the relics of St Mary the Egyptian in Blois suggest that he knew or had contacts with Italy and France, but not apparently with Germany of which he says nothing. The argument put forward by Golubovich205 that his failure to identify himself as a frater shows that he was not a Franciscan or Dominican is not entirely convincing, given that even for such a well-known work as that by Burchard of Mount Sion in most of the surviving manuscripts the author is not identified at all. Neumann noticed that the description of the Holy Land included in Marino Sanudo’s Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis, a treatise for the reconquest of the Holy Land first drafted in 1306/09 and presented to Pope John XXII in its expanded form in September 1321,206 draws on Philip’s description in a number of places. He also observed similarities with the Liber de Terra Santa of the Franciscan, Odoric of Friuli (or Pordenone), who dictated his work to his fellow friar, William de Solagna, in Padua in May 1330.207 In fact, although Odoric claimed to have included nothing that he had not seen or heard from reliable sources, his text is virtually identical to the b and l versions of Philip’s description, though it is somewhat more abbreviated and with the anachronisms ironed out. Röhricht’s view that the description was the work of Philip of Savona – rather than a contemporary also called Philip – therefore seems perfectly feasible. It would be logical in any case to expect Philip of Savona’s travels to the Holy Land and his writing of a description of what he found there to have preceded his more politically motivated activities and writings. It is not impossible therefore that he wrote a description of the Holy Land, based on travels undertaken in the 1280s, which he later incorporated into his treatise for reconquering it. While the Speculum itself remains lost, however, there can be no proof either way.

  Biblioteca Bio-Bibliografica 3, p. 36.   Prawer, ‘Foreword’ to Marino Sanudo, Liber, p. vii. For details of similar treatises

205 206

for the recovery of the Holy Land produced between 1274 and c.1330, see Schein, Fideles Crucis, pp. 269–70; Paviot, Projects de croisade. 207   Ed. Laurent, in Peregrinatores, pp. 143–58; Neumann, ‘Drei mitteralterlichten Pilgerschriften’, pp. 3–8.

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15.  Riccoldo of Monte Croce op: Pilgrimage (1288–89) Riccoldo of Monte Croce was born in Florence into the Pennino family of the Porta S. Pietro quarter, originally from the village of Monte Croce. Little is known of his education, save that in the introduction to his Pilgrimage he refers obliquely to the time and labour that he spent before becoming a friar, learning ‘those worldy sciences that people call liberal’. He entered the Dominican convent of S. Maria Novella in 1267 and in 1272 was appointed lector, or teacher, in the Dominican theological school, or Studium generale, in Pisa.208 In 1287 he was in the house in Prato. Among his writings from this period was a commentary on Aristotle’s ‘On Interpretation’ (de Interpretatione), concerning the relationship between logic and language.209 In 1288, Riccoldo turned his back on the academic life of Italy and set out to preach the gospel in the East. Arriving in Acre, he toured the Holy Places of Palestine, including Nazareth, Tiberias, Jerusalem and Jericho, where on 6 January 1289 he witnessed the feast of the Epiphany being celebrated by local Christians at the Jordan. From Jericho he returned to Jerusalem and visited Bethlehem before going back to Acre and proceeding by sea northwards along the coast to Ayas, Mamistra and Tarsus in Cilician Armenia. From there he struck inland and entered Turkish territory, then under control of the Mongols. Travelling north-east through Kayseri, he was in Sivas when news reached him of the fall of Tripoli to the Mamluks on 27 April 1289.210 From Sivas he proceeded to Erzurum, Tabriz, Mosul, and finally Baghdad. It was there that he heard of the fall of Acre on 18 May 1291, the massacre of his fellow friars in the Dominican house and the drowning of the patriarch of Jerusalem, Nicolas of Hanapes.211 He appears to have been in Baghdad during the period of persecution of Christians by Maḥmūd Ghazan from 1295 onwards, if it was then that – as he relates in a letter – he was forced to abandon his habit and live for some time as a camel driver.212 Riccoldo had probably returned to Florence by c.1300. His main writings were composed or brought together soon after this. His Pilgrimage describes his visit to the Holy Land and his subsequent journey overland to Baghdad, including an extensive section on the Mongols and shorter ones on the Turkomans and Kurds, through whose territories he passed. It concludes with substantial sections describing the religious tenets and practices of the Jacobites, Nestorians and Muslims whom he found in Baghdad, followed by two shorter sections on monsters and the Sabian sect. In addition to his Pilgrimage, he re-edited the series of letters on the fall of 208   On the work of the Dominicans of Santa Maria Novella in the East, see Papi, ‘Santa Maria Novella’, pp. 96–101. 209   Kappler, Riccold de Monte Croce, pp. 12–13. 210   Epistolae 2, ed. Röhricht, p. 273, trans. Kappler, p. 221. 211   Epistolae 4, ed. Röhricht, pp. 289–94, trans. Kappler, pp. 243–9. 212   Epistolae 1, ed. Röhricht, p. 268, trans. Kappler, p. 214; Kappler, Riccold de Monte Croce, pp. 13–14, 20.

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Acre that he had written while in Baghdad.213 These works were followed by a more expansive refutation of the Qur‘an, Contra legem Sarracenorum,214 and Ad nationes orientales,215 a kind of handbook for Latin missionaries working in the East, containing further studies on the Nestorians, Jacobites, Jews and Mongols. Poor health prevented Riccoldo from returning to the East. He therefore devoted himself instead to preaching and to working among the poor and unfortunate at home. At various times he served as prior or sub-prior of S. Maria Novella and died in Florence on the eve of All Saints, 1320.216 Röhricht listed seven Latin manuscripts of Riccoldo’s Pilgrimage, besides two in Italian and six in French.217 The edition published by J.C.M. Laurent in 1864 was based on only one of these, a mid-fifteenth-century manuscript in Wolfenbüttel (w), which also contained the itineraries of Odoric of Friuli, William of Boldensele and the Pipino version of Marco Polo’s travels.218 In 1967, however, P. Antoine Dondaine identified another manuscript in Berlin (b).219 In studies published in 1986, E. Panella and J.M. Mérigoux compared this with a manuscript of Contra leges Sarracenorum and Ad nationes orientales which had come originally from Santa Maria Novella but is now in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence. They were able to show that both manuscripts had been produced in the scriptorium of S. Maria Novella, the Pilgrimage and Ad nationes orientales by one copyist and Contra leges Sarracenorum by another. Both, however, contained annotations and revisions, including some in Arabic, by Riccoldo himself, who also wrote the last four pages in his own hand.220 One addition in the Pilgrimage in Riccoldo’s own hand referring the reader to Contra leges Sarracenorum and another made elsewhere by the copyist show that the Pilgrimage was the earlier work.221 The version of the Pilgrimage in the Berlin manuscript, copied under the author’s supervision, differs in a number of respects from the version in the

213   Epistolae, ed. R. Röhricht, in AOL 2.2, pp. 258–96; French trans. Kappler, Ricold de Monte Croce, pp. 207–52. 214   Ed. J.-M. Mérigoux, Memorie domenicane 17 (1986), pp. 60–144. 215   Florence, BN, Conv. soppr. C8.1173, fols. 219r–244r; extracts ed. Dondaine, ‘Ricoldiana’, pp. 162–70. 216   Kappler, Riccold de Monte Croce, pp. 10–12. 217   Röhricht, Bibliotheca Geographica, p. 61–2, no. 148. A French translation was made by Jean Lelong of Ypres in 1351: cf. Kappler, Riccold de Monte Croce, p. 28. 218   Wolfenbüttel, Cod. Weissenburg 40, fols. 73v–94r, ed. Laurent, Peregrinatores, pp. 101–41, repr. in IHC 4, pp. 255–332. 219   Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Lat. 4° 466, fols. 1r–24r, cf. Dondaine, ‘Ricoldiana’; Kappler, Riccold de Monte Croce, p. 22. 220   Mérigoux, ‘L’ouvrage d’un Frère Prêcheur’; Panella, ‘Presentazione’, cf. id., ‘Ricerche’; Kappler, Riccold de Monte Croce, pp. 11, 24–6. 221   Kappler, Riccold de Monte Croce, pp. 24, 190–91, 200–201.

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Wolfenbüttel (w) manuscript and those related to it.222 In particular the latter lack the final two sections on monsters and the Sabians; and the section on the Mongols is more expansive in the Berlin version than in the others. Related to the Berlin version are two manuscripts in Rome (v)223 and Turin (t)224 respectively, the former apparently a parallel version to b rather than a derivative, the latter a sixteenthcentury copy with large sections lacking including the entire description of the Holy Land.225 A new edition of Riccoldo’s Pilgrimage, based principally on the Berlin manuscript and accompanied by a parallel French translation, was published by René Kappler in 1997.226 The present translation is based on this edition, but covers only the first part of Riccoldo’s journey through the Holy Land and Cilicia, as the complete itinerary and letters will appear in another volume in this series. Although Riccoldo’s description of Palestine is primarily devotional in tone, it contains a number of personal observations about the state of the holy sites and how they were being used by local Christians and pilgrims, which are not recorded elsewhere. Riccoldo’s own copy of Burchard of Mount Sion’s Description of the Holy Land still exists in Florence; but there is no evidence of any direct borrowing from it in his own pilgrimage account. It seems likely that he only acquired it after his return from the East.227 16.  These are the Pilgrimages and Places of the Holy Land (13c.) An edition of this anonymous text was first published by W.A. Neumann in 1872, from a manuscript in Vienna (w) considered to be fourteenth century in date.228 Another version of it, from a thirteenth-century manuscript in Venice (v), was published by G. Golubovich in 1918.229 The ordering of the material differs in w from that in v and is indeed somewhat confused; it also omits a certain amount of what is in v, but also includes some additional sentences. The present translation 222   These being: Wolfenbüttel, Weisenburg 41 (mid-15th century), fols. 160v–179r. (x); Paris BN, Lat. 3343 (15th century), fols. 80v–85v (p); Paris BN, Lat. 6225 (15th century), fols. 154r–161v (q); cf. Kappler, Riccold de Monte Croce, p. 23. 223   Rome, Vatican, Barberini, Lat. 2687 (14th century), fols. 1r–12v, cf. Kappler, Riccold de Monte Croce, p. 22. 224   Turin, BN, H.ii.33 f (16th century), fols. 235r–246r, cf. Kappler, Riccold de Monte Croce, p. 22. 225   Kappler, Riccold de Monte Croce, pp. 22–7. 226   Kappler, Riccold de Monte Croce, pp. 36–205. 227   Kappler, Riccold de Monte Croce, pp. 15–16 n.19. 228   Vienna, 352, fols. 97b–98a; Neumann, ‘Drei mittelalterliche Pilgerschriften’, pp. 9–11, cf. Röhricht, Bibliotheca Geographica, p. 98, no. 251. 229   Venice, Manimorte, S. Giorgio, b, 27; Golubovich, Archivium Franciscanum Historicum (Ad Claras Aquas 1918), pp. 559–63, repr. in IHC 4, pp. 333–9.

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is based on v, with additions from w included at the appropriate places (though not necessarily where they appear in w). 17. Greek Anonymous ii: The Places in Jerusalem (c.1250–c.1350) This text survives in a codex in the Vatican Library, which was once the property of Pope Nathaniel.230 The first 36 folios of the codex are fourteenth century in date, while the remaining 318, including the pilgrimage text, are written in a fifteenthcentury hand.231 The text of the guide was first published by Leo Allatius in 1653232 and was reprinted after his edition in 1864 in Patrologia Græca.233 Although the text has been dated by some as late as the mid-fifteenth century,234 R. Röhricht proposed dating it c.1400.235 Frs H. Vincent and F.-M. Abel, however, recorded in the early years of the twentieth century that Greek scholars in Jerusalem were dating it c.1253;236 but in this they were mistaken, for it is now evident that the Greeks to whom they spoke were not referring to this text, but to another anonymous Greek text, which is indeed dated to 1253–54 and had only recently been published in St Petersburg [8]. A number of indications support a dating for Greek Anonymous ii (also known as Anonymus Allatii) in the later thirteenth century, or possibly the fourteenth: • The church of the Holy Sepulchre was still accessible through three doors, one on the west and two on the south, though the external door to Calvary had been blocked. This suggests a date before the early fourteenth century, when access was restricted to just one door on the south.237 • The chapel of the Italians on the north side of the church of the Holy Sepulchre most probably belonged to the Franciscans, who continued to maintain a presence in the church after the sack of Jerusalem in 1244 and were given exclusive rights among the Latins to reside there by Sultan alNāṣir Muḥammad in 1309.238 • The church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives was still recognizable. • Christians were denied access to the Ḥaram al-Sharīf by the Arabs.

    232   233   234   235   236   237   238   230 231

Vaticanus Paulinus Gr. 364, fols. 207r–216r. Külzer, Peregrinatio graeca in Terram Sanctam, pp. 42–4. Σύμμικτα (Cologne 1653), pp. 80–102. PG 133, cols. 973–90. Cf. Külzer, Peregrinatio graeca in Terram Sanctam, p. 43. Bibliotheca Geographica, p. 102, no. 275. Jérusalem nouvelle, p. 870 n.2. Pringle, Churches 3, p. 33. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 32–3, 97.

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• The monastery of St Gerasimus was still occupied. Other sources indicate that it was abandoned by the early fourteenth century and the saint’s relics and church dedication moved to the nearby Dayr Hajla.239 • The body of St Sabas was still lying in his monastery; it was taken to Venice between c.1400 and 1480. It is clear that in the surviving version of this text the order has become confused, to the extent that in section 6 the description jumps unexpectedly from Bethany to the Holy Sepulchre and in section 8 from the Christian quarter of Jerusalem to Bethlehem; Allatius’ final section (15) ends halfway through the description of Bethlehem. It would appear that this disruption had already occurred before the text was copied into the Vatican codex.240 In the present translation the sections have therefore been rearranged into a more logical sequence, concluding – as they were evidently intended to do – with the dedication at the end of section 11.

239   Pringle, Churches 1, p. 198 and 2, pp. 238–9, cf. James of Verona (1335), ed. Röhricht, pp. 214–15. 240   Külzer, Peregrinatio graeca in Terram Sanctam, pp. 42–3.

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Wilbrand of Oldenburg: Journey in the Holy Land (1211–12) [19v] Here begins the journey of Wilbrand of Oldenburg, canon of Hildesheim, concerning the state of the Holy Land. [Prologue] [20r] The subject of the present work, kept surely within its limits, will be described avoiding grandiloquence and not without good reason in a style that is ordinary, not to say down-to-earth, so that, indeed, if perchance the mountains were to be in labour in it, there would not be born a silly little mouse.1 Therefore, in describing it and setting it out among you I have become smaller, lest that old enemy, the ‘roaring lion seeking whom he may devour’,2 should find me not only wandering,3 but also in truth preoccupied and busy with other erroneous works. I therefore propose to write imbued not at all with the vain and pernicious arrogance of pomposity, but instead with the stated fixed contemplation of the Holy Places and cities, which I have diligently wandered through overseas and in the Promised Land in the company of prudent and honest men, the envoys4 of the duke of Austria, and the venerable master of the house of the Germans, Brother Hermann of Salza, of the histories that happened in connection with them, which moreover I have investigated carefully with the help of the aforementioned men, and of the state of their fortifications, as they are now, observing in telling of them the succeeding order in which I saw them. For that reason I humbly request the favourable attention of those who, prevented in whatsoever way by other affairs, have not visited the Holy Land and its places and cities, are yet imbued with a love and desire for them and choose to read and learn about those things which they have not yet experienced or seen. In truth I beg a favour and ask those who at any time have already often visited the sites that I have touched upon and who have considered them more deeply to append a line of correction and in their 1   A proverb applying to those who promise much but achieve little: cf. Horace, Ars poetica, line 139, in Loeb, p. 462. 2   1 Peter 5.8 3   peregrinum, literally ‘a pilgrim’. 4   l: nunciis; p: munitus.

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description advise and let me know where I have blundered: because ‘the more things one’s attention is drawn to, the less is one’s understanding of each’. [Book 1] The City of Acre and its Location 1. And so after many dangers and many afflictions, which we endured for six weeks at sea, in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1211, the third of the consecration of the glorious king of the Romans, Otto [IV],5 and the thirteenth of the pontificate of the lord pope, Innocent III,6 on 25 August we arrived in Accon (Nachon), or Acre (Akers) as it is commonly known.7 This is a good rich strong city, sited on the seashore, such that, while in its layout it is a quadrangle, two of its sides forming an angle are girded and defended by the sea. The remaining two sides are enclosed by a good ditch, wide, deep and walled from the very bottom, and by a double wall, fortified with towers in a fine arrangement in such a way that the first wall, its towers not exceeding the height of the parent wall itself, is overlooked and guarded by the second, interior wall, whose towers are tall and very strong. Wherefore we have been accustomed to call lower walls of this kind ‘barbicans’,8 because it has been and always will be permitted in this book to make use of an established term. This city has a good and stable harbour, guarded by a fine tower, in which the god of the flies, whom we call Baalzebub but they called Akaron, was worshipped among the deviant heathens; from which the city itself is named Accon (Hakon) [20v] or Accaron (Akaron).9 After the loss of the Holy Land the city was retaken through many labours of our people, and like a faithful daughter she cherishes and nourishes in herself the remnants of Holy Jerusalem, her mother, that is to say the lord patriarch,10 the lord king,11 the Templars and other religious men, bishops and abbots. Whence she is now reputed to be the foremost and largest among the cities over which our people have control in Syria. For she contains many very rich inhabitants: Franks and Latins, Greeks and Syrians, Jews and Jacobites, each of whom observe and protect their own laws; however, the Franks and Latins dominate the rest. And it should be known that this name ‘Franks’ is widely applied in Outremer to all those who observe Roman law. Those are called ‘Syrians’ who are born in Syria and use   Crowned by Pope Innocent III on 27 September 1209, but anathematized a year

5

later.

  Elected 8 January 1198, consecrated 22 February 1198.

6 7

  For a map showing Wilbrand’s itinerary, see Fig. 4.   barbacanas. 9   In the Middle Ages Acre (Acco) was commonly confused with Ekron (Accaron), one of the cities of the Philistines where Baalzebub was worshipped: cf. 2 Kings 1.1–16; Abel, Géographie 2, p. 319. 10   Albert of Vercelli (1205–14). 11   John of Brienne (1210–12) 8

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Saracen for everyday speech and Greek for Latin.12 They are Christians and obey the law of Paul, like the Greeks. Lebanon extends almost as far as this city. Then there begins Mount Carmel, on which Elijah was fed by a raven, which we shall explain better in its proper place. On the borders of this city is situated a certain village in which was born, so it is said, Mary Magdalene, a model of penitence.13 And it should be noted that they say that Our Lord, while He was walking around the coastland of Syria, did not enter this city but cursed one of its towers, which today is called Accursed by the people. But I believe rather that it received the name another way. For when our men had besieged this city, this tower defended itself more strongly than all the others: whence our men called it Accursed.14 Our Lady, however, did enter and where she rested there has been built a beautiful church, which is held in great veneration. In this great city there is a bishopric. 2. From there, proceeding north by ship to carry on the business of the lord emperor Otto and the duke of Austria, who had then taken the cross,15 we came to Sūr (Surs), which we Latins call Tyre (Thyrum). This city is good and strong, a great support to the Christians, because among all the cities of the world, so it is believed, it is called by true title ‘the strongest’. For on one side it is defended by a good wall and by the sea, in which hidden rocks extending far underwater fend off ships from attacking the wall. On the other side it is defended by a good walled ditch and five very strong towered walls, in which five gates are set in different places; these guard and complicate the entrance to the city to such an extent that those entering them would seem to be wandering and labouring in the house of Dædalus.16 This is the Tyre after which we call Apollonius ‘of Tyre’ and in which his palace is shown today.17 In it, moreover, the unfortunate and pitiful Dido ruled over the people of Tyre and Sidon. Beside the walls of this city are three stones of great veneration, on which the Lord is said to have rested with His disciples when He was passing through the territory of Tyre and Sidon. And note that this city, as has been touched on earlier, lies on the sea-shore; and moreover the sea would have surrounded it on all sides if in its bitterness it had not shrunk back   i.e. Greek for writing and the liturgy.   Magdala (al-Majdal) was in fact located beside the sea of Galilee. 14   The reference is to the siege of Acre by the Third Crusade, between August 1189 12 13

and July 1191. The Accursed Tower stood at the ne corner of the city (Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 6, 7, 11, 13, 15). 15   Leopold VII had taken the cross in 1208. 16   i.e. the labyrinth built by Dædalus for King Minos of Crete. 17   Apollonius of Tyre was a Stoic philosopher of the first century bc. Wilbrand, however, is more likely referring to the fictional hero of a medieval romance, based on a classical Greek original, which is alluded to by Venantius Fortunatus in the later sixth century (Poems 6.8, trans. George, p. 53) and was incorporated by Godfrey of Viterbo c.1191 into his Pantheon (rubric to 18.15–22, ed. Waitz, in MGH SS 22, pp. 120, 147; cf. Archibald, Apollonius of Tyre).

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from the pleasant sweetness of the gardens which adjoin the walls. For Lebanon extends above the city and, while delighting in its cedars, which [21r] the Song [of Solomon] also commends, sends sweet limpid water in wonderful quantities to irrigate the gardens which are beautifully laid out at its foot beside the walls. In the middle of them is that fountain of which it is typically said in the Song [of Solomon], ‘A garden fountain, a well of waters which flow with vigour from Lebanon.’18 And it is truly with vigour, since within the space of a javelin throw it propels nine mills for the convenience of the city. Over it we said vespers and the same antiphon, ‘A garden fountain, etc.’ The city of Tripoli objects to this fountain, however, as will be seen below. This city has many inhabitants, who are ruled by the king of Acre. And there is in it a rich archbishopric. It is a short day’s journey from Acre. 3. Proceeding from here, we passed Ṣarafand (Sarfente), which we call Sarepta.19 And because there is another Sarepta in Judæa, as you will learn later, in order to distinguish it, it was said to Elijah the Tishbite, according to the second book of Kings, ‘Arise and go to Sarepta of the Sidonians.’20 This is that one. It is a small city, not greatly fortified, lying beside the sea in the middle of the territory of Tyre and Sidon; and it is under the control of our people. Outside its walls Elijah, seeing a widow collecting two sticks asked her for something to eat; and because he understood from her words that she was poor, he enriched her with oil and flour.21 In memory of this event, a little church has been built in the place where the woman was speaking, in which her footprints are still visible today. This city is four French miles distant from Tyre. 4. From there we came to Saget, which the gospels call Sidon. Although at the present time it is quite the smallest among its contemporary cities, in the Holy Scriptures is it not listed as the smallest. In fact, it now has few inhabitants, who are ruled – for shame! – by our enemies, who pay certain rents from it to our people in order to keep the peace; for the walls and fortifications of the city have been destroyed. It has many gardens and a very fertile territory, which without doubt, as I believe, have drawn to themselves from their Creator and the Giver of all good things as often as He walks over them an abundance of dew from heaven and fatness of the land. And perhaps that city – which now sits in sadness, laments and there is no one to comfort her – would also have drawn something to herself if, having refused to receive Him when He visited her in the flesh, she had afterwards received Him all the same and chastely preserved Him in faith in the lodging of her heart. Near that city at one time Leopold the elder, duke of Austria, fought with the enemies of the church and captured and killed those whom he defeated.22 There     20   21   22   18

Song of Solomon 4.15. The Biblical Zarephath. 1 Kings 17.9. 1 Kings 17.8–24; cf. Luke 4.25–6. Leopold V, duke of Austria, son of Frederick Barbarossa’s half-brother, Henry, and Theodora Comnena, arrived at Acre in spring 1191, and took over leadership of the 19

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moreover our people have now experienced and gratefully accepted grace and the fruits collected from the said territory in many spoils – God be praised! – From that region at one time came forth the Canaanite woman crying out, ‘O Son of David!’, etc.23 This city is two miles from Sarepta and six from Tyre. 5. Going on from there we crossed the River Damūr (flumen amoris)24 and a certain good village called Khalda (Slaudie), in which was born Duke Hospinel,25 a warlike man of whom one reads of many deeds, and, as some would have it, that greatest of poets, Virgil, who afterwards crossed over to Lombardy and Apulia. And we came to Beirut (Baruth), which the Latins call Berytus (Beritus). This is an extremely large city, sited on the sea, [21v] having a very pleasant territory. The Saracens, struck with extreme fear of our men and preparing to flee, destroyed its walls and withdrew to defend themselves in the city’s castle, which is very strong, and was then. However, on the approach of the chancellor Conrad, of pious memory, with the whole army of the Germans, so great a fear invaded those sons of iniquity that fleeing the Teutonic fury they left behind to our men the undamaged castle with all its contents.26 It is now owned by a certain John, a very Christian and vigorous man.27 And, as has been said, it is a very strong castle. For on one side it is defended by the sea and a high precipice of rock and on the other side it is encompassed by a ditch, walled and so deep that in it we saw many prisoners cast down as in a deep prison. This ditch is overlooked by two strong walls, on which very strong towers have been erected against the assaults of machines, and their large stones are bound together at the joints with large iron bands and hard braces. In one of them, which is being newly built, we saw a very ornate hall,28 which despite my inadequacy I shall briefly describe to you. It is strong from the foundations and well sited, overlooking on one side the sea and the ships passing to and fro on it, and on another meadows, orchards and most delightful places. It has a delicate marble pavement, simulating water agitated by a light breeze, so that whoever walks on it imagines himself to be wading, although his footprints have made no impression on the surface of the sand represented there. The walls of the house are covered all over with marble panels, which by the subtlety of their workmanship imitate various curtains. Its vault is painted so particularly the colour of the sky, that there the clouds appear to scurry, there the Zephyr to blow, Germans besieging Acre following the death of Frederick of Swabia. He left for home when the city fell in July. His military encounter near Sidon, however, is not otherwise recorded. 23   Matthew 15.22. 24   Nahr al-Damūr, in French Rivière Damor, or ‘River of Love’. 25   Unidentified. 26   Beirut fell in October 1197 to the German Crusaders led by Henry of Brabant who had come to the Holy Land accompanied by the imperial chancellor, Conrad of Querfurt, archbishop of Hildersheim. 27   John of Ibelin, who received Beirut from King Aimery sometime after October 1200: see Edbury, John of Ibelin, pp. 28–9. 28   palatium.

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and there the sun to define the year and months, the days and weeks, and the hours and seconds by its movement in the zodiac. In all these things Syrians, Saracens and Greeks glory in their mastery of their arts through a delightful competition of workmanship. In the middle of the hall, at the central spot, is a pool lined with variegated marble, in which the marble is put together from panels of different colours, which do not jar when a thumb is drawn across them. They represent innumerable varieties of flowers, which, when the eyes of beholders strive to separate them out, mock them and disperse. In the centre a dragon, which seems about to devour the animals depicted there, emits a jet of crystalline water, pouring it forth in such an abundant quantity that in hot weather, dissolving on high, it may humify and cool the air, which is let in through fair rows of windows on every side. The same water, resonating throughout the pool and being received into the slenderest of channels, lulls to sleep by agreeable murmurings its lords who sit near by. I would willingly sit by it for all my days.29 The city itself, which lies beside the castle, has a poor bishopric but a very devout clergy. Outside its walls is shown the tomb of Simon and Jude.30 In that place there was at one time a rich monastery built in honour of them; but the same infidels have utterly destroyed it, for which deed our people responded with a well-deserved retaliation on a place of prayer, or mosque, of theirs.31 [22r] In that city we first saw apples of Adam, and afterwards we tasted sugar-cane, from which sugar is extracted by cooking. Likewise in this city at one time an icon of the Lord crucified by the Jews poured out blood and water.32 This city is six French miles distant from Sidon. 6. From there, after a rest of two days we came to Jubayl (Gibeleth), which the bishop of that place calls Byblos (Biblionem), asserting that the Bible had been compiled in it first in Hebrew. This is a small city, having a large strongly fortified tower as the only help in its defence. The Saracens have frequently wasted much sweat and expense on it, while striving to remove it; however, they have destroyed the entire wall of the city itself. It has a harbour, which is suitable enough for small ships though it is rarely frequented, because, as it were, ‘It is for the poor man to count the flock.’33 A certain Frank named Guy34 rules the city; and, as I have already said, in it there is an episcopal seat, though a very poor one. This city is eight short miles distant from Beirut.   On the Ibelin hall or palace in Beirut, see Richard, ‘Palais’.   The Apostles Simon the Zealot and Jude Thaddæus. A monastery of St Jude is

29 30

mentioned in Beirut in the fifth century and the martyr’s tomb is also located there by medieval Syriac sources (Delpech and Voisin, ‘Mission’, p. 307 n.84). 31   eorum oratorio sive mahoumerie. 32   In the fourteenth century, this legend, which had its origin in the eighth century, came to be associated with the Franciscan church in Beirut: see Pringle, Churches 1, p. 117. 33   Ovid, Metamorphoses 13, line 824, in Loeb 2, p. 286. 34   Guy I Embriaco, whose mother, the widow of Hugh III, regained Jubayl from the Muslims in 1197: see Deschamps, Châteaux 3, p. 206.

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7. The same night, which was always reckoned by me with a black stone,35 we proceeded to Baṭrūn (Boterun), which is a good castle in our possession, and passed ‘Anfa (Neffin), whose site and fortifications I would have examined very diligently if a very strong storm, which at that point assaulted and tossed us unfortunates about, had not obstructed all my powers of perception. In so far as we were able to consider it, the spent gales permitting, this is quite a small city, well fortified, containing Syrian inhabitants who are subject and tributary to our people. Its territory is very fertile, producing greatly recommended wine of the best quality. This city is four miles distant from Byblos. 8. Having quickly left that city on account of the driving storm, we sailed to Tripoli, which received and restored us, desperate and almost shipwrecked, not without the wonder of many of us who were expecting a shipwreck. This is a very rich city, having many inhabitants, Christians, Jews and Saracens, who, like everything of the region, are all ruled over by a count, a man of our faith.36 That city, very similar to Tyre in its whole layout, is girt and defended by the sea on almost every side; but nature, favourable to its productivity, has interposed a delightful meadow and fertile gardens. Around that place the city is defended by two strong towered walls having between them two broad deep ditches, their individual gates and entrances being complicated and guarded by sinuous barbicans. Note that Lebanon, which, so they claim, is highest there, is set directly over the city in such as way that it is roughly one campus37 away. Between it and the city lies a certain little hill, which today is called Mont Pèlerin (Monpelerin), that is, the ‘Hill of the Pilgrims’. On that hill the count of St.-Gilles,38 a warlike man, and other pilgrims built a castle; and by means of it, for many years like men unweakened by labours, they besieged the sons of iniquity, our enemies, who were then holding Tripoli in their hands. Those Saracens, admiring and fearing their great constancy, desired to be freed from their hands and invoked the help of the sultan and his men. They, having prepared an enormous [22v] army, sent letters of encouragement to them by messenger pigeon, as is the custom of that land.39 By chance our people captured the pigeon (if what happened thus by divine providence could truly be said to be a chance), and having read the letters and their secrets, they bound up some other letters under the name of the sultan. Thus the pigeon, sent forth to its masters, who were enclosed as if in the ark and waiting for letters rather than an [olive] branch, brought back desolation instead of consolation. Stunned and terrified, in great fear for their lives and ignorant of divine deception of this kind, they surrendered the city to our men – Thank God! – unharmed, withdrawing on the pre-agreed condition that their own persons would     37   38   39   35 36

i.e. reckoned as ‘unlucky’, as opposed to a white stone which would be ‘lucky.’ Bohemond IV, prince of Antioch and count of Tripoli. c.4,000 feet. Raymond I. On the use of carrier pigeons in the Crusades, see Edgington, ‘Doves of War’.

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be saved.40 The city, now thriving and exulting in those who are of our faith, boasts of possessing ‘the garden fountain, the well of living waters, which flow with strength from Lebanon etc.’,41 adducing many things over and above that for itself against Tyre, as I have touched on above. It would be sufficient to Tyre, however, that near its borders at the foot of Lebanon rise two springs, Jor and Dan, which flowing together constitute the Jordan. You may know from what has been said that Lebanon is a high and long mountain, which extends as far as Tyre. Likewise at its summit above Tripoli are shown certain sarcophagi in which Noah and his sons are said to lie, because, as some also have it, Noah’s ark was built in that place. In that city there is a rich bishop, possessing a very delightful court, about which I would write much for you were I not fearful of prolixity. This city is two miles distant from ‘Anfa, which in the storm seemed to us much further, because, like fortune, nothing comes fast enough to the desiring mind. 9. Having rested therefore for some days and continuing on horses we passed Qulay‘āt (Culicath) and Manacusine,42 which are two castles destroyed by the Saracens. Beside them we saw fields full of fennel and of fruit producing wool, which we call tree wool.43 And we left on the right Crac [des Chevaliers], which is a large strong castle of the Hospitallers, very pernicious to the Saracens. Since I did not see it I shall not presume to write about its site or fortifications; but what is extraordinary to hear tell is that in time of peace it is habitually guarded by 2,000 fighting men. The Hospitallers assert this on solemn oath. On the same side we saw Chastel Blanc (Casteblans),44 which is a good strong castle sited in the mountains and on the borders of the Old Man of the Mountain, who is accustomed to kill our princes by means of envoys armed with knives.45 40   The city surrendered to Baldwin I on 10 June 1109 (William of Tyre 11.10, ed. Huygens, pp. 509–10, trans. Babcock and Krey 1, pp. 477–8). 41   Cf. Song of Solomon 4.15. 42   Unidentified. Rey (Colonies franques, p. 369) suggested al-Mīna Kabūsi. Dussaud more plausibly proposed either Tall al-Biba or Tall al-Karra, both of which lie close to Qulay‘āt and are mentioned as forts by al-Idrīsī (1154) under the respective names of alBābiyya and Lūtūrūs, the latter appearing to be a deformation of Eleutheros (Nahr al-Kabīr) (Topographie, pp. 89–91, map v, cf. Deschamps, Châteaux 3, p. 311; Le Strange, Palestine, p. 519). 43   lana arborum (German Baumwolle), i.e. cotton. 44   ‘White Castle’, or Ṣafīta. 45   The Old Man of the Mountains was the shadowy leader of the Ismaili Shi‘ite sect of Assassins (Ḥashīshiyyīn), subject to the lord of Alamut in Persia, who established themselves in the Jabal Anṣāriyya of Syria during the late eleventh century and early decades of the twelfth. The first Frankish leader to fall victim to them was Raymond II of Tripoli, murdered at the gate of his city in 1152. Later assassinations included those of Conrad of Montferrat in Tyre on 28 April 1192, and Raymond, son of Bohemond IV of Antioch, who was killed in the cathedral of Tortosa in 1213, only two years after Wilbrand’s visit (Lewis, Assassins, pp. 97–124). On the Assassin castles in Syria see: Burn, Monuments of Syria, pp. 151–3, 176–9; Jacquot, État des Alouites; Willey, Eagle’s Nest, pp. 216–45.

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About his life and the paradise that he has prepared for himself you have heard enough,46 so I shall pass on as if those things were already known. This castle is very injurious to his land because it is held and guarded by the Templars. 10. From there we came to Tortosa (Tortose).47 This is a small lightly fortified city, sited on the sea, having at one end a very strong castle, horned by a very fine wall with eleven towers, like eleven precious stones in a mitre.48 And it is no wonder that the twelfth tower is subtracted from it, since that tower, which the king of France built in support of the Holy Land, makes up for its defection by its beautiful strength.49 This castle is excellently guarded by the Templars, as it belongs to them. The Latins call that city the city of Antaradus.50 And in it is a church, small and of great [23r] veneration, which on the urging of an angel St Peter and St Paul built with their own hands from undressed stone when they were hastening to Antioch and dedicated from the beginning in honour of St Mary – as if to say, ‘Better fortune will follow a tearful beginning.’51 This was the first church to be built and dedicated in honour of Our Lady and Ever-Virgin Mary, and in it today there is an episcopal seat. There Our Lady, the Mother of God and EverVirgin Mary, grants many favours even to the faithless Saracens themselves. This city is one day’s journey distant from Tripoli. 11. Proceeding from here we passed by a certain castle,52 whose lord the sultan of Aleppo (Halaph) beheaded for our faith, and climbing on high we ascended Marqab (Margath). This is a large and very strong castle, fortified with a double wall, displaying in itself many towers, which seem more apt for sustaining heaven than for defence. For the mountain on which the castle is sited is extremely high, such that it holds up the high heaven on its shoulders like Atlas. Very broad at the base and rising gradually on high, it liberally furnishes to its masters each year 509   Apparently a reference to previous accounts by other writers, such as Burchard of Strasbourg (1175), as reported by Arnold of Lübeck (MGH SS 21, pp. 235–41), and William of Tyre (Chronicon 20.29, ed. Huygens, pp. 953–4, trans. Babcock and Krey 2, pp. 390–92; cf. Daftary, Assassin Legends, pp. 69–71). 47   Ṭarṭūs. 48   The pun on cornutum, which means both ‘horned’ and ‘mitred’, is unfortunately lost in translation. Cornutum is altered by l to coronatum, which means both ‘encompassed’ and ‘crowned’. Whether the original text read cornutum or coronatum cannot be known, though it may be noted that the shape of the land wall is indeed more like that of a hornwork or mitre than of a circular crown. 49   Presumably Louis VII, who would have passed through Tortosa on his way from Antioch to Jerusalem in spring 1148. 50   civitatem … [an]taradensem. 51   Ovid, Metamorphoses 7, line 518, in Loeb 1, p. 378. 52   Probably Maraclea (Khrab Marqiyya), which Bohemond IV of Tripoli granted to Peter of Ravendel in 1199 (Deschamps, Châteaux 3, pp. 323–6). Peter is last mentioned in June 1200 (RRH, p. 206, no. 772) and in 1228 the lord’s name was Raymond (RRH, p. 261, no. 989). The ruler of Aleppo from 1186 to 1216 was Saladin’s son, al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Ghiyāth al-Dīn (Bosworth, Islamic Dynasties, p. 60). 46

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wagonloads of render,53 which the efforts of its enemies cannot prevent, however often they have tried. This castle belongs to the Hospitallers and is the greatest support of all that land. For it is opposed by many strong castles of the Old Man of the Mountains and the sultan of Aleppo, whose tyranny and assaults it has held in check to such an extent that it receives from them each year for keeping the peace the equivalent of the value of 2,000 marks. And because it is on guard lest any treason should occur, as can happen, each night it is guarded by four knights, who are brothers of the Hospital, and by another twenty-eight watchmen. For in time of peace in their outlay for defending the castle the Hospitallers maintain 1,000 people over and above the other citizens of the castle, in such a way that they provide them with every convenience and necessity, [sufficient to supply] the castle with the necessities of life for five years.54 At the foot of that mountain is a city called Bāniyās (Valenie), which although it was at one time larger – so it is said and as may be seen – through divine punishment is now desolate and destroyed. Its episcopal seat has been translated into the castle of Marqab (Margat), this being on account of fear of the Saracens. This castle is six short miles distant from Tortosa. Since, in truth, because of our fear of the Saracens we did not dare to proceed by land on horseback, we committed ourselves, although reluctant, to a ship and the sea and passed Jabala (Gibel), which is a good castle, having a city that is small but heavily fortified and very inimical to us.55 Its lord and owner took as his wife the daughter of the sultan of Aleppo, that from those two extreme infamies might be born a third, exceeding in its infamy both of the others, just as those two sons of Muḥammad or Mammon produced of themselves seven worse spirits. This city is four miles distant from Marqab. 12. From there we passed by Ṣahyūn (Sahaun), a castle of the sultan,56 and near it Latakia (Lizam). This is a strong city, defended by a wall with many towers and possessing a very good harbour. It causes much harm to our people, who when they are being tossed by a storm at sea, filled with fear of death, flee thither and are captured; and thus those unfortunates – for pity! – when they try to flee Scylla fall on to Charybdis. This is the city that in our books is called Laodicea. At the present time, ‘turned like a deceitful bow’,57 it interrupts with its barbarity that pleasant 53   quingenta plaustra commendati novem suis dominis ministrat. The word novem is ambiguously placed, but seems more likely to belong with quingenta than with suis dominis. 54   quinque annis in necessariis castri. 55   Jabala fell to Saladin on 16 January 1188; on its defences, see Rey, Étude, pp. 215–16, 175–6, fig. 45; Jacquot, État des Alouites, pp. 226–34. 56   Saladin took Ṣaḥyūn in July 1188 and granted it to the ‘amīr Nāṣir al-Dīn Manguwirish, son of Khumartekin, the lord of Abū Qubays, who fortified it and held it until his death in 1229 (Deschamps, Châteaux 3, pp. 229–31). 57   Psalm 78.57 (Vulgate 77.57).

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and formerly secure journey from Acre to Antioch. [23v] It would exercise even greater cruelty on our people if it were not opposed by our own Marqab, from which it is six French miles distant. 13. From there we passed by a good village called Gloriet58 and certain lands or mountainous country occupied by Turks. These men are wild people, similar in dress and customs to the Bedouin, whom we call Arabs, not living under roofs and having only slings for arms. And thus with much effort we entered the sinuous port of Antioch,59 which the Franks call the gulf of Antioch. In it we saw a most dreadful cavern, from which we shrank even more on experiencing an extremely foul stench. The common people say that in that place St Peter destroyed the chained devil. Note that Antioch is five miles from the sea and nowadays this port is named after it since ships are unable to get any closer. 14. Now at last, that is on the eve of St Cecilia,60 on which we saw an eclipse, which lasted a very long time, we came to the longed-for city of Antioch, which is good and strong and barely second to Rome itself in holiness. On one of its sides it is defended by two towered walls and a very great river,61 which furnishes its citizens with the benefit of mills. And ‘the force of that river makes glad the city of God.’62 On another side it is defended by a great precipice and a good wall, encompassed by many geometrically spaced towers.63 The city is so large that whoever has wandered through it would be thought from their dusty feet to have been wandering about the whole day. It has within its walls three large very rugged mountains,64 the middle one of which is so high that, with its summit supported by the clouds, it might be thought to impede the planets in their course. As I see it, nature itself had prepared it in her own way so that, when it is Sabbath and the countryside rests from its labours, she would be refreshed throughout the very delightful places that lie hidden round about in that place and, looking out from on high, would contemplate and make good any failing in her creation. She has commanded the same mountain to generate and pour forth to her Antioch very abundant springs, such that through all the orchards and gardens, which it possesses there without number, sweet and good water may be widely distributed; this water moreover the citizens themselves have channelled through minute65 underground pipes into the midst of their houses and to their innermost chambers. Note that the houses and palaces of Antioch 58   Ra’s Ibn Hānī: see Rey, Colonies, p. 341; id., ‘Périples’, pp. 334–5; Deschamps, Châteaux 3, p. 73. 59   Suwaydiyya or Port St.-Symeon. 60   Evening before 22 November. 61   The Orontes. 62   Cf. Psalm 46.4 (Vulgate 45.5). 63   On the town walls, dating from the time of Justinian, see Rey, Étude, pp. 183–204, pl. xvii; Deschamps, Châteaux 3, pp. 45–53. 64   Mount Silpius. 65   p: musculos; l: minusculas.

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present a dirty muddy appearance outside, but inside they blossom with a delightful golden appearance. As I have touched on above, the citizens take great pride and are accustomed to indulge themselves in gardens producing various fruits and in flowing waters. That city moreover has many and rich inhabitants: Franks and Syrians, Greeks and Jews, Armenians and Saracens. The Franks are lords of all of them, and all of them observe their own laws. In the middle of the city is a highly decorated church, in which at one time St Peter presided as patriarch; and today the patriarch is accustomed to preside there and govern his Asia, which is subject to him. Wherefore in his court66 these verses have been written in golden letters: May Ieci67 be far from this place and the sound68 of law and justice be here. The third part of the world is held by His law.

In this church is shown the throne of St Peter and the prison in which he himself was also held in chains. There also in a marble sarcophagus lies the flesh [24r] of the emperor Frederick, of pious memory.69 Not far from there is a church, which is completely round and excessively decorated, in which is held an image of Our Lady, the Mother of God, the EverVirgin Mary. It is of such holiness that it causes rain when it is moved.70 The Greeks keep it, like that church, in great and laudable reverence. Likewise on one of the mountains of which I spoke above is a rich monastery of monks, established in honour of St Paul,71 in which is shown a small crypt decorated not overly, as is seemly, with golden pictures; in this crypt or cavern St Paul, after preaching in the town, used to rest and write letters. And it is held in honourable veneration. In front of its doors are buried these nobles:

66   in consistorio ipsius. This appears to refer to the hall or assembly room in the patriarch’s palace rather than the chapter house. 67   Iezi: The Iecidani were worshippers of the Devil. 68   p: tonus (harmony, pleasing sound); l: thronus (throne). 69   The emperor Frederick I drowned in a river near Silifke in Asia Minor on 10 June 1190 while on his way to participate in the Third Crusade. His body was carried to Antioch, where the flesh was removed from it and buried in the patriarchal cathedral. His son, Frederick V, duke of Swabia, then transported the remaining bones by sea to Tyre, with the intention of burying them in Jerusalem once the city had been retaken (Itinerarium Ricardi, 1.24, in RS 38.1, pp. 54–8, trans. Nicholson, pp. 64–6). That never happened and they remained buried instead in Tyre, apparently in the church of St John the Baptist (Gesta Episcoporum Halberstadensium in MGH SS 23, p. 110; see also Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 184, 187, 207–8). 70   l: movetur; p: monetur. 71   A Benedictine abbey, established by 1108: see RRH, nos. 53, 194, 298, 429, 634, 636, 647, 738, 805, 817; Asbridge, Creation of the Principality of Antioch, pp. 202, 204.

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Burchard, burgrave of Magdeburg.72 Hoyer the younger, count of Woldenberg.73 Wilbrand, count of Hallermund,74 uncle of Wilbrand of Oldenburg who wrote this little book. May their souls rest in peace. Amen.

At the foot of that mountain is a church, which is built over the house of St Luke the Evangelist. On the central mountain, whose height I have already described to you, is a castle, built in the middle. Below its foot we saw the enclosed place in which St Mary Magdalene performed penitence for a time; and just as she longed for celestial things with her spirit, so then she transcended earthly things with her body. Beside that place there is also a small chapel from which St Margaret would have been dragged when she was being led to martyrdom. Going down the mountain, we saw at its foot the church built over the house of John Chrysostom. On the third mountain, which is smaller than the others, is a church built in honour of St Barbara, who, it is said, was born in this city. Note also that Simon Magus, who later apostasized, was born in Antioch. Many stories concerning Antioch, which it is not convenient to relate here, are found in the Acts of the Apostles, the lives of the saints, and the sufferings of the martyrs. Here we saw for the first time completely white, red and yellow roses, and the apple called Balsam of Jesus,75 whose nature is as follows. On Good Friday people sow its pips, which grow up among the springing vegetation and at first produce white flowers, which afterwards change colour to green, then red, and finally yellow. These are then transformed into apples; and if anyone is disparaging about the beauty of any of them, saying that they [have seen]76 finer, the apple in question becomes angry, swells up and bursts apart into tiny pieces in indignation. And this is remarkable, seeing that the apple is non-rational; but we testify to what we have seen, and our testimony is true. 15. After a few days we went down from there towards Armenia. And leaving to the right the land of the sultan, his city of Aleppo (Halaph) and a castle of his called Ḥārim (Haringe),77 we came to Gaston (Gastun).78 This is a very strong   Burchard III of Querfurt, who died in Antioch in 1189.   Hoyer II, son of Hoyer I, count of Woldenberg. 74   Wilbrand II, count of Hallermund, the brother of Wilbrand’s mother Beatrix, set 72 73

out for the Holy Land with Frederick I along with his brother Leopold and died in Antioch in 1191. 75   Iesupubeledemis, i.e. Balsama momordica. 76   vidisse added by l but missing from p, which would otherwise mean: ‘saying that they are finer’. 77   Frankish Harrenc, on which see Deschamps, Châteaux 3, p. 341, pl. lxxiiib; Gelichi, ‘Citadel of Ḥārim’; id., ‘Hārim’. 78   Baghras, defending the Belen pass between Antioch and Cilician Armenia.

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castle with three very strong towered walls around it; it is sited in the outermost mountains of Armenia and diligently watches over that country’s entrances and passes. It is owned by the king of that land, that is to say by the king of Armenia; and the Templars complain of having been robbed of its possession.79 The castle looks out directly at Antioch from close to, being four miles distant. 16. Going on from there we entered Armenia. It should be known that the lord of that country used to be called Levon of the Mountains.80 [24v] In our days Henry [VI], the glorious Roman emperor, who always strove to enlarge the state and the Roman empire, constituted and crowned him king, with the result that afterwards he was called king of Armenia and from that time on he was accustomed to receive his land from the Roman empire.81 At the request of Levon the elder king, the emperor Otto [IV] crowned his nephew; he crowned him recently because he had no heir.82 17. This is a very strong country, for on one side it is girt by the sea and on the other it is defended by high very rugged mountains, whose entrances are few and strongly guarded, so that if a visitor enters the country he cannot leave without a sealed document of the king. In its centre it is flat and very fertile, nourishing many animals suitable for hunting. In its length it extends for sixteen days’ journey, and in its width for two, leaving out the mountains. It is inhabited by Franks, Greeks, Syrians, Turks and Armenians; however, the Armenians alone have dominion over the others. They are strongly religious and the best of Christians, observing the law given to them by the lesser Gregory.83 They do not err in faith. They recite the psalms and the other holy offices in their native language. They have two chalices when they celebrate [the Eucharist], one for the bread, in which they consecrate   The Templars lost Baghras to Saladin on 26 September 1188. It was reoccupied by Fulk of Bouillon for his cousin, Baron Levon II, around 1191, but despite their protestations the Templars were unable to regain it until 1216 (Deschamps, Châteaux 3, p. 359; Lawrence, ‘Castle of Baghras’, pp. 42–6). 80   Leo de Montanis also means ‘Lion of the Mountains’. 81   Baron Levon II was crowned king, as Levon I, on 6 January 1198, when he was anointed by the catholicus, Gregory VI Abirad, and presented with the royal insignia brought to the East by Conrad, bishop of Hildersheim and imperial chancellor. By this time the emperor Henry VI, who had entrusted Conrad with Levon’s crown a year earlier, was already dead (Smbat, Chronique 34, trans. Dédéyan, pp. 72–3; Der Nesessian, ‘Kingdom of Cilician Armenia’, pp. 646–8; Boase, Cilician Kingdom, p. 19; Hamilton, Latin Church, pp. 335–6). 82   Raymond Rupen, Levon I’s great nephew, was the son of Raymond of Antioch and Alice, the daughter of Levon’s brother Rupen. Born in 1197, he was named Levon’s heir and crowned with a crown sent by Emperor Otto IV on 15 August 1211. In 1216 he made good his claim to Antioch, but was driven from the city three years later (Röhricht, Geschichte, pp. 712–13; Alishan, Léon le Magnifique, p. 281; Cahen, Syrie, pp. 618–23, 628–31; Der Nersessian, ‘Kingdom of Cilician Armenia’, p. 649; Boase, Cilician Kingdom, pp. 19–21). 83   Patriarch Gregory the Illuminator, c.300–c.332. 79

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it, and one for the wine, from which they drink it.84 When reciting the gospel and epistles they turn west towards the people. They celebrate the Lord’s Epiphany more highly than all the other feasts, as will be explained to you in its proper place. On the Fridays between Easter and Whitsun they enjoy meat,85 honouring the feast in that way. They have their own pope, whom they call a Katelcose in their own language.86 And one should know that there are those who say that Armenia is the place in which Noah’s ark came to rest after the flood,87 supporting their argument with these verses: The animals condemn of every falsehood the raven, because it declined to be a messenger of salvation to those enclosed. That the dove brought in its mouth a branch bright green with leaves Armenia exists as witness.

These lines, however, as I have more correctly investigated, are ensnared in ambiguity, for there exists another Armenia, better placed in the east, which has very high mountains; there originated those Armenians who, having emigrated from it, took possession of this country, expelling the Greeks. As a result, this is called Lesser Armenia. 18. In the first plain of this country, at the exit from the mountains, which we crossed in a day with great difficulty, …88 And we came to Alexandretta (Iskandarūn), which was a walled city on the sea shore but is now destroyed. The locals say that Alexander the Great built that city in a single day’s work to guard his horse, which was ill at the time, and called it after his own name. Beside it there are also meadows very suitable for horses. On the first day we came to Portella (Bāb Iskandarūn). This is a good village, having near it a gateway,89 after which it is named. This is sited on its own over the paved public street beside the sea, and is very ornately constructed of highly polished white marble. On top of it, so it is said, lie the bones of Alexander, who, as some would have it, ordered them to be placed there, so that kings or princes going through that gate would keep him even when dead above their heads – he 84   Another of Wilbrand’s puns, as conficiunt means both ‘they consecrate’ and ‘they drink or consume’, though presumably the bread and the wine were both consecrated and consumed. 85   l adds non: ‘they do not enjoy meat’, which is lacking in p, b and e. According to James of Vitry, the Armenians also ate meat on certain Fridays during Lent (Historia orientalis 79, ed. Donnadieu, p. 320). 86   Catholicus. 87   Genesis 8.4. 88   There appear to be some words missing from the text at this point. 89   Only a single pillar of this survives, now known as Jonah’s Pillar: see Boase, Cilician Kingdom, p. 167; Edwards, Fortifications, pp. 204–6, pls. 179–81.

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whom when alive they had sustained over them. [25r] This village is four miles distant from Alexandretta. Then, leaving to the right Nigrin,90 a castle of the king, and passing by a certain castle, that is to say Cannamela,91 we came to Mamistra.92 This is a good city situated pleasantly enough above a river and having about it a wall, which is towered but gnawed by age. In a certain respect it has few inhabitants; and all of them are commanded and ruled by the king of that land. There is in it a bishopric of the Armenians. And it should be known that the lord king, when he received the crown from the Roman Empire, as I have mentioned before, ordained Latin bishops in this city and in certain other ones. Afterwards he threw them out, asserting that he had been unjustly oppressed and excommunicated by the Roman church.93 Next to this city is located a castle, which belonged to the patrimony of St Paul, who was born in that country as you will now hear, as was St Servatius;94 but it is now occupied by the Greeks. In this city there is the tomb of St Pantaleon. It is a long day’s journey from Cannamela. 90   castrum regis nigrin. The casale of Nigrinum was one of a number granted to the Hospital for two years by Levon I in April 1214 (CGOH 2, p. 165–6, no. 1426). Cahen plausibly identifies it as Mancilik Kalesi, ne of Payas (Syria, p. 149; cf. Hellenkemper, Burgen, pp. 104–8, pls. 20, 77; Riley-Smith, ‘Templars and Teutonic Knights’, p. 107). Edwards’s objection (Fortifications, pp. 185, 244) that Mancilik Kalesi is not ‘black’ is based on the misreading of the name in l as castrum regis nigrum. His alternative identification of the castle with Toprak Kale, which is built of black basalt, seems unlikely to be correct, since it is not between Jonah’s Pillar and Cannamela and is referred to elsewhere by Wilbrand as Thila (see ch. 25 below). The fact that Mancilik Kalesi would not have been visible from the road is immaterial, as Wilbrand does not say that he saw it, any more than he saw Aleppo and Ḥārim, which he also describes as having passed on his right-hand side (ch. 15 above). 91   Portolan guides, including Sanudo (pp. 85, 88), place Canamella, or Caramela, on the coast of Armenia 15 miles n of Alexandretta, allowing it to be identified with Ḥiṣn al-Tīnāt (Cahen, Syrie, pp. 149–50, 208 n.8; Rey, ‘Périples’, pp. 332–3, 348–9; Boase, Cilician Kingdom, p. 157). 92   Mamistere, modern Misis. 93   Cilicia was placed under interdict by the papal legate, Peter of San Marcello, around the end of 1203 during the war over the Antiochene succession, though it was not strictly applied until May 1211 and was then lifted in March 1213 (Cahen, Syrie, pp. 602– 19; Hamilton, Latin Church, pp. 338–9). 94   St Servatius, or Aravatius, was bishop of Tongres (Tongeren) and later of Maastricht, where he died during the Hun invasions c.384 (Gregory of Tours, Historiae 2.5, trans. Thorpe, pp. 114–15, cf. idem, Liber in Gloria Confessorum 71, in MGH SRM 1.2, p. 790, trans. Van Dam, pp. 52–3). The story of his life and miracles received further elaboration c.1075 from Jocundus (ed. Boeren) and in the late twelfth century from Heinrich Von Veldeke (ed. Vivian et al.).

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19. From here, passing by Cumbetefort,95 where there is a house and a good lodging of the Hospital of the Germans, we came to Tursolt. This is the Tarsus (Tharsis) in which St Paul was born at the time of the Greeks. His palace is still to be seen in it today. Wherefore the Lord called him after the place of his birth Saul of Tarsus, as He said to Ananias: ‘Get up and go to the street that is called Straight, and ask in the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus named Saul; for he is now praying.’96 There are also those who say that this is the Tarshish (Tharsis) from which one of the Magi came to worship the Lord; but they are misled by ambiguity, because the Magi came not from the north but from the east. However, this explanation is also put forward, namely that the Magi, warned to return from Bethlehem by another route, came to Joppe, where, embarking on a ship that they found there but that was lacking all its necessary equipment, they entered the port of this Tarshish without oars and sails, went ashore, and from there returned to their own counties. When Herod, who was pursuing them, heard this, being in a great rage he sent and burnt all the ships of Tarshish. The psalmist is referring to this, I believe, when he says, ‘[Trembling took hold of them] there, anguish as of a woman in labour. In a violent spirit, You dash to pieces the ships of Tarshish.’97 Some also like to believe that, when he came from Rome, Herod was thrown by a storm into that port and burnt the ships there personally. This city has many inhabitants. It is enclosed by a wall, reduced through age, but it has at one end of it a good strong castle, in which St Theodore was held and martyred. And there is there a church built in his honour in the same place. In the centre of the city is the main church, dedicated to St Peter and St Sophia, which is highly decorated and paved completely in marble. At the end of it is a statue, in which angelic hands have represented the image of Our Lady; and it is held in great veneration by the people of that land. This likeness, when any grave danger threatens that land, is accustomed to weep in the presence of all and in great quantities, as many and all have had occasion to witness. This is the image that, so it is said, reformed Theophilus;98 please understand why I am passing over that story as if already told. In a corner outside the doors of the church is buried Muḥammad’s sister, [25v] whose tomb the Saracens visit in reverence and devotion. In that church, as I have touched on above, the lord king had ordained, on the advice of Conrad, bishop of Mainz,99 whom the emperor sent there, a Latin archbishopric, which he has now altered like the others. There the lord king came to meet us and the envoys   Combedefort and Ayun (Heion) were confirmed to the Teutonic Order by Pope Innocent III in June 1209 (TOT, pp. 266–9, no. 298, cf. pp. 37–40, nos. 46–7 and pp. 272–4, no. 303; Riley-Smith, ‘Templars and Teutonic Knights’, p. 113). 96   Acts 9.11. 97   Cf. Psalms 48.6–7 (Vulgate 47.7–8). Wilbrand, following the Vulgate, here confuses Tarsus (Tarsis) with Tarshish, or Tartessos, a Phœnician colony in Spain. 98   See Luke 1.3; Acts 1.1. 99   Conrad, archbishop of Mainz, was the papal legate, not to be confused with Conrad, bishop of Hildersheim, the imperial chancellor. 95

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of the duke of Austria, receiving us honourably and detaining us in the country for eighteen weeks. This city is two days’ journey from Mamistra. 20. From there after a few days we came to Adana (Adene), which is a city of the king, sited in a pleasant locality above a river, which is named after it.100 It does not have rich citizens, although it is very large inside the walls. Some say that Medea was raised here, of whom Ovid writes: ‘You, most savage viper, two in one dinner? Two?’101 The truth is that this city supports many abhorrent enchantresses, something that some of us learnt102 by experience. It is one day’s journey from Tarsus. 21. On the day, that is to say the feast, of the Epiphany, which the Armenians call the Baptism, we came to Sis,103 to which the lord king had invited us to celebrate his feast. This is the capital city of the lord king, supporting innumerable rich citizens. It is not enclosed by any walls. Hence I would rather call it a town if it did not have in it the archiepiscopal seat of the Armenians. In it the Greeks also obey their own patriarch. It has a castle sited above it on a highly fortified mountain, at whose foot the city appears to descend by steps in an orderly manner. And, so they say, this city belonged to King Darius, whom Alexander defeated. 22. The feast of the Epiphany (of which I promised above that I would speak), to which the lord king had invited us was celebrated by the Armenians in this way. During the twelve preceding days, which we spend in enjoyment and banquets, they spend in honour of their feast in penitence and fasts, abstaining from fish, wine and oil. On the holy eve itself, they abstained from these things all day, so that after dusk they might celebrate masses and while away the whole of that night in the divine offices without sleeping. On the day itself they celebrate the feast of the Lord’s Nativity, saying that on that one and self-same – and indeed, more distinguished – day the Lord had been born and, after His thirtieth year,104 baptized. The morning over and done, everyone hurried to a river near the town, to which the lord king was going down in the following manner. He was seated on a tall horse and was flanked by the master of the house of the Germans and the castellan of Silifke (Seleph),105 a Hospitaller, with their companions, religious   The river was called the Sarum in antiquity, now the Sihan.   Not Ovid, but Juvenal, Satires 6, lines 641–2: ‘What, you most savage of vipers?

100 101

You killed two, did you, two, at a single meal?’ ‘Aye, and seven too, had there chanced to be seven to kill!’ (trans. Ramsay, in Loeb, p. 135). 102   didicerunt actually means the opposite: ‘forgot’. But this was no doubt the effect that the enchantresses had on them. 103   See Edwards, Fortifications, pp. 233–7, pls. 211–20; Hellenkemper, Burgen, pp. 202–13, pls. 49–55. 104   Luke 3.23. 105   Ancient Seleucia, granted to the Hospitallers by King Levon I in 1210 (Edwards, Fortifications, pp. 221–9; Riley-Smith, Knights of St John, pp. 157–60). The castellan in 1211 may have been Aimery of Pax (Delaville le Roulx, Hospitaliers, p. 433).

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knightly106 men. Lord Rupen, the younger king, whom, as I have said, Otto, the emperor of the Germans, had recently crowned at the request of the senior king, was following him with the nobles of that land and many knights splendidly attired. Their servants, each bearing a standard or banner in his hands and leading their horses adorned with trappings, were preceding the senior king. Between them and the king, many armed sergeants were running around on foot to guard the king, who was saluted by all those standing near by with a huge shout, ‘Subtacfol!’, or ‘Sacred king!’ And thus he went down in a great [procession]107 to his area, which had been set out on the bank of the river already mentioned. The Greeks and their patriarch were following afterwards on foot, equipped with many reliquaries. They were marching along with such a noise of trumpets and other musical instruments [26r] that they seemed to be displaying more pomp than the procession. They too awaited the others in a place allotted to them on the river bank. Then finally the clergy of the Armenians went down with their archbishop, labouring appropriately under the weight of the cross that was to be baptized. I would have praised enough their humility and their fitting procession had not a certain priest, distinguished by a long beard like the others, inauspiciously interrupted it. While crossing with insufficient care a small stream that flowed into the river already mentioned, he lost a shoe, which fell off his foot; and in retrieving it, while he was pulling it out of the water he laboured so indifferently that he held up the bishop and the others. The clergy of Hildersheim would have corrected very severely a negligence of this kind if by chance it had happened in their own procession! Still, they took up their position and place to stand on the aforementioned river. When the processions had thus all come together, we saw them singing from this side and that and their long beards, which covered their chests like a river in spate, labouring with a great noise. Reciting the gospels and epistles in Greek and Armenian and blessing the simulated River Jordan, they baptized the cross that they had brought there and released from that vortex a dove. Then someone, going down on a donkey into the middle of the river and standing upright, proclaimed from the frothing whirlpool,108 ‘May our king live for ever!’; and again, ‘May he be vigorous and strengthen all Christendom!’ Everyone, hanging on his words, replied, ‘Amen!’ Then the precentor109 was pushed into the water, which was done not without the laughter of many. After that the king and others were sprinkled with the same water. The Syrians, however, washed themselves completely naked. When these things had been properly concluded, the clergy hastened to their monasteries and the king and knights to the fields, where they engaged in military games, running about on bedecked horses and smashing lances to pieces. They spent that whole day thus in great merriment; and the next day each returned to his own home.   viris religiosis milibus, presumably a miscopying of militaribus.   The word pompa (procession), missing from p, is supplied by l. 108   zucarato gurgite. 109   p: preceptor; l: precentor. 106 107

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Know also this, that the lord king has laid out for himself beside this city a garden of delights, the delights of which I confess myself inadequate to describe. 23. After the feast had been celebrated and permission had been granted to us by the lord king, who saw us off with great honour, we came to Anavarza (Naversa),110 which is an excellent castle sited on a high mountain, which nature has placed in the middle of a plain of that country to the complete advantage of the lord king. From it the king himself is accustomed to proclaim his battle cry, ‘Naversan!’111 At the foot of this mountain there was located a city, the greatness of whose reputation is today borne witness to by a marvellous aqueduct, led on high columns for the distance of two miles. Near there St Gregory112 killed the serpent, which is depicted below his horse. While fleeing, he crossed this mountain; and in order that no one following might obstruct the holy man, the mountain divided itself into two equal parts, laying open a fairly broad passage. In memory of this event a church has been built in that place. This castle is four miles distant from the previously mentioned city of Sis. 24. From there we came to Amuda (Amodana), which is a castle of the hospital or house of the Germans, which the lord king, who always favoured the Germans, gave them for the relief of his soul along with five dependent villages.113 At the foot of this castle flows [26v] a river, which rises with a great torrent in the mountains of Armenia and neighbouring regions. Three days before Palm Sunday and three days afterwards, and on the feast day itself, it emits from its mouth, where it rises or comes out, such a multitude of fish that they are taken away by all the people of all the provinces, who flock there with carts and pack animals. It recently happened that the true Palm Sunday was demonstrated to the Latins and the Armenians, who were arguing about Advent, Lent and Easter and reckoning differently, by the flowing forth of those fish. Thus the king and the Armenians, defeated by such a proof, came to trust our opinion, although according to their teaching they should arrive at Palm Sunday eight days later. They say that St John the Baptist gave them this river and such a miracle, because he struck a rock and the waters flowed forth. This castle is two miles distant from Anavarza. 25. From here we turned back towards Cannamela, of which I have spoken above, and came to Toprak (Thila), which is a very good castle belonging to a   Ancient Anazarbus, on which see Edwards, Fortifications, pp. 65–72, pls. 9–18; Hellenkemper, Burgen, pp. 191–201, pls. 42–8, 83, 91. 111   Numquam aversa, ‘never in retreat’. 112   Presumably St Gregory the Illuminator (c.257–c.331), who converted King Trdat (Tiridates) III to Christianity in 301; however, it is St George rather than St Gregory who is usually depicted killing a serpent below his horse. The same confusion occurs below [1.2.3]. 113   The castle was granted to the Teutonic Order by Levon I in April 1212 (TOT, pp. 37–9, no. 46; cf. Edwards, Fortifications, pp. 58–62; Hellenkemper, Burgen, pp. 123–31). The charter makes it clear that villis refers here to villages (casalia), rather than towns, the four listed being: Sespin, Buquequia, Cumbethfor and Ayun. 110

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certain nobleman.114 Near it is located a fairly pleasant mountain, which they call the mountain of things to come.115 And according to what we heard from a reliable source, whoever fasts for six weeks, participates in the penances undertaken for those days and having thus fasted enters the said mountain, to him will come without doubt good and happy experiences. And this has been confirmed by the experience of many. Among such experiences one that I consider highly concerns a certain knight, whom we also saw in Antioch. He found there, by this kind of good fortune, a towel, which provided his family and whatever guests he was accustomed to invite with all necessary foodstuffs, in such a way that they would be found already prepared on it on the table. If only a servant could run to attend to my needs in just the same way today! 26. With winter already receding, while we were heading for the way out of that country by way of Tarsus, which I have described above, we went down towards the west and around those parts found Armenia itself to be similar in its woods, fresh waters and pure air to our own Germany (Teutonia). Wandering through it for three days we came to Korykos (Cure), which is a city located on the sea and having a good harbour. In it there may today be seen marvellous structures, although destroyed, of such a kind that I would compare them without hesitation to Roman structures and ruins.116 Near that, two miles away, is located the castle of Silifke (Seleph).117 Near it, in the river from which the castle is named, was drowned – Oh grief! – the Roman emperor Frederick [I], of pious memory, while he was working for the recovery of the Holy Land. 27. From there, when a boat had been made ready for us, we went down to Cyprus. It is a very fertile island, having excellent wine. Although it is located near the Cyclades, it is not one of them, because they are described as numbering only fifty-three.118 It extends in length for four days’ journey and in width for more than two; and it has high mountains. In it there is one archbishop, who has three suffragans; and they are Latins. You will be told about them in the appropriate places. The Greeks, whom the Latins rule throughout all this land, [27r] have thirteen bishops, one of whom is an archbishop. They all obey the Franks, paying a tribute like slaves. From this you may understand how the lords of this land are the Franks, whom the

114   Edwards, Fortifications, pp. 244–53, pls. 234–45; Hellenkemper, Burgen, pp. 140–53, pls. 31–4, 90. 115   montem de aventuris. 116   On the castles see Edwards, Fortifications, pp. 161–7, pls. 123–8; Hellenkemper, Burgen, pp. 242–8, pls. 63–8, 91. 117   Edwards, Fortifications, pp. 221–9, pls. 200–205; Hellenkemper, Burgen, pp. 249–54, pls. 69–70, 88. 118   A late twelfth-century portolan identifies Rhodes as the easternmost island of the Cyclades and, following Orosius, numbers them as fifty-three: Liber de Existencia Riveriarum, ed. Dalché in Carte marine, pp. 133–4, 147.

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Greeks and Armenians obey like serfs.119 The latter, mis-shapen in appearance and walking about in meagre clothing, are all exceedingly devoted to riotous living; this is accounted for by the wine of that land, of which there is great profusion, or rather by those same people drinking it. Venus is also said to have been worshipped in Cyprus for the same reason. Whence she herself is called Cypris, where they say: ‘Cypris is conquered by this Mars and this art.’120 Indeed the wines of that island are so rich and dense that sometimes they are boiled down and eaten with bread in the same way as honey. The island also supports many wild asses and goats, deer and chamois;121 but it does not have bears, lions, wolves or other dangerous animals. If anyone wants to know more about this land, how it was originally made habitable, how the country’s virgins were corrupted and impregnated by demons, and how much those demons troubled the first male colonists of this land, he should seek out the book of Hermann of Lüchow,122 in which that noble man of pious memory has described thoroughly and in detail everything and much more about the state of this land. May our charitable prayer deem it worthy to recall his soul. 28. We landed in Kyrenia (Scherins), the first point of entry. It is a small fortified city, having within it a fortified and towered castle; and it rejoices greatly in its good harbour.123 In its territory the king of Cyprus has four good castles.124 And note that the emperor Henry [VI] established the first lord king of this land and crowned him by the hand of Conrad, the chancellor.125 Thus it is that the king of this land is bound to the Roman emperor by ties of lordship and fidelity. Proceeding from there we came to Nicosia (Nicossia). This is the capital city of the lord king, situated almost in the centre of the plain of that land and having no defences. In it at the present time a strong castle is being carefully constructed.126   coloni.   Cf. Polythecon 8.244–5, in CCCM 93, p. 196; Gerald of Wales, Speculum ecclesiæ

119

120

3.8, in RS 21.4, p. 170; Calvelli, Cipro e la Memoria, p. 8. 121   dama could also mean ‘fallow deer’ or ‘antelope’. 122   p: Lugowe. Laurent read this as Lugonne and proposed, without citing any source, that Hermann of Lyons (sic) was an otherwise unknown dean of the cathedral chapter of Nicosia. Lüchow is a small town in Lower Saxony: see Calvelli, Cipro e la Memoria, pp. 8–9. 123   Megaw, ‘Arts’, pp. 199–203, fig. 10; Petre, ‘Crusader Castles of Cyprus’, pp. 244– 70; N. Faucherre, in de Vaivre and Plagnieux, Art gothique, pp. 384–90. 124   St Hilarion, Buffavento, Kantara and presumably Kyrenia itself, as the only other castle in the area, Gastria, belonged to the Templars: see Megaw, ‘Arts’, pp. 204–6, figs. 11–12; Petre, ‘Crusader Castles of Cyprus’, pp. 121–55, 203–6; J.-B. de Vaivre and N. Faucherre, in de Vaivre and Plagnieux, Art gothique, pp. 368–83. 125   Aimery of Lusignan did homage to the emperor Henry VI’s chancellor, Conrad, bishop of Hildersheim, and was crowned king of Cyprus by him in Nicosia in 1197 (Hill, History of Cyprus 2, pp. 48–9). 126   Megaw, ‘Arts’, pp. 196–7; Petre, ‘Crusader Castles of Cyprus’, pp. 314–27; G. Grivaud and C. Schabel, in de Vaivre and Plagnieux, Art gothique, pp. 89–108.

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It has innumerable very rich inhabitants, whose houses are similar to the houses of Antioch in their internal decoration and paintings. In this city there is the seat of an archbishop; and there is also in it the court and palace of the lord king, in which we first saw an ostrich. This city is five miles’ distant from Kyrenia. While travelling along the road we came across many cypresses, which grow there separately in large numbers. After them, in my opinion, the island of Cyprus is so named. 29. Proceeding from there on a pilgrimage to visit the cross of the thief who was crucified to the right of the Lord we came to Limassol (Lemezun).127 This is a city not greatly fortified, lying on the sea coast and possessing a much-visited harbour. In it is the first episcopal suffragan see of the lord [archbishop] of Nicosia. Near that city are located the vineyards of En-gedi (Engaddi), of which [it is written] in the Song of Solomon: ‘My beloved is to me a cluster of Cyprus in the vineyards of En-gedi.’128 In them at one time was also found balsam, but it is not found now. Their wines, however, are excellent; the experts are to be believed in saying how sweet the wine is, for we have tried and tasted it. 30. From there we went up the mountain called that of the Holy Cross,129 [27v] which rises above all the other mountains of Cyprus. On its summit is built a small monastery of black monks, whose venerable life – if I may say so, with their leave – is unlike the life of our monks.130 In the monastery itself is a small chapel, in which is kept with much honour that honourable cross. This, so they say, hangs and swings in the air without any support – which, however, it does not seem easy to do. In this manner and for this reason was the cross brought there. The Devil, detester of all good things, troubled the cultivators and inhabitants of this land with so much malice that the bodies of their dead, which they placed in the ground by day, he plucked out of their tombs and carried back to the houses of their loved ones by night. Thus the native people were unable to bury their dead. Helena, the mother of Constantine, who was then emperor, took pity on their plight and bringing back with her from Jerusalem that cross, which was in one piece as it is today, set it up on that mountain. And thus she powerfully expelled those malignant enemies not only from the earth, but also from the lower air, which is reckoned to be the prison of demons, as if she were repeating this word of

  Megaw, ‘Arts’, pp. 198–9; Petre, ‘Crusader Castles of Cyprus,’ pp. 288–313; C. Corvisier, in de Vaivre and Plagnieux, Art gothique, pp. 395–9. 128   Song of Solomon 1.14. The Hebrew word rendered ciprus in the Vulgate is translated as ‘camphire’ in the AV and ‘henna blossoms’ in the RSV. En-gedi is of course in Palestine, not in Cyprus. The mistaken association of this passage with the grapes of Cyprus is already apparent in Christian exegesis in the fifth century: see Calvelli, Cipro e la Memoria, pp. 6–7. 129   Stavrovouni, on which see Gunnis, Historic Cyprus, pp. 428–32. 130   Cf. Baron, ‘Note’, p. 506 n.23. This appears to be the earliest reference that we have to Stavrovouni, previously an Orthodox monastery, being in the hands of the Benedictines (cf. Coureas, Latin Church, pp. 187–8; Schabel, ‘Religion’, p. 175; id., ‘Status’, pp. 175–6). 127

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the Lord: ‘Leave the dead to bury their dead.’131 And thus ‘that ancient enemy who conquered by wood, by that wood was also conquered’. 31. From that mountain we saw Paphos (Bafos),132 which is also sited beside the sea and has in it the second suffragan episcopal see of the lord [archbishop] of Nicosia. And it is a small city in which is shown today that tower on which, according to the errors of the pagans, Venus was worshipped by her lovers.133 From there, our pilgrimage completed, we pressed on towards Famagusta.134 Since we proceeded on foot, we were compelled through tiredness to make use of the donkeys, on which we sat, refreshed in equal measure with food and wine; and on them we imagined ourselves to be pushing forward as if on strong horses. Then one of us, whom I do not presume to name and whom moreover ‘full cups had made over-eloquent’,135 attempting to ride and having extended his feet in different directions fell down from the donkey and while he was trying to get up received several kicks from the same donkey. And now the true Silenus is wounded by the kick of an ass!136 He, however, attributed the whole occurrence to the wine, when he should rather have observed this writing of Cato: ‘You who transgress through drink, do not excuse yourself: for the wine is not at all to blame, but he who drinks it.’137 Such a man, as I see it, cannot give evidence after that. 32. From here we came to Famagusta, which is a city located beside the sea. It has a good harbour but is not well fortified. In it is the third suffragan episcopal see of the lord [archbishop] of Nicosia. Near it is located a ruined city,138 from which, so they say, came that great saint, Epiphanius, whose memory is recorded in the canon.139 From there, after a delay of three weeks during which we waited for a favourable wind, hoisting the sails on high we returned to Acre (Hakon) with much effort and in a great storm.

  Luke 9.60.   Wilbrand must have been mistaken, as Paphos is not visible from Stavrovouni. 133   For discussion of this passage and of the ‘tower’, which Wilbrand evidently never 131 132

saw for himself, see Calvelli, Cipro e la Memoria, pp. 257–64. 134   See Megaw, ‘Arts’, pp. 197–8; Petre, ‘Crusader Castles of Cyprus’, pp. 156–202; C. Otten-Froux, in de Vaivre and Plagnieux, Art gothique, pp. 109–18. 135   Cf. Horace, Epistles 1.5, line 19, in Loeb, p. 283. 136   Silenus, the foster father and companion of Dionysos, was the Greek god of the wine-press and drunkenness, who is often shown riding on a donkey. 137   Distichs of Cato 2.21, ed. and trans. Chase, pp. 26–7. 138   Salamis. 139   St Epiphanius (c.310/20–403), bishop of Salamis from 376 onwards.

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[Book 2] Now, returning first of all to the heart and directing our thoughts towards our principal undertaking, [28r] after receiving the blessing of the lord patriarch,140 we went up towards Jerusalem and passed by Ḥayfā (Cayphan). It is a small city with its walls destroyed, sited next to the sea. Our people control it. It received its name from its founder, Caiaphas, who, because he was high priest in that year, prophesied that the Lord would be handed over [for execution].141 Directly above it lies Mount Carmel. On it is shown and honoured today the dwelling of Elijah. On it Elijah was also fed by the raven.142 There too the Shunamite woman later found Elisha.143 Solemn masses are celebrated in that place every day.144 Near it is also located Galilea, a good village.145 And this is four miles distant from Acre (Hacon). 2. From there we passed by Capernaum (Capharnaum), which is a small castle sited on the sea.146 And it should be known that some people say that this is Capernaum, where the Lord cured the ruler’s son and performed many other miracles. But these people are ensnared in error, for that Capernaum is located in Galilee. You will be told about it in the appropriate place.147 Against those people is happily set the authority of Luke, who says in the gospel, ‘What we have heard that you did in Capernaum, do also here as a sign in your own country.’148 And [against the argument], ‘The Lord’s own country was Galilee: therefore those things took place outside Galilee and in Capernaum’, I reply that ‘own country’ refers here to Nazareth, for which reason the Lord was also called the Nazarene and not the Galilean. Leaving to the left Sarepta of Judæa (Sarepta Iudee),149 in distinction to which the other Sarepta, about which I have related above, is called of the Sidonians (Sarepta Sydoniorum), we came to Cæsarea. This is not the Cæsarea of Philip (Cesarea Philippi) but of Strato,150 in which St Peter, when he was commanded   Albert of Vercelli (1205–14).   Cf. John 11.51. Ḥayfā (‘Ηφά) is mentioned by Eusebius (Onomasticon, ed.

140 141

Klostermann, p. 108), but its name has nothing to do with Caiaphas (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 347–8; TIR, pp. 141–2). 142   But this was by the Cherith brook, e of the Jordan: 1 Kings 17.3–6. 143   2 Kings 4.25. 144   On the Cave of Elijah (Mar Elias, al-Khiḍr), see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 226–9. 145   Identifiable as Khirbat al-Tin‘ama, known in Frankish sources as Tymini or Galgala, the latter probably after 2 Kings 4.38: cf. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 368–9. 146   Khirbat al-Kanīsa. 147   In a part of the book that is now missing. 148   Luke 4.23. 149   Al-Ṣarafand. 150   Strato’s Tower was the name of the settlement until 9 bc, when Herod renamed it Cæsarea in honour of Cæsar Augustus.

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in a vision to eat all the unclean things that creep on the earth, established a bishop’s seat. Presiding in it, he began to preach the word of faith to the gentiles; and through this his vision, which I have just touched upon, came to be fulfilled equally in the same place.151 In it there is today an episcopal seat. In fact the city has its walls destroyed; it was inhabited only during the period of truce and only then became accustomed to owe allegiance to our people.152 In this city, according to some, Jesus saw a man named Matthew sitting in the custom-house and said to him, ‘Follow me! etc.’153 This is the distance of one long day’s journey from Acre (Hakon). From there in great fear we passed by Arsuf (Arsun),154 which is a small destroyed city, inhabited by our people at the time of truces and having Saracen robbers within its borders. Note that these cities already mentioned or about to be mentioned were destroyed during the loss of the Holy Land to the Saracens, except for Jaffa (Iaf), which our people lost – for shame! – at the time of the emperor Henry [VI].155 In it the sons of Mammon killed or took captive twelve thousand Christians on account of our sins. This is the Joppe (Iopea) in which St Peter received the vision touched upon above,156 that is to say a dish sent from heaven full of all the creeping things of the earth, which the angel instructed him to eat. It is also the one in whose port the Magi, while returning home by another way after worshipping the Lord, embarked on a ship equipped with no sail or oars. From there, as I have written fully above, they were miraculously brought to the port of Tarsus. This city, and equally its remains, [28v] has customarily been inhabited by our people through a favour extended to them by the Saracens and is one day’s journey from Cæsarea. 3. From there, after being assigned a guide, leaving the coast and advancing southwards we passed by a land truly flowing with milk and honey and wandered through Ramla (Ramma). This city has been destroyed and is inhabited by Saracens. In it St George157 was raised at the time when the Greeks had hold of   Acts 10.   Saladin’s ‘amīrs Badr al-Dīn Duldarim and Gharas al-Dīn Kilij captured Cæsarea

151 152

in July 1187; the sultan himself had the walls destroyed after the fall of Acre to the Franks in July 1191 (Hazard, ‘Caesarea and the Crusades’, pp. 85–6; Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 166–7). 153   According to Matthew 9.9, this took place in Galilee. 154   Ancient Apollonia. 155   Henry VI was emperor from 1191 to 1197. Jaffa fell to al-‘Ādil in July 1187, but was retaken and held by Richard I in September 1191. It fell again to al-‘Ādil just after the accidental death of Henry of Champagne in Acre on 10 September 1197, but before that of the emperor Henry VI on 28 September, and remained in Muslim hands until September 1204 (see Pringle, Churches 1, p. 265). Wilbrand is therefore referring here to the conquest in 1197. 156   It is not impossible that visionem supra tactam was originally supra tectum, ‘on the roof’ (cf. Acts 10.9–16). 157   p: Gregorius.

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the land. Because of this, today it is commonly called by the French ‘St George of Ramla’ (San Iorge de Ramnis); and his body lies in a certain monastery of the Syrians, sited next to it.158 Some time after the death of his flesh, he was also seen within its borders with Baldwin, king of Jerusalem, [fighting] against the Turks and gave the victory to our men.159 There is another Ramah of Judæa, which will be described to you in its proper place.160 4. The same day we came to Bayt Nūbā (Bettenobele), a village whose fortifications have been destroyed, which is inhabited by Saracens. It is seven French miles from Joppe (Iopea) or Jaffa. The next day, which I count without doubt the happiest of all my happy days, we ascended the mountains of Jerusalem. They are very high, stony and rugged, and what is remarkable is that they produce much wine, oil and corn. In them we saw many destroyed and desolate villages and monasteries, whose names are unknown to me, in which religious men used to live close to their mother. 5. And so, as the sun was rising, that much longed-for Jerusalem appeared before our eyes. So struck were we at that point with joy and admiration that we even imagined that we were seeing the celestial Jerusalem. On approaching the city we were made to enter a certain court161 sited next to the city walls. In that place St Stephen was martyred, and in his honour our faithful had established a church, as may still be seen, and an archbishopric.162 Into it at the present time are driven together the sultan’s donkeys. ‘How therefore is the gold obscured, how the best colour changed?’163 From the materials of the church, from the site of its remains, why has there been arranged a place of dung? And note that this place is outside the walls because, according to the Acts of the Apostles, ‘they cast him out of the city gate and stoned him’.164 6. The site of the city, which we were able to observe well from there, is like this. Although it is located in a high place, in respect of the mountains that are adjacent to it the city appears to lie in a valley. Above it on one side to the east extends the Mount of Olives, and on another side facing south is Mount Sion,   The church containing the tomb of St George lay in Lydda, some 4 km ne of Ramla itself (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 9–27). 159   An allusion to the battle of Montgisart, near Ramla, in which Baldwin IV defeated Saladin on St Catherine’s day (25 November) 1177. St George’s appearance at the battle is mentioned by Ernoul (ch. 6, ed. de Mas Latrie, p. 43) and in ‘The Ways and Pilgrimages’, text a [10.3]. 160   In a part of the book that is now missing. 161   curia. 162   The reference to an archbishopric is obscure, though the abbot of St Mary Latin, to whom the church belonged, was a suffragan of the patriarch of Jerusalem (John of Ibelin, Livre, ch. 226, ed. Edbury, 592). Next to it stood the Asnerie, or donkey stables, of the Hospitallers (Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 372–9). 163   Lamentations 4.1. 164   Acts 7.58. 158

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which at the present time is enclosed by the walls of the city.165 For after the Lord’s Passion the city was destroyed down to its foundations by Titus and Vespasian; and in its rebuilding it so changed its earlier position that Mount Calvary, which had formerly been outside the walls, is now enclosed by them. And that it had formerly been outside John attests where he says, ‘And He went out, bearing His cross, into the place that is called the place of the skull (calvarie locus).’166 The Tower of David, which was formerly above the gate, has also now been rebuilt within the city in its ancient position, and one of the gates is now named David’s Gate after it. Entering this we were counted like sheep and with bowed heads were led by an official of the sultan to the forecourt of the church of the Holy Sepulchre. That desolate church, not having anyone to console her, is now placed under tribute, so that before its doors we were obliged to pay eight-anda-half drachmas. [29r] Entering it with the awe and joy that was appropriate, we worshipped in the very holy place where His feet stood. In the centre of the church, which is all round, we entered the Tomb of the Lord, which is set out in the form of a large square box, covered over on all sides with white polished marble; and inside it has that rock on which was laid the sacred body of the Lord, ‘parched on the altar of the cross’.167 The rock, which is whole and covered in marble, is open in three places to the touch and kisses of the pilgrims.168 Of it Mark says, ‘And they laid [Him] in a tomb cut out of the rock.’169 In it we also saw the place to the right where the angel appeared to the Three Marys. St Mark refers to this, saying, ‘And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe.’170 Note that in the area of the tomb the church does not have, and has never had, a roof. It is as if the roof, which is arranged and shaped like a clerical tonsure, has been cut off, with, as I see it, one consideration in mind: the priest is tonsured so that between the mind that is said to reside in his head and his Creator there is nothing intervening, like for example the worldly extravagance that is indisputably represented by hair. And the aforesaid roof has been cut off in this way, so that nothing should be seen to come between the tomb and its former covering and so that it might be guarded for ever by heavenly grace. And we may reflect on this each year, because on Easter night the Holy Fire is accustomed to be brought there by a celestial messenger.171

  The city walls were rebuilt enclosing Mount Sion by Saladin in 1192 (Abū Shāmā, RHC Or 5, pp. 82–3; cf. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 267–8). 166   John 19.17. 167   From a hymn for vespers at Easter time. 168   p: peregrinarum, implying ‘female pilgrims’, though this may be simply a copyist’s error. 169   Cf. Mark 15.46. 170   Mark 16.5 (RSV). 171   In the ceremony of the Holy Fire, the lamps inside the Tomb of Christ, which had been extinguished on Maunday Thursday, are miraculously relit. A detailed account of 165

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It should be known that Mount Calvary, which is moderately sized like a little hill, is contained within the walls of the church, because the Tomb of the Lord was in a garden at the time of the Passion. The garden, however, lay at the foot of this little hill or Mount Calvary, so that in truth the hill and the tomb are very close to one another. Concerning all these things John speaks thus, ‘Now in the place where Jesus was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. So because of the day of preparation of the Jews, since the tomb was near by, they laid him there.’172 From these words you may weigh carefully the truth of what has been said before. We too ascending this hill, although unworthy, saw the hole cut in the rock in which was set the cross itself, ‘a decorous and shining tree, adorned with the purple of a king’, while it bore ‘the price of the world’.173 Near that is seen the place of the Lord’s blood, which flowed out from His side on to the rock, because according to John, ‘one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.’174 This rock has a large fracture, because, as Matthew said, ‘the rocks were split and the tombs opened.’175 Around this place, ‘standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.’176 Likewise in the same place we saw part of that column to which our Lord was tied when He was scourged. Note that the church and the Holy Sepulchre and everything contained within are watched over with conscientious zeal by four Syrian priests, who are not allowed to go outside. All these things the Saracens leave unharmed, something which has come about more by divine will than by their benevolence. The church itself is highly decorated with marble tablets and golden pictures, having in its chevet a beautiful and spacious choir, within whose [29v] ambit the bones of the faithful kings lie in marble sarcophagi.177 In the centre of the choir is shown a circle, of which they say that the centre of the world is truly represented there; however, according to astrologers, it would more likely and more certainly be found below the torrid zone, if that were habitable. Having looked at all these things, we saw from a distance in the atrium the ornate chapel that St Helena, Constantine’s mother, built in that place in which she was worthy enough to find the Cross, the ceremony in 1108 is given by the Russian Abbot Daniel (trans. Ryan, pp. 166–71; cf. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 15–16). 172   Cf. John 19.41–2. 173   From the office hymn, Vexilla regis prodeunt, sung at vespers from Passion Sunday to the Wednesday of Holy Week. 174   John 19.34 (RSV). 175   Matthew 27.51–2. 176   John 19.25. 177   The tombs of Godfrey of Bouillon and the kings of Jerusalem from Baldwin I to Baldwin V lay in front of Calvary in the s transept of the church until the fire of 1809: see Horn, Ichnographiae, pp. 70–75, figs. 7–10, pls. vi, x; Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 16–17, 23, 37, 64–5, fig. 2.

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following the indications of Judas, the brother of Stephen.178 Then, constrained by the same unbelievers to go outside, we left the church and those precious pearls cast before swine – Oh grief! – to be consumed and the very place in which You, Holy Father, handed over Your Son that You might redeem Your servant! And through that gate of David by which we179 had entered we were permitted to exit, without having yet seen the other holy places in the city. 7. From there going down beside the walls of the city, which are towered, new and very strong, we passed by180 the gate of St Stephen and saw the Golden Gate, which directly faces the Mount of Olives. Within its gates is a certain cistern, which from time to time is so prolific that from it a small stream runs through the middle of the valley of Jehoshaphat at the foot of the Mount of Olives. That is what the evangelist John calls the Kidron (Cedron) brook.181 Beside it today is located a church, built in the place where at the time of the Lord’s Passion there was a garden in which the Lord frequently met with the disciples and in which He also received a kiss from the traitor Judas. All of this is testified to by John, where he says, ‘Jesus went out across the Kidron brook, where there was a garden, which he entered with his disciples. Now Judas also knew this place, for Jesus often met etc.’182 And that church is called by the people the Holy Lord’s Prayer (Sanctum Pater Noster), and they say that the Lord first taught His disciples that prayer in that place.183 8. Now you must know that the valley of Jehoshaphat starts between the walls of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. Although at its beginning it is confined and very narrow, at its end, which extends almost as far as a French   According to a legend that developed by the fifth century, the place where the cross lay buried was disclosed to Helena by the Jew Judas, brother of Stephen, to whom it had been revealed by divine intervention. As a result Judas became a believer in the risen Christ, changed his name to Cyriacus, and was made bishop of Jerusalem. For discussion of the legend and a translation of a fifth- to sixth-century Syriac version of it, see Drijvers, Helena Augusta, pp. 165–80. 179   p actually says ‘by which You had entered’ (intraveras); but as Jesus is not recorded as having entered through David’s Gate this is most likely the result of a copyist’s error. 180   transivimus. As elsewhere with Wilbrand, this means ‘we passed by’ rather than ‘through,’ since he had already left the city through David’s Gate and was following the northern walls on the outside in a clockwise direction from w to e. This section of the wall, between Damascus Gate (Bāb al-‘Amūd) and the Gate of Mercy (Golden Gate, Bāb alRaḥma), had been newly rebuilt in 1191–92 by Saladin’s son, Malik al-Afḍal (Ibn al-‘Athīr, al-Kāmil, trans. Richards 2, p. 393; Hawari, Ayyubid Jerusalem, pp. 22–3). 181   John 18.1. 182   John 18.1–2. 183   Here Wilbrand appears to be referring to the cave-church in Gethsemane, which was associated with Jesus’ betrayal by Judas. The church of the Lord’s Prayer stood at the top of the hill, while the church of the Saviour, marking the place where Jesus prayed in the garden, had probably been destroyed by this time (see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 98–102, cf. 117–24, 358–65). 178

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mile into the borders of Bethlehem, it is very wide. At the head of the valley we saw a finely decorated church and in the middle of it a tomb covered over on all sides with white and truly spotless marble.184 In this the Apostles at one time laid the immaculate body of the Blessed Virgin, as if that which ‘becomes of a sudden the temple of God’185 could be contained in that part of the temple. In it the Apostles afterwards found heavenly manna in place of the body. At the present time, Syrian priests who pay tribute to the Saracens attend to it in worthy veneration. How wonderful to be seen to be worthy of your mercy towards us, O Holy Father, that on one and the same day we merited seeing the tomb of Your Holy Mother and that of her Son, that is to say Your Word made Flesh! Beside the walls of the same church lies the Potter’s Field, which the Jews bought for the burial of strangers with the thirty pieces of silver thrown back by Judas. This, although it is not long, nevertheless extends from the walls of Jerusalem up to the Mount of Olives. From this you may consider that that mountain is sited directly above. Concerning this field St Mark speaks in this way: ‘So having taken counsel, they bought with them the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers. Because of this, that field has been called Akeldama (Acheldemach), that is the Field of Blood, down to the present day.’186 At the present time, Christians, captives of the Saracens, [30r] are buried in it.187 No wonder that Our Lady, as an example of complete humility, chose her place of burial within the boundaries of that field, while her Son, ‘whom land, sea and air cherish, worship and extol’,188 saw fit to be buried in a garden. 9. From there, ascending the Mount of Olives, we saw the castle189 of Bethphage, of which Matthew says, ‘When Jesus was approaching Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, he sent two [disciples] etc.’190 On the summit of the mountain we saw two destroyed cloisters, one of which was built in that place in which the Lord prayed. ‘And there his sweat became like drops of blood falling onto the ground.’191 The other is built over that place from which the Lord,   St Mary in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 287–306.   Part of the office hymn, A solis ortus cardine, sung at Lauds on Christmas Day. 186   Not Mark, but Matthew 27.7–8. The Greek gospel text does not mention the name 184 185

Akeldama at this point; it appears to have been introduced into the Latin Vulgate text as a gloss, apparently derived from Acts 1.19. 187   Strictly speaking Akeldama lay not the Kidron Valley, where Wilbrand appears to have seen Christian burials taking place, but in the Hinnom Valley, which runs into it s of the city (cf. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 222–8). 188   First lines of the office hymn, Quem terre pontus, æthera, sung at Matins on the feast days of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 189   castellum, from the Vulgate text of Matthew 21.2, where it means ‘village’. 190   Cf. Matthew 21.1. 191   Luke 22.44. The church where Jesus prayed and sweated blood was actually located in Gethsemane at the foot of the hill; the church that Wilbrand saw on the summit was more likely that of the Lord’s Prayer (Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 117–24, 358–65).

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‘when he ascended on high, took captivity captive.’192 In it at the present time a certain infidel Saracen has laid out his place of prayer in honour of Muḥammad.193 Looking right over the city from that mountain we saw inside it the Temple of the Lord, which some people call by the ancient name ‘The Temple of Solomon’, being unaware that Jerusalem itself along with its temple has been destroyed. In it the lord sultan has set out a very solemn place of prayer for himself and his followers, in which the inhabitants of the city are ordered to convene every Friday and to worship Muḥammad. Beside that there was pointed out to us the Sheep-Pool (probatica piscina), of which St John says: ‘Now there is in Jerusalem a sheep-pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda (Bethsaida) and has five porticoes, etc.’194 From the same height of Olivet we overlooked Mount Sion, which, as I have said before, is now enclosed by the walls of the city, but at the time of the Passion was outside them. On its summit, because the mountain is broad, there is a certain monastery, spacious and beautiful to behold, in which there also live Syrians, paying tribute to the Saracens. They show to the pilgrims who come there the place where the Lord dined with His disciples, the table on which the same Jesus Christ bequeathed the celebration of the mysteries of His body and blood, and the basin or bowl in which the Lord washed the feet of His disciples, giving an example of service and knowing what He had done for them.195 And know that on Mount Sion was that house or hospital to which, according to the book of the Maccabees, ‘the very powerful man Judas made a collection of twelve thousand drachmas of silver and sent it to Jerusalem to be an offering, etc.’196 In that house the Hospital of St John was later built.197 Also in that house the disciples, hiding and coming together behind closed doors after the Lord’s Passion, were worthy enough to see the same Lord, according to John, who says, ‘When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, the doors being closed where the disciples were gathered together in the same place for fear of the Jews, Jesus stood etc.’198   Ephesians 4.8.   This mosque occupied the former church of the Ascension, which had been rebuilt

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to an octagonal plan in the 1140s–50s. In 1188, Saladin established the Mount of Olives as a waqf in favour of two of his ‘amirs, al-Ṣāliḥ Walī al-Dīn and Abū Ḥasan al-Hakāri, and their heirs (Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 72–88). 194   John 5.2. Wilbrand follows the Vulgate spelling, Bethsaida, which is also the name of a place in Galilee. Other versions refer to it as Bethzatha. 195   Cf. John 13.2–12. These sites lay within the church of St Mary of Mount Sion: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 261–87. 196   Cf. 2 Maccabees 12.42–3. 197   The house of St John the Apostle was associated with Mount Sion and its church. Wilbrand appears to be have confused this with the hospital of St John the Baptist, which was located in the Muristan, near the Holy Sepulchre. On the legends associating the Hospital’s foundation with the Maccabees, see Delaville le Roulx, Hospitaliers, p. 17; Nicholson, Knights Hospitaller, pp. 3–4; Riley-Smith, Knights of St John, pp. 32–4. 198   John 20.19.

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That was also the place where the disciples received the Holy Spirit, wherefore the Acts of the Apostles say: ‘When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in the same place. And there was made a sound etc.’199 There also that other propitious and unblemished compact of the body of the Blessed Virgin Mary was dissolved, when her most happy and blessed soul, coming forth from her body, left it for a time; because, as I have noted above, her body was afterwards taken up in the valley of Jehoshaphat. 10. From there we came to Bethany, which is a small castle,200 having two churches, which are looked after by the Saracens. In one of them in former times was the house of Simon the Leper. In that [30v] we saw the place where Mary Magdalene, an example of penitence, embracing the feet of the Lord requested and obtained forgiveness. In the other was the garden of Mary and Martha. In that we saw the tomb from which the Lord raised Lazarus. These churches are so close together that in my opinion Lazarus was buried in the garden or courtyard of Simon.201 This is the Bethany of which John says, ‘Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village (castellum) of Mary and her sister Martha.’202 Concerning those things, Mark says, ‘Now while he was in Bethany in the house of Simon the Leper, there came to him a woman, a sinner, etc.’203 This castle is a short French mile from Jerusalem, which is testified to by the evangelist, saying, ‘Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away, etc.’204 11. From there, passing along a difficult and dangerous road, we came to Jericho (Iherico). This is a small castle, its walls destroyed, inhabited by Saracens. The Lord recalled it when he said in a parable: ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among thieves, etc.’205 And in truth that road is dangerous today, having many robbers. Of Jericho Luke also says, ‘And it happened that as Jesus was approaching Jericho a blind man was sitting beside the road begging, etc.’206 And in the Song of Solomon: ‘I grew tall like a palm tree in Kadesh (Cades) and like roses planted in Jericho’207 Also, near it a man named Zacchæus, wanting to see Jesus climbed up into sycamore tree and other things.208 Jericho is two short miles from the Jordan and sixteen French miles from Jerusalem.   Acts 2.1–2.   castellum, the word for ‘village’ used to describe Bethany in the Vulgate (Luke

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10.38; John 11.1), would doubtless have influenced Wilbrand’s own designation of the place as a ‘castle’ as much as the fortified nature of the site would have done. 201   See Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 122–37. 202   John 11.1 (RSV). 203   Cf. Mark 14.3; Luke 7.36–7. 204   John 11.18. Fifteen stadia would actually have been almost two miles. 205   Luke 10.30. 206   Luke 18.35. 207   Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 24.18 (Vulgate), though in the RSV translation (ch. 24.14) the palm tree is in En-gedi. 208   Luke 19.2–4.

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12. And from here, proceeding a little way beside a flat and pleasant valley, we came to the Jordan, which is a very deep river with deep fast-flowing waters. Of it Matthew says, ‘Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.’209 Around that place a church had been built, which at the present time is almost totally destroyed, where, so they say, the same John the Baptist baptized with the baptism of repentance.210 The book of Kings speaks of this river: ‘Naaman, the chief of the army, went down and washed seven times in the Jordan, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little boy.’211 Therefore, in the hope of restoring and cleansing the flesh of our interior men, we also went down and were being washed in the Jordan, but the Arabs, making sport of our bath, stirred up the river by throwing into it quantities of mud. For Arabia extends there right up to the Jordan. And you should know that the Jordan itself is pressing closely on that place.212 13. From there we came to a foul smelling lake of infernal blackness, having a noisome odour,213 into which Gomorrah and Sodom are said to have been swallowed. Near it is shown Jacob’s Well.214 As was also set out in the first book, there are two streams, Jor and Dan,215 which rise at the foot of Lebanon and flowing together make the Jordan. Near that place we also saw the desert, of which Matthew says, ‘Jesus was led by the spirit into the desert to be tempted by the Devil, etc.’216 14. From here we returned to Jericho, and not far from it we ascended a very high mountain on which the Lord is said to have fasted for forty days, because of which the mountain is called today Quarantine (Quarennia).217

  Matthew 3.13.   This may have been the chapel of the Baptism, which had been rebuilt by the time

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of John Phocas’s visit in 1177, rather than the monastery of St John the Baptist, which stood near by (Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 108–9 and 2, pp. 241–4). 211   Cf. 2 Kings 5.14, referring to Naaman, commander of the Syrian army. 212   What remained of the church seems to have been washed away soon after Wilbrand’s visit (Pringle, Churches 1, p. 109). 213   l: tetrum habens odorem; p: colorem. 214   In fact Jacob’s Well lay just outside Nāblus, nowhere near Sodom and Gomorrah. 215   Nahr Bāniyās and Nahr Laddān respectively: see Abel, Géographie 1 pp. 161–2. 216   Matthew 4.1. 217   Jabal al-Qurunṭul.

2

Thietmar: Pilgrimage (1217–18) Here Begins the Prologue to the Book of Thietmar’s Pilgrimage I Thietmar, for the remission of my sins, signed with and protected by the cross, set out reluctantly from home along with my pilgrims, who set out with similar misgivings. Having passed through dangers both of the sea and of land, which to my fragility were great but in comparison to divine retribution nothing, I arrived in Acre. For a month or more while I remained there and the land meanwhile recovered its breath a little in the peace resulting from treaties made between the Saracens and the Christians,1 I took it upon myself to ponder what sort of thing the spirit is, because it is not of this world, and to what it aspires, namely good works and from good works eternal life. Therefore, so that from idleness and the delights of the flesh, which strive against the spirit, I should not incline myself to worse, but on the contrary should gain life from the labours of the flesh, I resolved in my heart to visit, in so far as I was able, the places that Our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and Man, true Son of the true God and of man, had sealed and sanctified with His bodily footprints, those which our venerable fathers inhabited, as is revealed in the Pentateuch, and the dwellings dedicated to the saints lying within them. For I burned greatly with ardent desire to see personally those things, which [2] at different times I had heard from the scriptures in cloudy and obscure language. But because sometimes when engrossed in reading the pleasure drawn from such delectable things smells to me of thyme and tastes of honey, I considered it not unuseful to commit to writing what I saw and accurately learnt from truthful witnesses, lest suddenly by the smoke of oblivion I should not preserve artificially by the little aide-mémoire of something written down that which I was not able to remember naturally. Since therefore I desire that I alone shall be delighted in the Lord in this work, I keep arrogance and vain glory far away; especially since the gospel says of those who look for the praise of men and strive after hollow glory: ‘Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.’2 For I would judge it foolish and absurd beyond measure if I were to exchange so many dangers of different kinds, whether of the road, of the sea or of the land, steadfastly and wearily endured both by the spirit and by the body, and the eternal recompense that I hope for from God for life without end, in return for men’s praise, vain glory, and indeed if I may speak more plainly, for nothing. However, if anyone picks up this work and wishes to take pleasure in it with me, he will not get annoyed with me because of it and impute to me the sap of arrogance when he sees   Palestine had enjoyed relatively peaceful conditions since 1192.   Matthew 6.2 and 6.5 (RSV).

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that the sequence of these writings has been compiled not pompously but simply, with the particular purpose of banishing idleness and reflecting on the places of the Holy Land and those wonderful things done by the power of God. Here ends the Prologue. Here begins Thietmar’s Pilgrimage 1. And so in the year of the birth of the Saviour of the World, 1217, I was in Acre (Accon), which was called in antiquity Ptolemaïs.3 There in ancient times the idol of Baalzebub used to be worshipped, of whom it is read in the gospel4 that he was a god in Accaron – for there is [3] still a tower in the harbour of the city which is called the Tower of the Flies. In that city moreover Jonathan, the brother of Judas Maccabeus, was captured by guile and killed by Trypho.5 However, there is another city of Accaron, that is to say one of the five cities of the Philistines.6 Whence the verses: The city of Accaron is not that which some consider Accon: The one is in Philistia, the other is called Ptolomaïs.

I began my journey from Acre with certain Syrians and Saracens through the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, passing through the town of Sepphoris (Sophora), in which St Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin, was born. I also passed through Nazareth, a city of Galilee, where the Annunciation of the Lord was made and where the Lord was brought up and spent His boyhood. Near this city, however, there is a mountain from which the Jews, His relations, marvelling at Jesus’ sagacity, resolved to cast Him down. This place is called to the present day the Precipice, or the Lord’s Leap, because when they were about to precipitate Him from it He disappeared from them.7 It is therefore said that He leapt from the mountain into the valley. A chapel has been built there.8 [4] From Nazareth I then passed near Cana of Galilee,9 where the Lord converted water into wine at the wedding. In that place a church has been built. There may still be seen the impressions where the jars had been placed. And a certain Saracen told me that the cistern from which was drawn the water that was turned into wine, still contains water having the flavour of wine. 3

  For Thietmar’s itinerary, see Fig. 5.   Not one of the gospels but 2 Kings 1.2–3, where Baalzebub is described as the god of Ekron (Accaron). 5   1 Maccabees 12.42–6. 6   Ekron, now Khirbat al-Muqanna‘ or Tel Miqne. 7   Luke 4.16–30. 8   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 45–8. 9   John 2.1–11. At this time Cana was identified as Khirbat Qana: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 162–5. 4

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From Cana of Galilee I came to Mount Tabor, where the Lord was transfigured before the Apostles Peter, John and James, with Moses and Elijah appearing with Him. This mountain is extremely high. On its summit has been built a church, where there was a noble abbey of the black order;10 but now the Saracens have occupied it and fortified it strongly by a wall, with towers standing forward on it.11 Here at the foot of the mountain I met a noble man, nobly dressed, the castellan of the mountain, who was enjoying his leisure in the pastime of falconry.12 He inquired diligently, as if an expert, about the state of the empire and the emperor, the Christian kings and the state of our lands, and continuing to ask questions before he had even received an answer he so defined and thoroughly instructed me what he desired to be told about that each separate item made itself better and truer than I then knew.13 Proceeding from here (that is to say, from the foot of Mount Tabor), I beheld Mount Hermon14 and the fields of Galilee, in which Sisera and all his army died.15 From here I passed through the field where the army of the Christians was defeated and the Holy Cross was captured by enemies.16 There in the middle of the field on a certain eminence [5] Saladin built a temple for the victory that he was handed by his gods, which is still there today, though unrespected and abandoned. And no wonder, because it is not founded on the firm rock that is Jesus Christ, without whom nothing is good or strong and from whom all is good and the best.17 Not far from here I saw the town of Nain (Naym), where the Lord resuscitated the widow’s son.18 Next to that town is Mount En-dor,19 at whose foot flows the Kishon brook (torrens Cyson).20   On the Benedictine abbey, see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 63–81.   Construction of this castle was begun in May 1212 by Malik al-‘Ādil and was

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continued by his son, al-Mu‘aẓẓam ‘Īsā, until July 1215: see Battista and Bagatti, Fortezza, pp. 26–33; Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 66–7. 12   Perhaps the ‘amīr Ḥusām al-Dīn Lū’lū ibn ‘Abdallāh al-Mu‘aẓẓamī, whose name appears on a number of the building inscriptions from the castle: see Battista and Bagatti, Fortezza, pp. 72–103. 13   The army of the Fifth Crusade encamped before the castle on 20 November 1217 and attacked it unsuccessfully between 3 and 7 December (Battista and Bagatti, Fortezza, pp. 34–8). 14   Little Mount Hermon, Jabal Duhy or Giv’at ha-More. 15   Judges 4.12–16. 16   The Horns of Ḥaṭṭīn, where the army of King Guy was defeated by Saladin on 5 July 1187. 17   Al-Dimashqī, writing around 1300, refers to this as the Qubbat al-Naṣr, the ‘Dome of Victory’ (trans. Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, p. 451; Marmardji, Textes géographiques, p. 56); on what remains of the building, see Gal, ‘Saladin’s Dome of Victory’. 18   Luke 7.11–17. 19   En-dor is the name of a spring and nearby village (‘Indūr), destroyed in 1948, not of a mountain. 20   On the Kishon in medieval sources, see Pringle, ‘Spring of the Cresson’.

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Continuing from there I came to the sea of Galilee, from which the Lord called Peter and Andrew and upon which He walked on foot; there Peter’s little boat was violently tossed and He raised it sinking from the waves. There after the Resurrection the Lord appeared to the disciples and ate a grilled fish with them bodily. This place is called ‘at the Table’ (ad mensam). Over that place a chapel was at one time built, but it has been destroyed by the Saracens.21 In that place aromatic spices grow vigorously at all times, not wanting anything either in winter or summer. Indeed, the Saracens have often tried to eradicate them, but they have not been able to; nor can they, because they cannot go against the will of God, to whom the elements with their contents, nature with its works and creatures,22 show obedience. Near to this place is the mountain where the Lord satisfied five thousand people with five loaves and taught the disciples. Whence in the gospel: ‘Coming down from the mountain the Lord stood in a level place, etc.’23 [6] 2. Afterwards I came to Tiberias, which was formerly called Chinnereth (Cynareth).24 This city once had a bishop and a noble layman, who was called the lord of Tiberias; and it was strongly fortified and renowned. Moreover the Boy Jesus often frequented it in His youth. It has now been destroyed by the Saracens and is inhabited by only a few people, both Saracens and Christians.25 From there I passed along the shore of the sea of Galilee to the Jordan, where the Jordan, coming out of the middle of the sea of Galilee divides Galilee and Idumæa.26 Note that the sea of Galilee has excellent and healthy fish. Galilee is located between Zebulun and Naphtali.27 Then, crossing the Jordan I entered Idumæa. There, ascending a high and very beautiful mountain, I saw to right and left many places and towns, in which the Lord often used to be.28 The sea of Galilee begins between Bethsaida and Capernaum. From Bethsaida came Peter, Andrew, John and James Alphaeus. There [7] also is Gennesaret and Chorazin, in which the Antichrist will be born,29 and Kedar (Cedar), whence in the     23   24  

On the church at al-Ṭābgha, see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 334–9. natura cum naturatis vel naturalibus. Luke 6.17. Chinnereth (Numbers 34.11), Chinneroth (Joshua 12.3), Ginnesar and Gennesaret (Luke 5.1) are all names for the lake, rather than Tiberias, though they appear to be derived from a settlement whose site is identifiable as Tall al-‘Urayma (Tel Kinrot) on the nw side of the lake (Abel, Géographie 1, pp. 494–5). 25   On Frankish Tiberias, see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 351–66. 26   i.e. on the s side of the lake. 27   Cf. Matthew 4.13–15. 28   Having crossed the Jordan s of the sea of Galilee, Thietmar is now ascending ne on to the Jawlān along the road built or repaired through the Fīq pass by ‘Abd al-Malik in 73 h/ad 692 (see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 240–41). 29   Cf. Matthew 11.20–24; Luke 10.13. 21

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psalm: ‘I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Kedar.’30 Likewise towards the south, Dothan (Dothaim),31 where Joseph found his brothers and where he was sold by them. I also saw Mount Gilboa, where Saul and Jonathan died, whence David: ‘O Mountains of Gilboa, let no dew or rain fall on you.’32 I was unable to investigate the truth of whether or not rain does fall on them; but I have heard that there are parrots there, which are unable to withstand rain. Likewise, in the vicinity [of the lake] is Bethulia, the city of Judith, where she killed Holofernes.33 Also near by were the cities that Solomon gave to his friend King Hiram.34 3. Passing therefore from this mountain, which lies above the Jordan in the territory of Idumæa, I came through a level plain, through good fertile land, to a city named Nawā (Nawam), which had once been very beautiful and strongly fortified but has now been destroyed and is inhabited by Saracens.35 To the left may be seen [8] Mount Lebanon, at whose foot rise two springs, Jor and Dan, which produce the Jordan.36 For a certain distance the Dan runs an underground course; the Jor does not, but passes through one lake37 and afterwards through the sea of Galilee, where below the mountains of Gilboa the Jor and Dan form the Jordan. Not far from that place is the city of Cæsarea Philippi, where the Lord said to His disciples, ‘Who do men say that the Son of man is?’38 It was formerly called Belinal after the nearby mountain of Belinas, which divides Idumæa and Phœnicia.39 There is there moreover a river, which flows only on Saturdays and is called the Sabbath river (sabbaticus). 30   Cf. Psalm 120.5. Kedar was one of the tribes of Idumæa (Abel, Géographie 1, p. 296). There was no city of that name, though Burchard of Mount Sion [13.4] clearly identifies it with the site of ancient Gamala, which he seems to have located mistakenly at Jamla, e of the lake. Possibly there was also some confusion with Gadara (Arabic Jadar), further s. 31   Joseph’s Pit, Jubb Yūsuf, on the Damascus–Cairo road nw of the lake, though the plain of Dothan (and another Joseph’s Pit) lay s of Janīn. 32   2 Samuel 1.21. 33   Bethulia also lay near Dothan, s of Janīn (Abel, Géographie 2, p. 283). 34   1 Kings 9.10–14. Hiram was king of Tyre. 35   A small town in the Ḥawrān on the road between ‘Aqabat ‘Afīq and Damascus, associated in the Middle Ages with Job and according to al-Qalqashandī the site of his tomb: see Dussaud, Topographie, pp. 341–2; Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Syrie, p. 65; Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, pp. 515–16; Marmardji, Textes, pp. 3, 108–9, 202. 36   These streams, the Nahr Bāniyās and Nahr Laddān respectively, were held by the ancients to represent the source of the Jordan (Abel, Géographie, pp. 161–2). 37   Lake Ḥūla, or Baḥrat al-Khayt. 38   Matthew 16.13 (RSV). 39   Probably a confusion with Balaneas (Bāniyās, n of Tortosa), which the Bordeaux Pilgrim places on the border between Syria Cœlia and Phœnicia (CCSL 175, p. 11).

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Also not far from the place where the Dan rises is the tomb and pyramid of St Job, which is regarded religiously by all.40 Annually at the beginning of summer people of many nations congregate at the markets round about it: Arabs, Parthians, Idumæans, Syrians, Turks and many others spend time there with their flocks. In the territory of Idumæa two miles from the Jordan is the River Jabbok (Jacob), where Jacob wrestled with an angel.41 Proceeding from Nawā, I came to Maliḥa (Michel),42 a city once beautiful and good but now destroyed; it is now inhabited by Saracens. From there [9] I came to another city, that is to say Ṣanamayn (Salomen);43 this is indeed destroyed but still displays many towers, which are all very simply and marvellously built and held together without cement or other form of adhesive. There we spent the night in a certain hospital of the sultan, where travellers are obliged to stay for the sultan’s financial gain. In it I saw a Saracen lying in one bed with his seven wives. The women, however, were all trousered and wore garments down to their knees, with the folds of their trousers hanging down below them. From Ṣanamayn I proceeded to a village three miles distant from Damascus,44 where travellers were also obliged to spend the night for the sultan’s profit, even if they arrived at mid-day. From there I came to Damascus. Beside the paved royal street from Damascus, however, is the place where the Lord converted Paul. That place is called ‘in the meadows of Sophar.’45 It is the custom that those entering Damascus are searched diligently for gold, because a tenth of the gold is owed to the sultan.46 Thus I was searched for gold in every fold of my clothing and body, as were all my comrades, whether poor or rich. [10]   This tomb was shown from the fourth century onwards at Dayr Ayyūb, ancient Carneas, a village in the Ḥawrān near Dar‘ā (see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 239–40). Thietmar appears to have thought that the Dan re-emerged from its supposed underground course as a tributary of the Yarmūq. 41   Genesis 32.22–32. Identified as the Nahr al-Zarqā, some 60 km s of the Yarmūq. 42   On the Fīq–Damascus road, Maliḥa is referred to as Melea by James of Verona in 1335 (ed. Röhricht, p. 287) and Melinha by an un-named French pilgrim in 1383 (ed. Omont, p. 458; cf. Dussaud, Topographie, pp. 339–40). 43   Ancient Aere (Dussaud, Topographie, pp. 327, 344; Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Syrie, pp. 66, 253–4, 256, 244; Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, pp. 530–31, Marmardji, Textes, p. 3). 44   Probably Kiswa or Kuswa, the first caravan station s of Damascus (Dussaud, Topographie, p. 321; Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Syrie, pp. 49, 244; Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, p. 488; Marmardji, Textes, pp. 3, 102, 105). 45   The plain known as Marj al-Ṣuffar, s of Damascus, also referred to by William of Tyre as Mergisaphar (13.18, ed. Huygens, p. 609). Thietmar possibly had in mind the name of Job’s friend, Zophar the Na‘amathite (Job 2.11). 46   At this time al-Malik al-‘Ādil I Sayf al-Dīn (1196–1218). 40

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This city is located in that place where Cain killed his brother Abel, whose blood cried out to God from the earth. It is not strongly fortified, but so abounds in people that I have never seen a city so populous. It is rich beyond measure, full of noble, wonderful and diverse craftsmen, rich and delightful in farmland, both sown and arable, blooming and suitable for pasture, and improved by flowing streams and marvellous artificial aqueducts beyond human comprehension. For in every house and along every street pools or washing places, rounded or quadrate in form, have been wonderfully provided through the folly and extravagance of the rich. Around the city are most pleasant gardens, watered by natural watercourses and artificial aqueducts, abounding in every kind and species of tree and fruit, made lovely by the temperance of the weather, the playfulness of the birds, and the brightness of all the colours of the flowers. For the beauty of the whole of nature wanted to be visible in this place to such a degree that the place could truly be said to be another paradise. Here moreover on the feast of St Martin47 I heard the nightingale, the lark, the quail and other birds of flight singing in their accustomed way. And I saw fresh violets [11] and on account of my astonishment bought myself some.48 However, just as the place is luxurious, so too are the inhabitants, according to season and position. For, for as many delights and varieties of food the human mind is able to conceive of, with them there are even more. I saw twenty and more types of bread there and tasted some of them. Seldom does anyone prepare his food at home, because it is the custom that things of this kind are prepared in the common marketplace and once prepared are taken to be sold throughout the city. Nobody, however – for it is prohibited on pain of serious punishment –, dares carry yesterday’s foodstuffs for sale without a sign saying that they are yesterday’s. For the foodstuffs that are more than one night old are customarily bought by the paupers. I was in Damascus for six days and learnt certain things about the law and life of the Saracens. Their life is impure and their law corrupt. The Saracens please themselves as much as they can, licitly or illicitly, because, ‘Jupiter declared to be honourable whatever he took pleasure in.’ They have as many wives as it is possible to have, according to this dictum: ‘He is stronger who is able to have more.’ In times of fasting they fast until dusk and from then onwards for the whole night they eat as much as they can.49 However, there are certain criers stationed in towers, who during the nights shout out like this: ‘Arise, you who fast! Eat sumptuously, refresh yourselves!’ The great and beautiful church that the Greeks formerly built in honour of St Paul the Saracens have converted into their mosque, in which they have a pool so that if anyone sins he may be cleansed; and thus he is reconciled to God, and   11 November.   The res admirabilis was no doubt that of finding fresh violets in November. 49   Thietmar’s return visit to Damascus appears to have coincided with Ramadan, 47 48

which in 1217 was 2–31 December.

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[12] in whatever member he has sinned, in that is he cleansed.50 And this is their confession. They pray four times during the day and once in the night. In place of bells they make use of a crier, at whose call they are accustomed to come solemnly together to the church. The religious Saracens are accustomed to wash themselves at whatever hour with water, or with sand if water is lacking. Beginning from the head, they wash the face, then the arms, hands, legs, feet, the shameful parts and fundament. Afterwards they go to pray, and they never pray without prostrating themselves.51 They do many prostrations, and pray towards the south. They perform their prostrations on rectangular cloths, which they always carry with them under their belts, and when prostrating themselves they beat the ground with their foreheads. They place the dead in tombs with great singing on their right-hand side, so that they may appear to be looking south towards the temple of Muḥammad. The Saracen women go veiled and covered with linen cloths of buckram.52 The noblewomen are kept in the safest custody of eunuchs and never leave their dwellings except on the orders of their husbands. And no one, not even a close relation of the husband or wife, would dare to go to see a wife without the consent of the husband. [13] When I was in the palace of the sultan, which comprises a complex of huge noble structures, I wanted to see the Christian captives in the sultan’s pit, which is a prison, but it did not seem fitting to my guide to consider it. As I was not feeling courageous, I received letters from them and they from me through intermediaries. And a certain knight from Swabia sent me from the sultan’s pit a purse made by his own hand. I also saw many Christian and German captives throughout the city, to whom I did not dare to speak, however, through fear for my life. I saw there a certain prisoner from Wernigeroda and a knight from Quedlinburg who was called John. And he sent me a purse.53 It should also be noted that in and near Damascus each nation freely practises its own rite. In it there are moreover many churches of the Christians. 4. Damascus is in Idumæa, but is the capital of Syria. One juger54 from this city, however, is sited another beautiful and noble city which is called Ṣalāḥiyya (Salaeth).55 50   On the Great Mosque, see Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture 1, pp. 151–5; id., Short Account, pp. 44–81; Flood, Great Mosque. 51   This passage is copied from the account written by Burchard (Ps.-Gerald) of his embassy to Saladin on behalf of the emperor Frederick I in 1174 (Arnold of Lübeck 7, MGH SS 21, p. 241). 52   Another passage from Burchard (Ps.-Gerald) (p. 240), with the addition of de bocran. The following sentences are also based on Burchard. 53   The arrival in Damascus earlier in 1217 of Christian prisoners recently taken captive outside Acre, each carrying the severed head of a Christian from his neck, is described by Abu Shāmā, in RHC Or 5, p. 160. 54   A juger is actually a measurement of area (240 by 120 Roman feet) rather than length. 55   A suburb that developed from the time of Nūr al-Dīn onwards on the lower slopes

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Likewise in Idumæa is the land of Uz (Hus), from which came St Job.56 A part of it is called al-Sawād (Suetha), in which is the metropolis of Teman (Theman), from which came Eliphaz the Temanite. In it is also the town of Na‘ama (Naaman), from which came Zophar the Na‘amathite. They were both friends of Job.57 When I had been in Damascus for six days, I left and crossed the two rivers of Syria and Damascus, the Abana (Habana) and the Pharpar (Pharphar),58 and went towards Mount Seir (Seyr),59 where the icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary was made flesh. The way in which it became incarnate is as follows. [14] 5. In the time when the Greeks inhabited the land, there was in Damascus, the capital city of Syria, a certain venerable matron. Adopting the habit of a nun, she applied herself to serving the Lord and in order to devote herself more freely to divine prayers, eschewing the city’s tumult, withdrew to the sixth milestone from the city to a place called Sardenay (Sardanaia);60 and there she built a house and chapel in honour of the Holy Mother of God, Mary, and afforded the service of hospitality to poor pilgrims. It happened, however, that a certain monk from the town of Constantinople, while coming to Jerusalem to visit the holy places on account of his devotion to prayer, was received by the nun in the hospice. When she heard that he was going to the holy city, she humbly and with great entreaty asked him to bring back to her from the holy city an icon (that is to say a painted panel) that she could place in her chapel, so that the image of the Mother of God would be displayed before her when she prayed. He promised that he would bring back an icon to the nun. When he had come to Jerusalem, having completed his prayers and visited the holy places, he was about to return home neglecting his promise. And behold! A voice sent to him from heaven said to him, ‘How is it that you are returning empty handed? Where is the icon that you promised to take back to the nun?’ Remembering the promise at that moment, the monk went back into the city and asked where icons were sold. Among the icons that were for sale, he decided to buy a certain one. He then left the city taking the icon with him and made his way to a place called Gittaim (Gith),61 where at that time a wild lion used to lie hidden and devour everyone that it could. But when the lion came to meet the monk, it humbly began to lick his feet and with the protection of divine grace he escaped from it unharmed. Then he came to a cave of thieves, where many of the Jabal Kassyun, beginning as a settlement of Hanbali refugees who had fled from the area around Nāblus in 1156 (Burn, Damascus, pp. 167–8). 56   Job 1.1. 57   Job 2.11. 58   2 Kings 5.12. These rivers, the Nahr Baradā and Nahr al-A‘waj, rise in the AntiLebanon and Mount Hermon respectively and flow se into the desert (Abel, Géographie 1, p. 487 n.1). 59   The Anti-Lebanon mountains. 60   Saydnaya. 61   Identified with al-Burj (Qal‘at Ṭanṭūra) on the road from Jerusalem to Lydda. See Pringle, Secular Buildings, pp. 35–6; Fischer, Isaac and Roll, Roman Roads, pp. 142–3.

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robbers were congregated. When they saw him they wanted to lay hands on him, but they were frightened by an angelic voice and were unable to move or speak; [15] with God’s help, the monk continued safely on his way. Then, reflecting that the icon that he was holding might have some kind of divine power, he resolved not to take the icon to the nun but to take it with him to his home country. Coming to the city of Acre, he went on board a ship intending to return home. Setting the sails, the sailors began to set course for Constantinople. When they had been at sea for a number of days a strong storm suddenly arose in the sea and the sailors began to be in danger and each started throwing his own personal belongings into the sea. When the monk was about to cast away the bag in which there was the icon, an angel said to him, ‘Take care! Do not throw the icon, but raise it in your hands to God!’ Accordingly, the storm in the sea died down directly and there was tranquility. Not knowing where they were going, whether they wanted to or not they went back to the city of Acre from which they had set sail. Then the monk, seeing what had happened around him, understanding the will of God and wanting to fulfil his promises, came to the nun carrying the icon with him. The faithful nun received him as a religious man. She had not recognized him, however, because of the great number of guests, and so did not ask him for the promised icon. Therefore, when the monk realized that he was not being asked for the icon, he decided in his own mind not to give it to the nun but to take it away with him. Having taken his leave, he went into the nearby chapel to pray and afterwards return home. But, having prayed, when he wanted to leave he could not find where to get out of the chapel. Therefore, putting down the icon that he was carrying and seeing the chapel door open, he tried again to go out. And likewise on picking up the icon he could see neither the door nor the means of going back; and thus for the whole day, when he put down the icon he could see, and when he picked up the icon and tried to go out he was unable to. The monk, understanding the justice of divine will, placed the icon in the chapel, went back to the nun and told her truthfully and in order everything that had been done by divine disposition. He also said that it was God’s will that the icon should remain there and be venerated with all due honour by the faithful. [16] The nun therefore accepted the icon and began to praise and bless God and the glorious Virgin Mary concerning all that had been done. The monk proposed being of service to God in that place for the remainder of his life, because of the miracle that he had recognized God to have done through the picture of His holy mother. However, while the icon was being greatly revered, it began to sweat and emit a certain liquid. The nun would wipe away the liquid with a clean muslin cloth, for the liquid trickling from the picture had such miraculous power that when applied to the sick it would banish illnesses. It is distinguished for having this miraculous power to this day. From that time it therefore began to be greatly honoured, and many people suffering from various debilitating illnesses went to it and were cured. Making ready a respectful place where she might place the icon, the nun asked a certain priest endowed with honesty of character and greater worthiness to take it and place it in the prepared place. The priest put on the sacred vestments and went to the icon; but when he touched the image, his

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hands withered and after being sick in his whole body for three days he departed from the world. Afterwards no one presumed to touch it or to move it. The nun prepared a vase beneath the icon in which the liquid trickling from the image was received. However, little by little the image of the mother of God began to send out breasts of flesh and to be clothed in flesh. For the image – as the brothers who have seen it testify, such as Brother Thomas,62 who also touched it with his finger, and many others who saw it – is seen, we declare, to be clothed in flesh from the breasts downwards. From there trickles the fluid of the flesh. The brothers of the Temple, who come there by virtue of their prayers when they have truces with the pagans, take the liquid away from there to their houses.63 It happened, however, that a certain sultan of Damascus, who had only one eye, became sick in the eye with which he could see and losing his sight became blind. [17] Hearing, however, of the image of the mother of God and how many miracles God was performing through it, he came to where the icon was venerated and entered the chapel, having faith in the Lord, even though he was a pagan, so that through the image of His mother health might be restored to him; and he threw himself on the ground and prayed. Getting up from prayer and still being suspicious, he saw a light burning in the lamp that had been placed before the image. Then seeing everything else he glorified God, as did all who were there. And because he had seen the light burning in the lamp for the first time, he vowed to God that each year he would give in revenue for lighting the same church sixty jars64 of oil. Up to the time of Coradin, sultan of the city of Damascus,65 these were received by those serving that church. There live in that church nuns. There are also Greek monks, who undertake religious functions in a certain part; none the less, the official duty and purpose of the nuns is to reverence the above-mentioned nun, who first lived in that place and built the church in honour of Mary, the holy mother of God. In ad 1204, on the Tuesday before Easter,66 it happened that in the knights’ prison in the sultan’s pit in Damascus a certain knight was drawing a phial of oil of St Mary of Sardenay out of the case in which [18] it had been placed, in order to have a look at it, and he saw that the oil had become flesh but was divided into two parts, so that one part of the oil was in the lower part of the phial and the other in the upper. He took up a knife and tried to join the upper part to the lower with its point; and as the blade of the knife touched the oil that was suspended in the 62   Perhaps Master Thomas, ‘a theologian and a good and clear-minded doctor’, who died at ‘Atlīt (Pilgrims’ Castle) in 1218 (Oliver of Paderborn, Historia Damiatina 7, ed. Hoogeweg, p. 172, trans. Gavigan, pp. 58–9). 63   This information is also found in Roger of Wendover, ed. Hewlett, in RS 84.2, p. 66, cf. Hamilton, ‘Our Lady of Saidnaiya’. 64   Metreta is also a classical Greek liquid measure, equivalent to about 9 imperial gallons. 65   Al-Malik al-Mu‘aẓẓam Sharaf al-Dīn ‘Īsā, son of Saladin’s brother, al-‘Ādil, was sultan of Damascus from 1218 to 1227. 66   20 April.

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upper part of the phial, drops of blood immediately flowed from it in the presence of the chaplains and knights who were there and of all the other prisoners. There are many other miracles that have been wrought through the image of His holy mother, Mary, by almighty God, to whom be honour and glory and power and might for ever and ever, Amen. 6. It should be known, however, that in the town where they have the icon of Our Lady a Saracen does not dare to reside or spend the night, because, when the land was lost,67 the Saracens determined to occupy and fortify it, but for a year they were unable to live there. In that place, however, there is a bishop and an abbess and nuns. Out of reverence for the Virgin Mary, the position of precedence in that place goes to the abbess. In this place there happened forthwith on the feast of Our Lady a miracle in this manner. Take note. When a great multitude had flocked together to the place already mentioned on account of the oil and prayers, and some individuals had already received the oil in their small vessels, it happened that a certain matron did not have a vessel in which to put the oil. She therefore filled the whole church with loud wailing and lamentation, because through lack of a jar she would be without so precious a thing. The mother of mercy, having pity on the weeping woman, not because of her merit (because she was a Saracen) but on account of her boundless compassion and the woman’s belief in the help coming from the oil, did not deny the matron what she desired but miraculously caused a full ampulla of oil to appear in her hand. It should also be noted that in that place wine is fairly plentiful. Moreover, the Saracens look for an opportunity to come there in order to drink wine secretly, because [19] according to their religion the drinking of wine is not allowed. Indeed, whenever they get drunk, they die68 immediately. It is also to be noted that all the gates of Damascus are kept under a strict watch to prevent anyone bringing in wine. On the border of this province are Chaldæa and Mesopotamia. Moreover not far from there flows the Euphrates, which among those people is called pure and cold. It traverses deserted Babylon, of which the prophet wrote, ‘Fallen is Babylon, great mother of fornications, etc.’69 There Nebuchadnezzar ruled; and there was the tower of Babel. There also is the mausoleum of the prophet Daniel, skilfully built and of marvellous construction. 7. To the east of that place in the territory of Chaldæa, Idumæa and Persia there is also a large fortified city called Baghdad (Baydach), a metropolis. There resides the pope of the Saracens, who has the name of caliph.70 He is very rich and powerful and lays down the laws for the Saracens; and on pain of punishment,     69   70   67 68

i.e. lost by the Christians at the time of the Muslim conquest in the seventh century. recedunt, i.e. they are put to death. Cf. Revelation 14.8, 17.5, 18.2–3. The Abbasid caliph at this time would have been al-Nāṣir (1180–1225).

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like our pope, he gives orders that they are strictly observed by all. He never goes out by day, but does so by night whenever he pleases. However, if anyone sees him going about at night and names him or draws attention to him, he commits a mortal sin according to them. If people come to see him by day when he is seated on his throne, they seek permission from him and approach him by walking on their knees and kiss his knees. If they are nobles, however, they kiss not his knees but his shoulders.71 That pope has in his houses and apartments many virgins, with whom he intermingles whenever he wants. If any nobleman were able to marry one of his corrupt women, however, it would seem to him that he had received the queen of heaven, Diana or Venus. The ways of this pope are far from the ways of our pope, and may the Lord make them far distant, or rather null and void, and may He make his papacy short on earth. [20] There is also near Damascus a large area of land half of which belongs to the pope of the Saracens and the other half to the sultan of Damascus. On this land grows wool, which in French is called coton and in Latin bombacium. It is collected from small bushes. Having passed through the places mentioned above and having seen the icon of Our Lady, I returned to Acre. 8. Wishing with great desire and longing to visit the body of St Catherine, which sweats holy oil, and still more ardently because I had conceived of it in my mind for a long time, I submitted my whole self, body and mind, to the grace of God and to the assistance of St Catherine, not shrinking away from whatever dangers or chance events there might be. I was set aflame with such a desire (for I was exposing my life to death or perpetual captivity through the ebb and flow of chance and fate). Therefore, setting forth on my journey from Acre dressed as a Georgian monk and with a long beard, I pretended to be what I was not, and went along the sea shore for three miles towards Carmel, of which the prophet said, ‘The beauty of Carmel and Sharon.’72 Carmel is three miles south of Acre. Sharon is similarly three miles distant from Acre towards the north.73 [21] At the foot of Mount Carmel is located a city called Ḥayfā (Cayphas), which is now destroyed by the Saracens. It was also called Porphyreon (Porphyria).74 And I passed through it. It should be noted moreover that near the city of Ptolemaïs is a river that is called Belus (Beleum).75 Near it is the tomb of Memnon,76 which is counted as very worthy among tombs. The spring of that river, however, is located in a rounded valley, which produces vitreous sand. When people have exhausted it, the place is     73   74   75   76   71

The Basel MS has nobles kissing the knees and others the feet (IHC 3, p. 260). Cf. Isaiah 35.2, referring to Mount Carmel and the Sharon Plain s of it. ‘Mount Sharon’, the medieval name for the Ladder of Tyre. The exact position of Porphyreon is still unknown (TIR, p. 204). Nahr Na‘mayn. King of the Ethiopians, who assisted Priam of Troy against the Greeks and was killed by Achilles. 72

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refilled once more and at once glass is obtained. However, if part of the sand that was lately glass is thrown over the rim of that place it is changed once again into ordinary sand.77 Above that city, that is to say Ḥayfā, on the slope of Mount Carmel is the cave of Elijah and Elisha the prophets. A chapel has been built there.78 On the summit of Mount Carmel is a monastery, in which Greek and Syrian monks live together to this day.79 On that mountain Elijah did many things. For he prayed and it did not rain on the land, and it did not rain for three years and six months; and again he prayed and heaven gave rain.80 Here he also killed the prophets of Baal.81 Afterwards, fleeing from Queen Jezebel, he came into the desert, where he slept beneath the shade of a juniper tree, and roused by the angel he took up food and with the strength of that food he went for forty days to Horeb, the mountain of God, which is Sinai.82 At the end of Mount Carmel is Jezreel (Iezrahel), where Jezabel, the impious queen who stole Naboth’s vineyard, was cast from her throne.83 There her tomb84 exists to this day. Near Jezreel is the plain of Megiddo (campi Macedonum), in which died Josiah, who was buried on Mount Sion.85 [22] Mount Carmel is divided into various mountains and it extends for almost two days’ journey on the south beside the sea and one in width. The mountain is also grassy and suitable for grazing, ideal for goats and delightful to behold.86 Here there abound lions and leopards, bears, stags, fallow deer,87 wild boar88 and a very fierce animal, which the natives call a lonza and is moreover as formidable as a lion, papiones, which they call wild dogs, wolves similar in size to a fox, and innumerable goats, smaller than ours and having long tails.

77   This paragraph is based closely on Josephus, Jewish War 2.10.2, in Loeb 2, p. 397, trans. Williamson, p. 132, cf. Abel, Géographie 1, pp. 465–7. 78   The Cave of Elijah (Mar Elias, al-Khidr), see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 226–9 79   St Margaret of Carmel, see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 244–8. 80   1 Kings 17.1, 18.1 and 41–5. 81   1 Kings 18.20–40. 82   1 Kings 19.1–8. 83   1 Kings 21.1–19; 2 Kings 9.30–37. 84   pyramis; though according to 2 Kings 9.35 her body was eaten by dogs, leaving no more than her skull, feet and palms of her hands to be buried. 85   2 Kings 23.29–30; 2 Chronicles 35.20–24. 86   The following sentence is derived largely from the Tractatus de locis et statu sancte terre ierosolimitane (1168–87) (ed. Kedar, pp. 121, 128), which was also used by James of Vitry (Historia Orientalis 88, ed. Donnadieu, pp. 352–64). 87   Alternatively antelope or chamois. 88   apri silvestres. The Tractatus has capree silvestres, ‘wild she-goats’ (ed. Kedar, p. 128).

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In times of truce, the Christians – Templars and hospitallers of the house of the Germans – are accustomed to come together at that mountain, or mountains, in February with their horses and mules. They set out their tents in the meadows and live with much amusement and enjoyment, fattening their horses greatly on the pastures. Among them that feast is called haraz.89 The Saracen Bedouin are also accustomed to go to that place in the same times of truce and to exercise in warfare. For the Bedouin are able to ride wonderfully and skilfully. They set up a ring the size of a fist on a lance and riding at it [23] on horseback attempt to pierce it with a lance. But if anyone disappoints and fails to pass his lance through the ring he is held in derision by all and is punched in vituperation by the master of the Bedouin soldiers. The Christian knights are accustomed to honour the Bedouin out of common courtesy, besides bringing them gifts. It should be noted moreover that there is another Mount Carmel90 in the desert of Kadesh, where David lay hidden when he fled before the face of Saul. There he swore to kill the foolish man Nabal, when he denied him a meal. Many are led into error by the ambiguity of this mountain’s name. From Mount Carmel I came to Cæsarea. And I crossed over a river that flows from Carmel in which there are many crocodiles.91 That Cæsarea is Cæsarea Palæstina, which was formerly called Dor,92 and not Cæsarea Philippi, about which I have spoken above. Here formerly was Strato’s Tower. Herod, king of Judæa, called this city Cæsarea in honour of Cæsar Augustus. There begins the region of Palestine.93 In this city I saw the church of St Peter, built from the house of the centurion Cornelius, whom St Peter converted and baptized,94 and the house of Philip and the chamber of the four virgins who prophesied.95 Then from Cæsarea I came to Arsūf (Assur), formerly a renowned city but now almost desolate. From it at one time came forth the most renowned and finest knights of all the land.96 [24]

  Haras in medieval French, haracium in Latin, means ‘a stud of horses’. This seems a likelier derivation than the Arabic, ḥaras, meaning a ‘watch’, ‘guard’, ‘escort’ or ‘bodyguard’. 90   Not a mountain but a village, identified today with Khirbat al-Karmil, s of Hebron (1 Samuel 25.2–7; Pringle, Secular Buildings, p. 61). 91   Nahr al-Zarqā, cf. Abel, Géographie 1, pp. 470–71. 92   Dor, modern Ṭanṭūra, lies some 12.5 km n of Cæsarea. 93   Cf. Pliny, Natural History 5.14, in Loeb 2, p. 273. 94   Acts 10.1–48. 95   St Paul in Cæsarea stayed with the Apostle Philip and his four daughters while on his way from Ptolomaïs to Jerusalem (Acts 21.8–9). On the churches, see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 166–83. 96   Little is known of the lords of Arsūf in the twelfth century. John, lord of Arsūf, is mentioned in 1163 and was succeeded in 1198 by his sister Melisende’s husband, Thierry of Orca, and in 1207 by her second husband, John of Ibelin, who would have been holding 89

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From there I came to Joppe (Jaffa), leaving to the left deserted Antipatris, which Herod so named after his father.97 Joppe, however, has seen many frequent wars from antiquity to these times. This city was formerly large and populous, but is now desolate. Here was Jonah’s port, when he wanted to flee from the face of the Lord; and the name seems to allude to the fact, it being called Joppe, as if ‘port of the fleeing Jonah’.98 Here in Joppe moreover, according to legends, Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiope, was exposed chained to the rocks to be devoured by a sea monster on the orders of Jupiter because of the crime of her mother; but Perseus killed the monster and took her as his wife.99 Believe it who will! Afterwards, proceeding towards Rama or Ramula (Ramla), which is the same place, I traversed a field where Habakkuk the prophet was taken up by an angel and brought food to Daniel in the lions’ den in Babylon.100 On the left-hand side I left Lydda (Ligda), which is called Diospolis, where Dorcas was brought back to life, as is read in the Acts of the Apostles, and Æneas was cured;101 and Laṭrūn (Listra), not far from Arimathea (Rantis), from which came Joseph who buried Christ; and Bayt Nūbā (Nobee), once a city of priests, now a mound of the slain. I therefore came to Ramla, which in former times was enormous, as appears from the ruins of its buildings. What sort of city it was beforehand it shows in its fractured state. Herod built it, whence it is read, ‘A voice was heard in Ramah (Rama), etc.’102 From there I continued my journey towards Bethlehem, traversing Judæa and leaving Philistia to the right, that is, the five cities of Philistia: Gaza, whose gate Samson broke and carried away with him to a hill; Ascalon, where there is still a certain tower, [25] which is called the Tower of the Maidens and moreover is said to have been cemented with human blood (this city is deserted); and Ekron (Accaron).103 And I left all these on the right and passed through the mountains of Judæa. There looking into the distance to the left I saw Samaria, which is it in Thietmar’s day (Roll and Tal, Apollonia–Arsuf, pp. 13–15; Tibble, Monarchy and Lordships, pp. 180–85). 97   His father being Antipater (Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 16.5.2, in Loeb 8, pp. 263–5, trans. Whiston, p. 475). The site is identified as Ra’s al-‘Ayn (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 345–6). 98   Ioppe quasi Ione fugientis portus. A far-fetched explanation, apart from making etymological nonsense. 99   Pliny, Natural History 5.14, in Loeb 2, p. 283. 100   Bel and the Dragon (Daniel 14), 33–9. 101   Acts 9.32–43. 102   This reference (Matthew 2.18, cf. Jeremiah 31.15) is to another place altogether. Ramla was founded by the Umayyad governor of Filasṭīn, Sulaymān ibn ‘Abd al-Malik, shortly before he succeeded his brother al-Walīd as caliph in ad 715. 103   The other two cities of the Philistines, not mentioned here, were Ashdod and Gath (Joshua 13.3; 1 Samuel 6.17; Jeremiah 25.20; 2 Chronicles 26.6; cf. Abel, Géographie 1, p. 268).

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now called Sebaste, where St John the Baptist was buried between the prophets Obadiah and Elisha.104 Not far from Sebaste is Shechem (Sichem), which is now called Nāblus (Neapolis), where Dinah, the daughter of Jacob’s sister, was raped.105 Near there is Jacob’s Well, where the Lord asked for water from the Samaritan woman, when He said to her, ‘You have had five husbands, etc.’106 Near that well Jeroboam made two gold calves, which the children of Israel worshipped.107 There David killed Goliath.108 I also left on the right Shiloh (Silo) and Ramah (Ramatha), where the Ark of the Covenant was from the entrance of the children of Israel [into the Promised Land] down to the time of Samuel.109 And that place is deserted. And Nicopolis, which beforehand was called Emmaus, where the Lord made Himself known to two disciples while walking along the road.110 To the right I left Aijalon (Achilon)111 and Gibeon (Gabaon),112 where Joshua fought against five kings and at his request the sun was stopped in its course until the victory of God’s people.113 However, as I was proceeding from the mountains of Judæa towards Bethlehem and when I had come within three miles of Jerusalem, I fell into a snare, whence the verse, ‘He fell on Scylla, hoping to avoid Charybdis.’ For since Bethlehem is near Jerusalem, in order to avoid the holy city and danger, I made a detour; but in vain, because what I feared happened, and [26] I was captured by the Saracens and taken to Jerusalem. At that time although alive I seemed to myself dead. For there was nothing standing between my present sufferings and the fear of death or perpetual captivity; on the contrary, disturbed by the fear of death and imprisonment, from then onwards I seemed to myself to die at every moment. Thus I was detained for two days and one night outside the gate of the city, in the   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 283–301. But Sebaste would not have been visible from the route that Thietmar took. 105   Dinah was the daughter of Jacob and Leah (Genesis 34.1–2). 106   John 4.18. 107   One he placed in Bethel, the other in Dan (1 Kings 12.25–33). 108   Thietmar has now left Shechem and has gone back to describing his journey. 109   Thietmar is evidently referring to Nabi Ṣamwīl (St Samuel), which Theodosius refers to as Ramatha (ch. 6, in CCSL 175, p. 117; Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 446–7; cf. 1 Samuel 1–2). This suggests that he was travelling along the northern road from Ramla to Jerusalem, passing through the Beth-horon (Bayt ‘Ur) pass. Shiloh is more correctly located at Saylūn, north of Bethel (Baytīn), and Ramah, or Ramathaim-Zophim, at Rantis (Arimathea), though the latter identification is not universally accepted (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 428–9, 462–3). 110   Probably ‘Amwās (Nicopolis), rather than Qaryat al-‘Inab (Abu Ghosh), which was also identified with Emmaus in the twelfth century. 111   Yālū. 112   Al-Jīb. 113   Joshua 10.12–13 104

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place where St Stephen the protomartyr was stoned. In that place a church was built in former times, but now it has been totally overturned.114 Thus imprisoned and afflicted, since I had no hope or way of hoping, God, who is close to all those who call on His name, visited the desperate one, restored hope, and miraculously preserved me, in this way: I had with me a noble Hungarian count, who knew that certain of his Saracen Hungarian compatriots were living in Jerusalem for the purpose of study.115 He had them sent for, and being recognized by those sent for he was received by them in a very friendly way. When they perceived the misfortune of our imprisonment, they intervened and with not a little effort had us set free. 9. Because many people have said many things about the Holy City and because many things may be said about it, I feel myself free to say what I like. None the less, of many things I shall say few. The city is very strong and is fortified with walls and towers. The Saracens have converted the Temple of the Lord, which is said to be that of Solomon, into their mosque, so that no Christian ever presumes to enter it. The church containing the Lord’s Sepulchre and the place of the Passion still stands closed, without lights and without honour and reverence, except when it is opened through the considerable favour of a pilgrim offering payment. Mount Sion is inside the city in its south-eastern part.116 On its summit is the church where the Lord washed the feet of His disciples.117 There also on the day of Pentecost the disciples received the Holy Spirit. There the blessed Virgin Mary gave up her spirit to God surrounded by the Apostles. There the Lord was presented to Pilate, the judge. There He dined with His disciples. There John reclined on the Lord’s breast at dinner.118 There after the Resurrection, the doors being closed, [27] the Lord appeared to the disciples. There St Stephen was buried between Nicodemus and Abibas.119 On the left-hand side of the mountain, outside the city walls, is the field for [burying] strangers, which is called Akeldama (Acheldemach), that is to say the Field of Blood. Near the field is Mount Gihon (Gyon) where Solomon was crowned.120   St Stephen’s church and the adjoining Asnerie of the Hospitallers lay outside the n gate of the city; see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 372–9. 115   The presence of Hungarian Muslims in Jerusalem is discussed by Kedar, ‘Ungarische Muslime’. 116   More correctly, in the sw part. Mount Sion and the church of St Mary were enclosed by the town walls as rebuilt by Saladin in 1192 (Abu Shāmā, in RHC Or 5, pp. 82–3). 117   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 261–87. 118   John 13.23–5. 119   In 415, the body of Stephen was found at Caphar Gamala (Bayt Jimāl, or Jammala) by the parish priest, Lucian, in the tomb in which it had been laid by Rabbi Gamaliel after the saint’s martyrdom. It was then translated to the church of Mount Sion, together with the bodies of Abibas, Gamaliel’s son, and Nicodemus, his nephew, by Bishop John of Jerusalem (Lucian, Epist., in PL 41, cols. 807–16; Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 261, 372). 120   1 Kings 1.38–40; cf. 1.33 and 1.45. 114

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Near the Holy City to the east is the Mount of Olives and the place from which the Lord ascended to the Father, where the Saviour’s footprints are still to be seen.121 Also on that mountain every year a red cow was offered to the Lord in a burnt offering and a lamb, whose ashes made atonement for the people of Israel. Likewise at the foot of the mountain, on the other side of the Kidron and a bowshot east of it, Christ prayed to the Father. There He sweated blood. There He said to Peter, ‘Could you not watch for one hour? etc.’122 Returning from there to Gethsemane, He was held by the Jews and taken to the praetorium of Pilate on Sion. There on the questioning of the servant girl Peter denied Him and recognizing his guilt went down into a cave where he wept bitterly. Today this is called the Cock-crow (galli cantus). In addition to these things, beside the city gate that looks south is a hollow place into which on God’s command a lion brought together by night many bodies of martyrs under Chosroes. This is still called the Charnel Pit of the Lion.123 When I had spent two days and a night at Jerusalem, I continued my journey towards Bethlehem. [28] Midway to Bethlehem I saw the tomb of Rachel, the wife of Jacob, where she bore Benjamin and died in childbirth. There her pyramid appears wonderfully built in the place that in Arabic is called Chabratha (Crabata).124 From there I came to Bethlehem. 10. Bethlehem, city of the supreme God, is sited along the ridge of a mountain. It is still intact and has not been destroyed by the Saracens. Indeed, it is held by Christians who are subject to the Saracens; and it is asserted that a Saracen must not be a resident there. However, some Saracen guards are stationed at the doors of the church and receive payment from the pilgrims entering it; but they do not live there. That church is very beautiful and is completely roofed in lead.125 Its column bases, architraves and capitals are of the finest marble. Its pavement is laid with   Within the church, see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 72–88.   Mark 14.37. 123   The Mamilla pool, outside David’s Gate on the w side of the city, in which over 121 122

4,500 bodies were said to have been found after the Persian sack of Jerusalem in 614. The tradition of the lion is first mentioned in pilgrims’ accounts in the 1130s. See Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 217–20. 124   Chabratha is not an Arabic name but a fictitious place name that came into being as a result of mistakes in the transmission of the Greek text of Genesis 35.16 (see Jerome, Liber locorum, ed. Klostermann, p. 173, lines 5–8; Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 425–6). Other medieval sources, probably following Jerome, give the name as Kabrata (John of Würzburg, ed. Huygens, p. 86) or Katabrata (Theoderic 32, ed. Huygens, p. 179). Thietmar appears to have confused this with the Arabic name for the tomb, Qubbat (or Qabr) Rāhīl. On the monument itself, see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 176–8. 125   On the church and monastery in the Middle Ages, see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 137–56.

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the same marble, and its wall surfaces are embellished with gold and silver in various colours and beautified to perfection with every kind of painterly work and artistry. The Saracens would often have destroyed this church, had not the solicitude of the Christians averted it with much money. In the same church in its chevet is the cave where the Lord was born. In it I, a sinner, kissed the crib in which the little Lord squalled and worshipped in the place where the Blessed Virgin in labour brought forth the Child God. Likewise in the same church to the south I saw the cell of St Jerome, in which Jerome translated into Latin many sacred books of scripture from Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.126 He is buried there in the next cave, and Paula and Eustochium and ten of his disciples are buried together in the same place.127 I also saw there another large cave where many of the bodies of the Holy Innocents were placed. [29] Six miles south from here, that is to say from Bethlehem, is Hebron, where the four patriarchs were buried with their wives in a double cave: Adam, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There a very beautiful church has been built,128 which the Saracens also hold in great veneration, especially so because of Abraham; and that province is still called the land of Abraham. There is a field in Hebron, which is held in great repute on account of a precious material. For the Saracens are accustomed to dig up the earth and take it away to Egypt to sell as a well-known drug. But however much earth is dug out is found restored again after the passage of a year. They say that Adam was made from that earth and in that place. The earth of that field is reddish.129 Others, however, say that Adam was fashioned in the territory of Damascus. Near Hebron is the hill of Mamre (mons Mambre),130 at whose foot is that terebinth below which Abraham saw three angels; he saw three and worshipped one.131 Three miles from Bethlehem is the church of St Chariton.132 When he was abbot in that church and the day of his release was finally drawing near, his monks, seeing him dying, said to one another, ‘Without our father we do not wish to remain on earth!’ And all the monks who were present died with the dying abbot; and they are still visible in the flesh as they appeared in agony at that time. The Saracens, however, threw fire over them in order to burn them, but   Chaldaico.   The noble Roman lady Paula with her daughter Eustochium accompanied Jerome

126 127

to the Holy Land and established a monastery for women in Bethlehem in 386 (Hunt, Holy Land Pilgrimage, pp. 171–9). 128   See Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 223–39. 129   The export of red earth from Hebron to Egypt and its use as a drug is also mentioned by twelfth-century pilgrim texts: e.g. Descriptio locorum 10, in IHC 2, pp. 78–80; Anon. ii 1, in IHC 3, p. 46. 130   Tall al-Rumayda: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 201–4. 131   Genesis 18. 132   See Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 221–4.

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the heat of the fire did not touch them. They were placed in the beautiful crypt of the same church. From Bethlehem it is three miles to Tekoa (Thecua), where Amos the prophet is buried.133 [30] A mile from Bethlehem in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah is the place called ‘Glory in the Highest’, where the angels announced to the shepherds that the Lord had been born. It is also called the Tower of Eder (Ader), where Jacob pastured his flocks.134 Between Bethlehem and Jerusalem is a monastery, in which there were very beautiful nuns at the time when the Holy Land was lost. When the sultan heard of their beauty he wanted to mix with them and gave orders for them to dress and adorn themselves finely, so that such wickedness on their part would make them enticing. Their abbess, however, lest she be thus [corrupted] through wantonness to flesh and the Devil and the lily of her chastity be swallowed up in the sewer of licentiousness, cancelled the deserts of her labour and chose rather to mutilate herself and her sisters than to continue to exist with a whole body and heavenly countenance as a harlot to a vile dog. Therefore, when the tyrant was already before the doors, propelled with support and encouragement as if instructed from heaven she gave this advice: ‘Reverend sisters, this is the time of our tribulation. Saladin, enemy to our virginal modesty, is at hand. You cannot avoid his hand. So take my advice and do what I do.’ When they had all understood the situation, the abbess first and before the rest cut off her nose, and afterwards with a spontaneous will each of the others was mutilated. When he heard of this, Saladin was extremely disconcerted. Admiring their constancy and wisdom, he was struck with amazement and commended highly what had been done and the tenacious constancy of their faith.135 11. And so, proceeding from Bethlehem and leaving the Holy City to the left I came to Bethany, next to the field where Lazarus was brought back to life by the Lord. Bethany, however, is contiguous to the Mount of Offence, on which Solomon placed the idol of Moloch.136 Going down from there towards Jericho, I passed the place where the Samaritan fell among thieves, whence in the gospel: ‘A man [was going down] from Jerusalem to Jericho, etc.’ That place is called Adumim (Adomin) and human blood is often spilled there by robbers.137 [31]

  See Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 347–50.   Genesis 35.21. 135   This story apparently relates to the Benedictine nuns belonging to the abbey of St 133 134

Lazarus in Bethany (Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 122–3). Similar stories have at various times also been associated with the sisters of St Anne in Jerusalem (1187) and the Poor Clares of Antioch (1268), Tripoli (1289) and Acre (1291): see Pringle, Churches 4, p. 74. 136   1 Kings 11.7. 137   Luke 10.30–37. It was not of course the Samaritan but the man going to Jericho who fell among thieves. Ma‘ale Adumim (Tal‘at al-Damm) means the Ascent of Blood and

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I also passed the place where the Lord gave sight to the blind man.138 I also passed the rivulet whose bitter water Elisha made drinkable,139 whence these words: ‘O God, You who commanded [salt] to be put into the water through Elisha the prophet, etc.’140 Here to the left I saw Mount Quarantine (montem querentium), where the Lord fasted and was tempted by the Devil.141 However, there is another mountain in Galilee where He was also tempted by the Devil.142 From here I arrived in Jericho, where Rahab the harlot was born.143 From it also came Zacchaeus, who was small of stature.144 Its walls the Lord also miraculously destroyed.145 From here also the boys came out and mocked Elisha, saying, ‘You baldhead, you baldhead, go up!’ And two bears devoured them in vindication of the prophet.146 That city is small. Passing from here towards the Jordan I saw the castle of Gilgal, where the prophets Elisha and Elijah often used to be.147 I also saw the mound of foreskins, the seat of circumcision and the place of lamentations; that is to say, the twelve stones that the children of Israel carried out of the Jordan as a witness,148 and about which John the Baptist preached, saying, ‘Lord, you are able to raise up the sons of Abraham from these stones.’149 I also passed that place where the children of Israel crossed the Jordan with dry feet,150 which is called the ford of the Jordan, and the place where the Lord was baptized. In that place a beautiful church has been built in honour of St John the Baptist.151 There each year at Epiphany [32] the Greeks and Syrians are accustomed to come from distant parts in a great multitude and baptize their children. There also at the command of Elijah and Elisha the water divided itself like a wall and provided a path.152 There also Elijah was taken up by the Lord.153 Those things was the site of a Templar castle and chapel (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 345–6; id., Secular Buildings, p. 78–9). 138   Luke 18.35–43. The site was possibly identified at Bayt Jubr al-Taḥtāni (Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 101–2). 139   ‘Ayn al-Sulṭān. See 2 Kings 2.19–22. 140   The benediction of salt from the Roman missal. 141   Jabal al-Qurunṭul: see Matthew 4.1–11; Mark 1.12–13; Luke 4.1–8. 142   See Ernoul [3.7] p. 138. 143   Joshua 2.1–21, 6.17, 23–5. 144   Luke 19.1–10. 145   Joshua 6.20. 146   2 Kings 2.23–4. 147   2 Kings 2. 1. 148   Joshua 4.1–14, 5.2–10. 149   Cf. Luke 3.8. 150   Joshua 3.14–17. 151   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 240–44. 152   2 Kings 2.8. 153   2 Kings 2.11–12.

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took place in the valley that is called the Jordan Valley or valley of Achan (Achor), who was stoned because of the golden bar that he took from Jericho.154 It should also be noted that that valley is very fair and beautiful and was formerly very fruitful, to the extent that pomegranates used to grow there the size of a jar;155 for I would not go as far as to say the size of an amphora,156 which is what my guide told me in all truthfulness. Clusters of grapes also grew there, which hardly anyone could carry from the land by hand. But that valley has completely withered away from its fecundity because of the stench from the neighbourhood of Sodom, and there is no fruit there except for sugar-cane,157 from which sugar is made. The trees there are indeed beautiful with very fine leaves, but they have no fruit. Their sap smells of the neighbourhood of the Sodomites, so that if one breaks one of their small branches he will have very smelly hands for the whole day; and that smell cannot instantly be removed by washing with any kind of liquid. Not far from here is Bethel, where poor Jacob went to sleep on the bare earth while fleeing his brother and saw a ladder set up to heaven and angels ascending and descending by it.158 Likewise, not far from here is the place that is called At the Mounds of Jordan (Ad tumulos Iordanis), where the sons of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built an altar of admirable size when they were going back to their possessions.159 Crossing therefore by the ford of the Jordan, I came to the plain and place where the Lord overturned Sodom and Gomorrah, which is called the lake of asphalt or Asphaltites (asfaltidis).160 That lake discharges a certain kind of bitumen that is very useful to doctors [33] and is called asphalt. It is also called the Dead Sea, because it contains nothing living. In it, moreover, a man cannot be immersed, and neither bird nor fish is able to live or be immersed in it. For Titus ordered some condemned men to be thrown into the sea with their hands and feet tied; and they floated for four days, able neither to sink nor to die, and were taken out alive.161 Besides, if a lighted lamp is placed on it, it cannot be immersed, but once the light is extinguished the lamp sinks immediately. That lake is also called the Devil’s Sea, because on the instigation of the Devil on account of their sins those four cities, that is to say Sodom, Gomorrah, Zeboi’im and Admah, were submerged.162 On the shore of that sea grow fruits that are outwardly very beautiful and rubicund, but inside, when they are broken, there are hot ashes, and they stink. It should be noted that once or twice     156   157   158   159   160   161   154

Joshua 7.1, 18–26. urna. tina, which can also mean a cask or tub in medieval Latin. canna mellis, literally honey-cane. Genesis 28.10–19. Bethel is identified as Baytīn, ne of Ramallah. Joshua 22.10. The ancient Greek and Roman name for the Dead Sea. This experiment is attributed to Vespasian by Josephus, Jewish War 4.8.4, in Loeb 3, p. 141; trans. Williamson, p. 261. 162   Deuteronomy 29.22–8. 155

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a year there gets up a dangerous wind of great violence, which is dry and damaging to the produce of the land and to men’s bodies; it is called Assur163 and it extends its forces ten miles out to sea beyond Acre, where it loses its strength. Twice every two years the same Assur wind becomes so noxious that it kills many people through coughing. However, whenever it appears, it lasts no more than half a day, for if it were to last longer the land would not be able to bear it. That lake is also called the lake of the saltings, because many people collect salt there. The Jordan flows into that lake but does not come out of it again, or so I have learnt from certain people. On the shore of this lake, a mile from the place where the Lord was baptized, is the statue of salt into which Lot’s wife was turned, whence Theodolus: The perfidious wife of Lot was turned ‘into an effigy of salt; and the animals lick the rock.’164 [34] 12. I came away from here, from the lake of Sodom and Gomorrah, and proceeded to Zoar (Segor), where Lot betook himself after the overthrow of Sodom. In the Syrian language it is now called Zoram, and in Latin the ‘town of the palm’ (oppidum palme). On a mountain near there Lot became drunk and sinned with his daughters.165 After this I proceeded to the vineyard of Benjamin166 and En-gedi (Engaddi), which at one time was called the vineyard of balsam, because balsam grew there in antiquity.167 But the Egyptians clandestinely uprooted the plantations and transplanted them near Babylon and Cairo (Hair), a certain city.168 However, it has a garden of balsam about the size of half a hide.169 The wood of balsam is like the wood of a vine that is two years old, and the leaf is shaped like a trefoil. At the time of maturity in May the cortex of the balsam wood breaks and from the wood trickles drop by drop a gum, which is collected in glass jars and is placed and kept in pigeon droppings for several months. Afterwards the pure balsam is separated from the dregs. Note that in colour and liquor, balsam has a composition similar to pure oxymel.170 Likewise, the balsam garden has a special spring from which it is watered, because it cannot be irrigated with any other water.   From the Arabic i‘ṣār (pl. a‘āṣīr) meaning a whirlwind or tornado. Thietmar is evidently referring to the khamsīn (simūn or scirocco), a hot dust-laden wind which blows from the e or se off the Arabian desert in two periods of roughly fifty days (hence its name) between April and early June and between September and November (see Naval Intelligence Division, Palestine and Transjordan, pp. 50–51). 164   Ecloga, ed. Mosetti Casaretto, verse 118. 165   Genesis 19.15–37. Zoar is identified as Khubat al-Shaykh ‘Īsā (Ghawr al-Sāfi), the late Roman Zoora or Zoara, se of the Dead Sea: see Abel, Géographie 2, p. 466; TIR, p. 263. 166   The boundaries of the tribe of Benjamin are given in Joshua 18.11–20. 167   On the products of En-gedi in antiquity, see Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 316–17. 168   i.e. Old and New Cairo. The same story is repeated by James of Vitry in relation to Jericho; he also says that the balsam gardens near Cairo were only productive if tended by Christians (Historia Orientalis 86, ed. Donnadieu, p. 346). 169   Half a hide, or mansus, would be c.60 acres (24 ha). 170   Syrup of honey and vinegar. 163

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Afterwards I came into the land of Moab and proceeded on to the mountain on which was the cave in which David hid, when he cut off the hem of Saul’s robe while he was purging his stomach;171 and I left to the left-hand side Shittim (Sethim),172 where the children of Israel remained [35] when they were abandoned by their journey’s guide, that is the pillar of cloud which they had as guide for their march for forty years. Finally I came to the plains of Moab, which abound in goats and corn. The local people are unsightly, pitiable and very wretchedly dressed, and live for the most part in caverns in the rock. The land is flat, delectable and green, but devoid of woods or trees; bushes and shrubs are hardly abundant there. Likewise, to the left I left the land of the Amorites (Amorream), Bashan (Basan) and Gilead (Galaad), which two-and-a-half tribes obtained: the sons of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh.173 13. Afterwards I came to the torrent of the Jabbok,174 a very deep and dreadful valley, whose depth perturbed me very greatly. For going down into it and up again took me almost a day. From here I came to Mount Abarim on which Moses died and was buried by the Lord; and no man can ever know the location of his tomb,175 whence this: ‘And he did not give to any man to explore the tomb.’ Whence the Lord said to him, ‘Ascend and contemplate the land; you shall see it but not enter it.’176 This mountain is high and located in a plain. On the summit of the mountain is a beautiful monastery inhabited by Greek Christians, where I also spent the night.177 Around this mountain the children of Israel stayed for a while. In its neighbourhood is Mount Nebo, Mount Pisgah (Phasga) and Mount Peor (Phagor); and they are in the land of the Moabites and Midian. In them Baalam the prophet on the request of King Balak was supposed to curse the children of Israel, but on the contrary he blessed them.178 There also the children of Israel sinned with the virgins of the Midianites, which is remarkable, since the women of that province are very ugly. There also the children of Israel were consecrated to Baal of Peor. [36] There Phinehas was zealous for the law of his God and speared

    173   174   171

1 Samuel 24.1–8. Joshua 2.1; Numbers 25.1, 33.49. Numbers 32.33–42. Nahr al-Zarqā, though it seems unlikely that Thietmar went so far n; possibly he is referring to the Wādī Nusāriyyat. 175   Moses was buried near Mount Nebo, according to Deuteronomy 34.1–6. The mountains of Abarim appear to have been the range to which Nebo belonged (see Numbers 33.47–8; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, pp. 55, 201–2). 176   Cf. Deuteronomy 32.49–52. 177   The location of this monastery is uncertain, save that it evidently lay somewhere in the vicinity of Madaba and Mount Nebo: see Pringle, Churches 2, p. 43. 178   Numbers 22–4. 172

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a man and a woman. There the Lord also ordered Moses to hang the leaders of the people in the sun.179 14. From Mount Abarim I passed through a flat and very opulent land, the land of Sihon180 in Heshbon, as far as the torrent of the Arnon.181 In antiquity the children of Israel occupied that area, killing the kings and people of the land.182 There they also killed Balaam.183 From there I came to a large and famous city, which is called Rabbath (Robda) but is now destroyed.184 From here I came to another large city sited on a high mountain and fortified with walls and towers, which is called Karak (Crach). Afterwards I came to a cavern, where I was hospitably received by a poor Greek woman. There during the night the Greek bishop came from somewhere near by. Grey-haired, venerable in character and reverend in appearance he brought me his gifts, bread and cheese, and blessed me in his own language. From there I came to the torrent of Arnon,185 a wonderful valley, awesome and very deep, where the children of Israel killed the Amorites. Whence it is read: ‘The cliffs of Arnon inclined and tumbled on to the Amorites, and offered a passage to the children of Israel.’186 For I have never seen precipices so great and so frightening. Crossing the valley I came to a very large mountain, on whose summit it was so cold that I felt myself to be close to death. There I finally lost one of my companions, who was brought down by an excess of that cold. After crossing the mountain, I came to the cave where the prophet Jeremiah buried the Ark of the Covenant.187 Over that place fiery clouds are still often seen at night. [37] 15. From here, passing through a wilderness, I left to the right-hand side vast rugged places and to the left very huge mountains. I came to the mountain that is called Petra in Latin, Monreal in French, and al-Shawbak (Scobach) in Saracen. On the summit of that mountain is placed an excellent castle, enclosed step by step by three walls and so solid that I have never seen stronger. It belongs to the sultan of Babylon.188 Saracens and Christians live in its suburbs. There I was hospitably     181   182   183   184   179

Numbers 25.1–15. King of the Amorites. Wādi al-Mūjib, see Abel, Géographie 1, pp. 177–8. Numbers 21.13–35. Numbers 31.8. Rabbath Moab, classical Areopolis, today al-Rabba, see Abel, Géographie 1, p. 280 and 2, p. 425; Avi-Yonah, Gazetteer, p. 90. Not to be confused with Rabbath Ammon, which later became Philadelphia, modern ‘Ammān: Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 424–5. 185   Probably Wādi al-Hasa this time, as Thietmar was now travelling s rather than n and had already crossed the Arnon (Wādi al-Mūjib). 186   Cf. Numbers 21.13–35. 187   2 Maccabees 2.5. 188   Cairo. The sultan of Egypt at this time was al-Malik al-‘Ādil, though the effective ruler was his son, al-Malik al-Kāmil, who succeeded him as sultan in August 1218. 180

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received by a certain French widow, who gave me information about the journey and the way of travelling through the desert to Mount Sinai. She provided me with twice-cooked bread189 for the journey, cheese, dried grapes, figs and wine. She also brought to me the Bedouin with camels [who would accompany me] to Mount Sinai, because the way through the desert is not known by other people. Indeed, it came about that they swore and bound themselves by their religion and law to bring me back alive or dead. I went therefore with the Bedouin and their camels through the land of Edom, a good and fertile country. To the right I left Reqem (Archim),190 former metropolis of the Arabs, a large city though now deserted, and the rock from which Moses brought forth the water of Contention,191 which is divided into two rivulets by which that land is watered. I also passed by the place where the children of Israel were bitten by fiery serpents and where to cure their wounds Moses, at the Lord’s command, placed a serpent on a pole so that the wounded might be cured by the sight of it.192 Afterwards I passed between very high cliffs along a road that was narrow and frightening. For there were rock faces above me on both sides, vertical like walls or ramparts, and every so often [38] they closed overhead in the manner of an arched vault. The passage was deep, rising up on high; and it was dark, so that I was often unable to see the sky because of the enclosure and the coming together of the cliffs on either side. In those rocks I found cut into the stone some very beautiful and ornate dwellings of men, palaces and walkways,193 chapels and chambers, and things appropriate for the use of men. All those habitations were deserted and lived in by no-one.194 16. At length I came to Mount Hor (Or), where Aaron died.195 On its summit a church has been built in which two Greek Christian monks are living.196 That place is called Moserah (Muscera).197 Mount Hor is very high and its ascent is difficult. It overlooks all the mountains of that province. At the foot of that mountain I first began to enter the desert and went down through vast rugged descents and enormous precipices by means of steps cut out

  panem bis coctum, i.e. ‘biscuit.’   Petra, in Wādī Mūsa. Thietmar uses the Hebrew or Aramaic name, which Jerome,

189 190

following Eusebius, gives as Recem (Liber Locorum, ed. Klostermann, p. 143, line 147). 191   Numbers 20.2–13. 192   Numbers 21.6–9. 193   caminatas, alternatively ‘ovens’ or ‘rooms shaped like ovens’. 194   This paragraph describes Thietmar’s descent through the Sīq and the ruined city of Petra. 195   Numbers 20.22–9. Today known as Jabal Hārūn. 196   See Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 251–2 and 4, p. 267; Fiema and Frösen, Petra – The Mountain of Aaron 1. 197   Deuteronomy 10.6.

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of the rock. I entered the desert of Babylonia, which is called the Birrie,198 a land without roads or water, a vast wilderness and a lonely place, which in former times the children of Israel crossed, through the providence of the wondrous God. There God showed them many miracles, but because of their evil ways too many of them were indifferent to God’s goodness and many perished on account of their sinfulness. On the right-hand side I left Kadesh-barnea (Cades Barne), where Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron died.199 Thus I proceeded through the desert to Paran (Pharan)200 and to the sandy valley located between the mountains, [39] whose nature is such that the wind scatters sand from the mountains on either side, since all those mountains are of sand. In fact it distributes the sand so thickly that travel is dangerous to those undertaking a journey there, because the sand is blown by the wind in the manner of snow or hail, filling ditches, covering the tracks and tearing at travellers. No one can find the way except the Bedouin, who know the region and are accustomed to pass along that route. In winter time, when I was making my journey in that valley, it was so hot that I could scarcely bear it. Indeed, in summer nobody can pass through it on account of the extreme heat. Near that valley to the right is the place where Dathan, Abiram and Korah, contending against Aaron over the priesthood and the leadership, were swallowed up alive by the earth. For, because they attempted to sow dissension among the people, the earth gave way, its structure fractured, and opening itself up in a broad depression it ate them alive with all their followers in its deep mouth. As Numbers describes the story, ‘the ground split beneath their feet and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them with their tents and all their goods, and they went down alive into hell and the earth closed. And the fire came forth from the Lord and killed’ Korah and his accomplices.201 Likewise near there the staff of Aaron sprouted flowers.202 To the left are very high mountains, the mountains of Ethiopia, through which Moses led his army by way of a short cut, with ibises and storks going before him and clearing the way of troublesome vermin; and he besieged Saba, a city of Ethiopia, and eventually took it.203 17. From there I came to the Red Sea. It is enclosed, rather than enclosing; and indeed the water is not red, but rather the bottom of the sea and the land enclosing it are red. However, I found on the shore of the sea wonderful and delightful     200   201   202   203  

Arabic barriyya, meaning ‘open country’, ‘steppe’ or ‘desert’. Numbers 20.1. Numbers 10.12, 13.3 and 26. Kadesh lay in the wilderness of Paran. Numbers 16.1–35. Numbers 17.1–11. The legend of Moses leading an Egyptian army against the Ethiopians and marrying the king’s daughter is told by Josephus (Jewish Antiquities 2.10, in Loeb 4, pp. 268–75, trans. Whiston, pp. 48–9), Eusebius (Præparatio Evangelica 9.27.7–10, in PG 21, cols. 729–30) and other Jewish and Christian sources. 198 199

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mussel and snail shells and stones similarly of the utmost beauty and whiteness in the form of stag horns and golden in colour; also stones appearing as if sculpted, but naturally rather than [40] artificially. But among all these things that gave so much delight I shrank back, because excess is the mother of satiety and all these things, these delectable things, were excessive. Here too the best is found to be small. On a certain rock in that sea, half a campus204 from the shore, I saw that there was placed a certain castle, whose inhabitants205 were in part Christians and in part Saracens.206 Indeed, the Christians were captive French, English and Latins; but all of them, both the latter and the former, were fishermen of the sultan of Babylon, practising neither agriculture, nor war, nor anything military, but only fishing, and living from nothing else. Indeed they seldom have bread. They are separated from all habitation by more than five days’ journey. Here in this place I ran out of the water that I had brought with me on the camels and I found the water very bitter, salty, yellow and full of worms; none the less, notwithstanding my reluctance, I drank and was thereupon immediately ill. On the other hand, I found near by another very clear spring, from which whoever drinks loses all his hair. Not far distant from here is India, where St Thomas reposes. And the Indians frequently come through the Red Sea in their ships to Babylon, or Egypt, through Gihon, the river of paradise, that is the Nile, carrying their merchandises. It should be noted, however, that the Red Sea divides Ethiopia, Arabia, India and Egypt. The Red Sea has most excellent fish, some of which I even ate raw. I travelled for three days along the shore of the sea, having the sea on one side and high mountains on the other. From time to time I crossed in the greatest danger the ruins of mountains and rocks, which the force of waters and high winds had caused to cover and obstruct the path. Leaving the Red Sea, I then went along a route between very high mountains, where water flows from the mountains when there is rain. Circling the mountains by various roundabout routes for three days I came to Mount Sinai, which the Saracens call Ṭūr Sīna (Thursin). I had two ravens as companions for three days from the Red Sea as far as Mount [41] Sinai; they went before or after me no more than a bow-shot away. They observed, however, the hours of lunch and dinner, as if expecting alms. And they did the same on the way back. 18. It should be noted that the dangers of that desert are very many. There are often lions, whose recent tracks I saw, and poisonous worms and snakes. Also rains, for when it rains the water that is collected throughout the mountains fills the desert with such a flood that no one can avoid the danger. Also the heat, whose   About 2,000 feet (610 m).   castellani. 206   This castle, referred to in Arabic sources as Ayla and today as Jazirat Fara‘ūn 204 205

(Pharaoh’s Island), was captured from the Franks by Saladin during the winter of 1170–71 and extensively refortified: see Pringle, ‘Castles of Ayla’.

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excess drives travellers to exhaustion. And the lack of water, which is to be had only one day in five, or one in six. Robbers too, both farming Arabs207 and Bedouin, whose freebooting activities are dreaded. In summertime no one can pass through this desert. There are also few birds in it. The plains before Mount Sinai are beautiful and spacious. There Moses pastured the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, when he saw the burning bush.208 There too the Hebrews fought against Amalek when Moses was praying on Mount Sinai and Aaron and Hur held his arms.209 There the children of Israel made and worshipped the molten calf;210 and there Nadab and Abihu were consumed by fire.211 At the foot of Mount Sinai, in the place where the bush was growing at which Moses was astonished, reflecting that it was burning without being consumed, there is built a beautiful church in honour of Our Lady the Blessed Virgin.212 Externally it is covered with polished marble and roofed with lead, while internally it contains many lamps. That church has a bishop and monks, religious men, Greeks and Syrians, over whom the bishop has authority in temporal and spiritual matters. It is to be noted moreover that these men all have one house,213 which has only one door, strong and made of iron. It is surrounded by a strong high wall. One and the same house contains all, but they have subdivided cells, such that two, that is to say an old man and a youth, live together, so that the young man may support the old. They have their own sleeping chambers, their own altars and their own chapels; but they have in common the large main church, to [42] which at a given signal (for they have no bells) they all come together at night until the morning hours. For they perform the night office with much greater solemnity than the day office. They all have in common one large and beautiful refectory, and similarly one long table placed in the middle of the refectory, at which their bishop sits at the end and the others around it, two by two, eating from the bare table without a table cloth. On alternate days and feast days they eat in the refectory, and on other days they eat bread and water in their cells. I ate with them in their refectory. They eat without a reading, but with discipline. They always drink water, except on a few solemn feast days when they partake of a little wine. They have enough good fish from the Red Sea, adequate bread, turnips, dates and a sufficiency of oil. They never eat meat. They dress wretchedly and sleep miserably, almost on the bare ground without a mattress or coverlet. Most of what they have is brought to them from Egypt (Babilonia).     209   210   211   212  

Fallahīn. Exodus 3.1–6. Exodus 17.8–13. Exodus 32.1–6. Leviticus 10.1–3. See Galey, Sinai; Forsyth and Weitzmann, Monastery of St Catherine; Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 49–58. 213   curia. 207 208

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In the chevet214 of the same church there is also the place where the bush was standing: it is venerated by all, both Saracens and Christians, and is reverently laid out and set apart within the church itself. No one, neither bishop nor monk, Christian nor Saracen, dares enter this place without removing his shoes. Even the great sultan, the king of Cairo,215 presented himself there at that time and reverently entered that place in humility and in bare feet. I too adored the place barefooted. The bush, however, has been carried off and divided among the Christians for relics; but a golden bush has been made out of gold sheets in the likeness of the real bush, and a golden image of the Lord over the bush, and a golden image of Moses standing to the right of the bush and taking off his shoes. And there is another image of Moses to the left of the bush, showing him barefoot after he had removed his shoes. There the Lord made him an ambassador to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, concerning bringing his people out. In this place stones are still being dug out, having on them, as though painted, a representation of the bush; these are effective against various infirmities. 19. It is also to be noted that in the same church next to the choir in a prominent position towards the east is located the tomb of St Catherine. The tomb is short and [43] nobly made of very white marble. Its lid is raised just like a chest’s,216 and it is opened and closed. When the bishop of that place learnt of my wishes and the reason for my coming, he made himself ready with devotion, prayers and chanting and after lamps and censers had been lit he went to the sarcophagus of the blessed virgin Catherine, opened it and bade me look inside. And I saw clearly, face to face and without dubiety, the body of St Catherine; and I kissed her uncovered head. The limbs and bones, held together by sinews, still float in the self-same oil which exudes not from the tomb but from the individual joints, just as in a bath sweat erupts in droplets from the pores of the human body. It should be noted that, according to what is related in the story of that virgin’s passion, immediately after her martyrdom her body was carried by angels and brought to the highest point of Sinai. When I asked, however, about the translation from the mountain into the church already mentioned, my guide (who took me up the mountain) told me that a certain hermit, sitting alone in that part of Mount Sinai, on another height from that where the body of the holy virgin Catherine was brought by the angels, frequently saw, as much by day as by night, fire and a great brightness of light in and around the place where the holy body was. Wondering therefore what it might be and not knowing the answer, he went down to the church at the foot of the mountain and indicated to the bishop of the place and to the monks the visions that he frequently saw and the place where he had seen them. After a fast had been declared and completed, humbly and prayerfully they went together in procession up the mountain pointed out by the hermit. When they arrived there they indeed found a body, but were left earnestly wondering as to whose it was,   in capitello.   Malik al-‘Ādil. 216   archa, i.e. with a gabled top. 214

215

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where it had been taken from, and why, when and how it had been deposited there – because of these things they were completely ignorant. However, while all stood thus, wondering and ignorant, there appeared a hermit from Alexandria of mature age and venerable character, who was miraculously conveyed here to Mount Sinai by God’s grace, in the same manner as the prophet Habakkuk was to Daniel in the lions’ den,217 albeit not by his hair. He convinced the doubters and informed them in a clear voice that this was the body of St Catherine [44] and that it had been placed there by the hands of angels. On his persuading moreover, the venerable and devout men, the bishop and his monks, translated the said body into their church, because the place where the body had been placed by the angels was virtually inaccessible and uninhabitable on account of the lack of water. The holy body is located above the choir on the south. The tomb is short, because the body itself is quite small. There by the grace of God and the merits of St Catherine many great miracles occur. Indeed, while I was there, this remarkable miracle happened in the vicinity. A certain monk of that cloister who was bringing oil on camels for the use of the convent was journeying though the desert and fell among thieves, who robbed him of one of the camels with its entire load. But when they had gone off some distance from the monk with the camel, they untied an oilskin in order to take part of the oil to make use of it with their meal. And behold! purest blood came out instead of oil. When they saw this, the robbers tied up the oilskin and quickly took the camel and the loot back to the monk, asking him to give them a portion of the oil. The monk assented and untied the oilskin that they had untied and from which blood had previously flowed out, and behold! they received from the hand of the monk the truest and purest oil instead of the blood that they had earlier poured from the same oilskin, and they went away amazed and confused. 20. A certain nobleman of Petra, or al-Shawbak (Scobach) (which place I have dealt with above), wanting to transfer the body of St Catherine elsewhere at the suggestion of a certain monk, made preparations for carrying it off and had come almost up to the church [45] with a large company of men; but miraculously and mercifully for him he was driven back by the hand of God. For, to prevent him completing the work of darkness that he had embarked upon, a powerful dark whirlwind seized him with palpable shadows both in mind and in body and took possession of him. There also occurred an earthquake so great that the mountains tumbled down, all but dragging the same perpetrator of crime into danger and ruin. The ruins of the mountains and rocks, however, are still to be seen up to the present time; in them it is made clear what standing the blessed virgin Catherine, distinguished martyr, has with the Creator. The robber himself, swayed by evil, confused and distracted, with stumbling step barely arrived at the church. There, when he had considered the matter in his mind, he (not surprisingly!) repented greatly of his sin and was ashamed of his foolish presumption, trembling before Almighty God and fearing the Punisher and Defender. To the remedy of   Bel and the Dragon (Daniel 14), 33–9.

217

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reconciliation therefore, for the sake of God as much as of His Virgin Mother, he conferred to the same church in honour of God and St Catherine extensive estates, which the monks serving there enjoy fully and freely today.218 21. While a certain monk of St Catherine’s was charged with bringing some cloths from a certain city to the brothers in order to clothe them, some Saracen robbers pursued him and stole the cloths. When they had carried them away, the monk went back to the judge of the city and told him what had happened. The thieves, struck with mental blindness and lack of discernment, were unable to get away until they had restored the cloths in person. When I had remained with the monks for three days (for I spent four days with them), I asked the bishop to give me a guide to take me to the summit of Mount Sinai, where Moses received the law from the Lord. I therefore went with the guide provided for me by the bishop, and I ascended the mountain. That mountain is very high and surpasses all the mountains of that province. They say that God still lives on it. The path by which one ascends is made in steps, yet is narrow and so steep that if it were not for the steps laboriously constructed there by hermits and other holy men nobody would be able to ascend it. [46] For those steps have often been cut out of the cliffs not without some effort and here and there they are separated by a more than moderate height, appearing like very high towers. 22. I ascended by those steps to the summit of Mount Sinai. When I was going up to the third part of the mountain, however, I found a tiny little chapel, where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared visibly to the monks stationed on the mountain.219 It occurred in this manner. At that time by God’s permission the monks were often afflicted by a wondrous plague, in order that His goodness and power might become manifestly greater. For in an earlier time the fleas in that place had grown in such a way and to such an extent that no one was able to remain there. Therefore by common resolution and consent all the monks were preparing to leave to escape from the fleas and the intolerable plague. It is their custom, however, that when they are arranging to change location for whatever compelling reason, after closing their church and cloister220 and firmly locking them, they replace the keys in the church of Moses on the summit of Mount Sinai221 and depart. In accordance with this custom, because of the immediate need, after closing the church and cloister they were hastening to replace the keys in the aforesaid church so that they might leave. But when they arrived at the third part of the mountain where   This seems to be corroborated by a letter of Pope Honorius III to Abbot Simeon of August 1217, which confirms among the abbey’s possessions lands in Wādī Mūsa and lands and houses in Montreal (al-Shawbak) and Karak, though it remains uncertain which lord of Montreal was responsible for the original gift (Pontificia commissio, series 3, 3, pp. 35–6, no. 17; p. 195, no. 148). 219   The chapel of St Mary of the Pledge: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 58–9. 220   curia. 221   See below. 218

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the chapel is built the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to them in bodily form and asked them why they were making ready to go. And after being told the reason for the departure, she said to them, ‘Go back! For the plague has passed and will not come back again.’ They therefore went back and no flea has appeared any more in that place. 23. One time when they had no oil for lighting the church or the other lamps, the decision was again taken to leave. For the custom of the Greeks is that in their churches they have many lamps, countless numbers in fact, because it seems that they are not capable of serving God worthily without a large number of lamps. When they saw therefore that their lamps were deficient, they decided to disperse and when, in the same way as before, they came to the place where they had seen and heard Our Lady face to face, Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, appeared to them bodily a second time. When she had learnt the reason for their departure, she said to them, ‘Go back, for you will find the jar in which you were accustomed to put the oil filled with oil that will not fail. You shall therefore never see oil to be lacking from that.’ They therefore returned and, just as [47] Our Lady had said, they found the jar instantly full of oil. I later saw this jar and had oil from it, and it is held in great veneration. And so because Our Lady had appeared there to the monks once and a second time, they constructed a chapel in her honour. From here I ascended by the same steps and passed through two stone gateways and came to the chapel of the Prophet Elijah and to the place that is called Horeb, where Elijah fasted forty days, and where he stood in the opening in the rock to see the Lord and saw the passing wind that broke the mountains and the rocks, and the Lord was not in it; and after that period of commotion, an earthquake, and the Lord was not in it; and afterwards a fire, and the Lord was not in the fire. Afterwards there came a whistling noise dim to the ear, and the Lord was there and then He spoke with him.222 From that place I went right up to the top of Mount Sinai, where the church of Moses is built.223 There the Lord gave him the law and entrusted him with making the tabernacle and the ark; and there he fasted and also spoke with the Lord as friend to friend. In the entrance to that church is a stone and a rock cavern where Moses hid himself when he wanted to see the Lord, saying, ‘Show me your face.’ However, the Lord said, ‘I shall show you every good thing, but my face you cannot see; but stand in the opening of the rock and when I pass by you shall see my back.’224 However, as Moses was standing by the rock when the Lord passed by, the rock became pliant like wax that has been softened by fire; and out of fear, which Moses drew from the glory of the Lord that he saw, he pressed himself into the rock, in   1 Kings 19.8–18. On the chapel, see Pringle, Churches 2, p. 59.   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 59–61. 224   Exodus 33.18–23. 222 223

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which I saw imprinted even now the trace of his outlines. The rock is very hard and cannot be cut with any iron implement. From the summit of this mountain I saw the whole province on every side in a complete circle. And my guide showed me from that place Elim, where there are twelve springs and seventy palms,225 and that place where the children of Israel first received manna. They say that it never rains there, but that place is watered in the same way by dew. And you should know that when I was there a small amount of rain fell, since it had not rained there for the previous five years. It should be noted, however, that in most places the mountain is called Sinai; but in other parts, [48] in the direction of Egypt, it is called Horeb, where Moses struck the rock of Horeb with a rod and gave water to the whole multitude of the children of Israel; and a bishop told me that the children of Israel took away part of that stone as far as the waters of Contention,226 and that part provided water abundantly for all of them. I saw moreover the place where the body of St Catherine had been placed by the angels. 24. It is also to be noted that the Red Sea lies beside Mount Sinai to the south and extends as far as Babylon, where it ends, so that the Red Sea is five days’ journey distant from the Mediterranean. One branch, however, extends from the one sea in the manner of a small river. Through the middle of this river there passes from the east Gihon, the river of Paradise, which is the Nile; and it goes down through Egypt beside the walls of Babylon227 and after flowing past Damietta it runs into the Mediterranean Sea at Alexandria. The River Nile overflows for forty days around the time of the month of July and recedes for the same number of days. From these floods the Egyptians take the Nile waters off along ditches and earthen channels through their fields. When the waters recede, however, the farmers immediately put seeds in the mud that has only recently been exposed by the water. Scarcely enveloped by the mud, the seeds grow within one night into shoots the length of a finger. The Egyptians have within the gate of Babylon an indicator on which they consider in advance the fertility or scarcity of future times; in this way if the water of the Nile touches the mark of flood there will be a good and fertile season; if it exceeds it, there will follow the greatest plenty of produce; but if it remains below the mark, there will be famine.228 It should also be known that Egypt contains three principal cities: Babylon, Alexandria and Damietta. Babylon is not strong and has no walls, but it is rich beyond measure. Ancient Babylon is distant from it twenty days’ journey and more; the other two [cities] are fortified.     227   228   225

Numbers 33.9. The waters of Meribah, or Contention (Numbers 20.13). Old Cairo. Thietmar is here referring to the Nilometer on Rawḍa Island, constructed under the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil in 247 h/ad 861–2 (Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture 2, pp. 290–307, figs. 230–31, pls. 80–82; id., Short Account, pp. 292–6, fig. 60, pl. 60). 226

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Egypt is indeed a flat land and very fertile, rarely having rain. Roses grow there in every month of the year except August. Sheep and goats produce offspring twice a year. There are many Christians in Egypt and many churches of the Christians, who have a single patriarch in Alexandria.229 [49] There is also a land beyond Egypt, whose inhabitants are called Abyssinians (Issini). It is completely Christian. And each of the men of that province has on his forehead a cross, because when they are small, they are cauterized in their foreheads with the sign of the cross. They frequently fight against the Saracen Egyptians. It is their belief in short that they should come to Babylon in such numbers that each of them might remove a stone and not one stone will be left in Babylon. Between that province of the Christians and Egypt is a certain city, which is called Mecca (Mec), in which is the tomb of Muḥammad, the prophet of the Saracens, to which Saracen pilgrims set out from abroad from different parts and distant regions – and as solemnly and in such numbers as Christians go in pilgrimage to the Lord’s Holy Sepulchre. But neither rich nor poor are admitted unless they give a gold piece. There the deed finds more favour than the intention: gold is demanded more than a contrite heart. The tomb of Muḥammad does not hang in the air, as some assert, but is on the contrary on the ground. And no more of his body is held there than his right foot, because the rest of his body was completely eaten by the pigs of the Christians. And about his life I heard many trifles. 25. Muḥammad was a keeper of camels, poor and epileptic, from the tribe of the Bedouin. He was corrupted by a bitter heretic and hermit, bodily and carnally as well as spiritually, and was so instructed in wickedness that he became extremely powerful through necromancy. His doctrine, when he was alive, was this. He preached that paradise was terrestrial, having four rivers flowing with wine, honey, milk and water. He preached that all the Saracens killed in battle with the Christians would be received in paradise and would there have the carnal use of numerous virgins for their pleasure, because he asserted that place to be the carnal paradise of food and drink and of all manner of debauchery and delights of the flesh; and he also preached that there would be an abundance of pleasure and a mingling together of many good things. And he preached many other things similar to these and full of silliness. However, he taught people to have mutual compassion for one another and to give aid to anyone in affliction. [50] It should be noted moreover that every Saracen man is allowed to have seven legitimate wives, and he is held to provide the expenditure necessary to support them. With his maidservants as with his female slaves, though there be a thousand of them, he may freely sin, and he does not derive any guilt from it. He may constitute as his heir any of his sons, whether by a maidservant or by a legitimate wife. If any of the maidservants or slaves of the pagans begets a son, she will be free from the lordship of her master. I heard that there are some Saracens, albeit few, who have only a single wife.   That is to say the Malkites, or Orthodox. Thietmar is not referring to the Copts.

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26. It should also be known that the Saracens are circumcised, and they perform their circumcisions with great festivity and joyfulness. I also noticed that they marched in a great parade, armed, with caparisoned horses and clothed in purple and sendal,230 like the people whom we employ in festive spectacles. They are accustomed to celebrate their birthdays in the same manner; they observe the months and seek to obtain auguries and omens. Their belief is that St Mary, Our Lady, became pregnant from the breath of an angel and nevertheless remained a virgin. However, they believe Christ, Our Lord, to be the greatest prophet after Muḥammad. They believe that He walked on the sea, raised the dead and truly performed many other miracles, and that as miraculously He was bodily carried up into heaven. They have our gospel in large part; they hold the prophets, some of the books of Moses and certain martyrs and confessors in great veneration. 27. When therefore, as has been stated above, I was on the summit of Mount Sinai and was looking over the adjacent provinces – on account of which I was carried off into a digression – and when through asking about many things I had been thoroughly instructed by my guide, I descended with him from the mountain and returned to the church of St Catherine. When I had spent four days with them, however, and the bishop learnt of my wish to depart, with great devotion he approached the sarcophagus of St Catherine. Having opened it, he gave me some of the oil of the same virgin. In addition he honoured me with gifts, and after giving [51] me a parting meal of fish, fruit and bread and having bade me farewell with his blessing he sent me away in peace. And so, having resumed my journey, by the grace of God and with life my companion, I returned to Acre safe and sound. 231 28. It should be noted that the city of Jerusalem is placed, according to some people, in the centre of the world. To the east of it lies Ethiopia, Arabia and Persia and to the west the Mediterranean Sea, Philistia, Egypt, Numidia, Mount Sinai, Galilee, Syria, Idumæa, Mesopotamia, Chaldæa, Armenia and Damascus. It should also be known that in overseas parts the rite of the Christians is split into different sects. For some are Latins while some are Greeks and Syrians, who are opposed to the Latins but have one rite and agree in the spiritual sacraments. It is said of the Greeks that they believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds not from the Father and Son but from the Father alone. A Greek bishop explained this matter to me and said that it was not like that, but that the Greeks believed in the same way as the Latins except that they consecrated leavened bread. Some people say that they wash the altars after the celebration of the Latins, but the same bishop openly denied this. Others are the Jacobites, who derive their sect from a certain Jacob. They have Chaldæan writing, bless themselves with only the index finger and believe in a   A medieval silken fabric.   The remaining sections of Thietmar’s description are based in large part on the

230 231

Tractatus de locis et statu sancte terre (1168–87) (ed. Kedar, pp. 123–31).

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single unity.232 The priest and the deacon consecrate on the altar at the same time. They are descended from Egypt and say that they are from the stock of Pharaoh.233 Others are the Georgians, who venerate St George, are vigorous in arms, and trouble the Saracens greatly. They cultivate their beards and hair. All have tonsures, both laymen and clerics, the laymen’s being quadrate, the clerics’ round. They have their own writing and wear felt hats on their heads one ell high. Others are the Armenians, who at the time of the Nativity of Christ celebrate their fast and keep the Nativity on Christ’s Epiphany. Because their laws are similar, there is always disputation between them and the Greeks concerning the law, and they hate each other astonishingly because of it. Others are the Nestorians, who are perverted in heretical belief and have Chaldæan writing. Apart from these, there are also non-Christians who are divided into various sects: first the Jews. Others are the Sadducees, who do not believe in resurrection. Others are the Samaritans, who have their heads bound with a linen cloth; [52] they observe only the five books of Moses. This sect together with its worshippers is already disappearing.234 Others are the Ismailis (Essei). Those peoples are called Assassins.235 They are descended from the Jews, but do not observe the Jewish law. They eat pork. They worship the Lord their God, and obey him up to death. They kill whichever nobles they wish with knives and do not worry about being killed as a result. The method of all their killings is well enough known. The Templars have annihilated them in great part and have devastated their land for a distance of more than ten days’ travel. They have Chaldæan and Hebrew writing. Others are the Bedouin, who are ugly and very poorly dressed but able to ride in military fashion; they are the best of robbers and are called wild Turks. They have no land. They always live in the open air. They have no houses, but if there is rain they sleep in tents. They have many flocks. They wander from land to land with their flocks ready to be sold, and sell Christians to the Saracens and Saracens to the Christians. They wear red felt hats on their heads a cubit high and a cloth bound around the hat. They lead the kind of life that the routiers are accustomed to follow in France. 29. In addition, there are those trees in the land of Jerusalem that are called trees of paradise, which bear leaves an ell long and half a cubit wide and have long 232   i.e. they believe that God has a single nature, rather than being represented by the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 233   Thietmar is evidently referring here to the Copts, who are Monophysites like the Jacobites and in the thirteenth century often shared the same churches. 234   The alternative reading defecit, ‘has already disappeared’, for deficit would be an overstatement, besides being contrary to the Tractatus, which puts their number at scarcely 300 or no more than a thousand (ed. Kedar, p. 130). 235   See Lewis, Assassins; Daftary, Ismailis. For discussion of medieval European perceptions of the Ismailis, see Daftary, Assassin Legends, pp. 49–87.

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fruit the size of a finger in length and a cluster of eighty or more on a branch.236 They taste of honey and if eaten are good for the stomach. There are lemon trees, whose fruit is bitter and good for sauce. There are trees bearing apples that are called Adam’s apples, in which the bite of Adam is very clearly seen.237 There is Pharaoh’s fig, which carries a fruit not among the leaves but on the trunk itself.238 There are palms, bearing dates. [53] There are cedars, which produce cones as large as a man’s head and have three flavours: strong, mild and medium. It is called the marine cedar.239 The cedar of Lebanon is very tall and bears no fruit. Indeed, it is not as abundant as it once was. There are four patriarchs: first that of Constantinople, second that of Alexandria, third that of Antioch, fourth that of Jerusalem. The patriarch of Jerusalem has likewise below him four archbishops: first, in the province of Palestine, the archbishop of Cæsarea, who was more than moderately fat when I saw him;240 another in Phœnicia, the archbishop of Tyre; the third in Galilee, the archbishop of Nazareth; and the fourth in the region of Moab, the archbishop of Karak (Petracensem). The archbishop of Cæsarea has one suffragan: the bishop of Sebaste, where John the Baptist was buried. The archbishop of Tyre has four suffragans: the bishops of Acre, Sidon, Beirut and Bāniyās (Cesarea Philippi). The archbishop of Nazareth has one suffragan: the bishop of Tiberias. The patriarch also has the following bishops, with no intermediary: those of Bethlehem, Lydda and Hebron. 30. In addition, before the land of Jerusalem was lost,241 in the church of the Holy Sepulchre there were canons regular following the rule of Augustine. [54] They had a prior with a fillet, staff and ring and they promised obedience to the pontifical shoes and to the patriarch. In the Lord’s Temple there was an abbot and regular canons; in the church of Mount Sion an abbot and regular canons; in the church of Mount Tabor an abbot and black monks; in the church of the valley of Jehoshaphat an abbot and black monks; in the church of Latina242 an abbot and black monks. They all have fillets along with the bishops already mentioned and owed to the lord patriarch obedience in divine service. The book is ended.

  i.e. bananas.   A variety of citron, known as the balady citron (etrog in Hebrew). 238   The sycamore fig, or Egyptian or oriental sycamore, a kind of fig whose wood was 236 237

used for making the coffins of Egyptian mummies. 239   Stone pine (Pinus pinea), which produces edible pine nuts. 240   pinguis can also mean ‘rich’. The archbishop of Cæsarea in 1217 was Peter of Limoges, who is first mentioned as such in 1199 (Kohler, Chartes, pp. 60–61, no. 58) and died in 1237 (Hamilton, Latin Church, pp. 245–6, 248, 250, 255, 257–60, 292). Thietmar may have met him either in Cæsarea itself or else perhaps in Acre. 241   In 1187. 242   St Mary Latin.

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Ernoul’s Chronicle (c.1231) (extracts) Chapter 7 … [62] Let us now leave Saladin besieging Karak,1 and speak of the River [Jordan], where it rises, how it goes and where it ends. That river divides the lands of the Saracens and Christians for as long as it flows.2 The land of the Christians, which is on this side, is called the Promised Land and that of the Saracens is called Arabia. In the Promised Land all the streams are called rivers. At the foot of the mountain rise two springs: one is called Jor (Iour) and the other Dan (Dain). I shall now tell you what this mountain is called: its name is Mount Lebanon (Mont de Ninban). This mountain extends four days’ march in length as far as a castle beyond Tripoli, which is called Arcas (Arces).3 There was made Noah’s Ark, the wood for which was taken on that Mount Lebanon; and this castle is called Arcas (Arches) because Noah’s Ark was made there. This mountain divides the land of the pagans4 from Christendom along the seaboard from near Tyre (Sur) to beyond Tripoli; on this side are the Christians, on the other the land of the pagans. On that mountain there are many good lands and towns, which the Christians and the Saracens divide half and half. In some places it is the case that all belongs to the Saracens, and in others all to the Christians. Between these two mountains there is a valley that is called the valley of the Baqā‘a (Val Bacar),5 where the men of Alexander went foraging when he was besieging Tyre. [e: It is still said of this in the romance of ‘The Pillage of Gaza’ that they had gone to the valley of Jehoshaphat; but it was not the valley of Jehoshaphat, but [63] the valley of Baqa‘a.] To put it better into verse, he who wrote the romance called it the valley of Jehoshaphat to make it rhyme.6   1183.   This statement would have been broadly true for the period after the fall of Bāniyās

1 2

in 1164 and before the loss of most of the kingdom in 1187; but even after the Ayyubid concessions made in the treaty of Tall al-‘Ajjūl/Jaffa in 1192 the Christian possessions did not extend to the Jordan (see Prawer, Histoire 2, pp. 198–200, map vii). 3   Tall ‘Arqa. 4   Paienime, i.e. land of the Muslims. 5   Or Val de Bacas. 6   The Pillage of Gaza (Fuere de Gadres) is part of Li romans d’Alixandre by Lambert li Tors and Alexandre de Bernay; however, the allusion referred to here more probably relates to another part of the same romance (ed. Michelant, p. 534; cf. Ernoul, ed. de Mas Latrie, pp. 62–3, n.7).

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Now we have told you of Mount Lebanon, at whose foot the two springs rise. Now we shall tell you of a city below the slopes of the mountain, above the springs, which is called Bāniyās (Belinas). It was already in the hands of the Christians at the time of Godfrey, but I cannot tell you at the time of which king they lost it.7 But they then fortified two castles near there. One is called Toron (Thorons).8 This castle belonged to the king and is five leagues from Tyre and four leagues from that city of Bāniyās. And the other is called Ṣafad (Saffet).9 This belonged to the Temple and lay four leagues from the city. Now we shall tell you of Bāniyās, whose city it was and how it was anciently named. It was [a city of] Philip, and so it had the name Cæsarea Philippi (Cesaire Phelipe). This Philip10 was the brother of Herod11 who had St John the Baptist beheaded; and he was former husband of the woman to whom Herod was married,12 when he had St John beheaded. And because [John] told Herod that on no account should he marry the wife of his brother, for that the latter had him executed.13 At this Cæsarea Our Lord gave St Peter the keys of Paradise and power to bind and loose.14 This city is near to Galilee. [64] Now we shall tell you of the two springs that flow towards the sea of Galilee. Before they enter the sea they join together and become one. One of the two springs is called Jor and the other Dan. And when they merge they are called Jordan. That river enters the sea from the direction of Bāniyās and flows from there through the length of the sea to a bridge that is called the bridge of Tiberias;15 and after it passes under the bridge it is called the River Jordan. Now we shall tell you of that sea, what kind of sea it is. That sea is not salty, but is sweet and good to drink. The sea is only four leagues long and two wide. Scripture calls that sea the sea of Galilee and in another place the sea of Tiberias, because the city of Tiberias (Tabarie) is situated on the sea on the Christians’ side. In another place scripture calls it the lake of Nazareth.16 On that sea Jesus Christ walked and St Peter, who was in a boat on the sea, asked Him to let him go after Him. And Jesus Christ stretched out His hand and asked him to come. And St Peter leapt into the sea, sank, doubted and cried for pity   Any Frankish occupation before Godfrey’s death in 1100 must have been shortlived. Bāniyās was again in Frankish hands in the years 1128–32 and 1140–64. 8   Tibnīn, established by Hugh of St Omer, prince of Galilee, in 1106; it passed to Baldwin IV in 1180. 9   Possibly established in 1102 and in Templar hands by 1168. 10   Son of Herod the Great and ruler of the ne parts of his father’s former kingdom from 4 bc to ad 34. 11   Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee and Transjordan, 4 bc–ad 39. 12   Herodias. 13   Matthew 14.1–12; Mark 6.17–29; Luke 3.18–20. 14   Matthew 16.13–19. 15   Jisr Sinn al-Nabra (Pont de Sinnabra). 16   A mistake for Gennesaret (Matthew 14.34; Mark 6.53; Luke 5.1). 7

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to Jesus Christ to help him. And Jesus Christ told him how little faith he had.17 In that sea St Peter went fishing one night with his companions in two boats and they caught nothing. And Jesus Christ came in the morning on the seashore and asked them if they had any fish; and they replied that they had caught nothing. ‘Now,’ said Jesus Christ, ‘cast your nets on the right-hand side.’18 And St Peter replied, ‘Master, we have toiled all night and have taken nothing. But at your word we shall cast our nets.’19 They cast them and the nets were completely filled with [65] fish; and they filled their two boats so that the nets broke. It was on that sea that Jesus Christ made water into wine, when He was at the wedding of the steward of the feast20 in the city of Tiberias.21 Between Tiberias and Bāniyās there is a place that is called the Table,22 beside the sea of Galilee. It was in that place that Jesus Christ fed the Apostles and five thousand people with five loaves of barley bread and two fish, such that twelve23 baskets of debris were left behind.24 On the other side, on the sea towards the land of the pagans, there is a city called Capernaum (Capharnaon), where St Peter and St Andrew were born;25 and there Jesus Christ performed many fine miracles of curing people, such as the son of the king and others. Afterwards there is a city that is called Nain (Naïm), where Jesus Christ went one day together with His Apostles. And when He approached the gate of the city, He encountered a young man who was being carried away to be buried. So Jesus Christ came to him and told him to rise up and he immediately jumped up, for Jesus Christ had brought him back to life.26 Another time when Our Lord was travelling in that country He met a man who was out of his senses and whom no bonds could restrain without him breaking them. The townsfolk would run after him to catch him, in case he were to go and drown in the lake. So Jesus Christ came and told him to be calm and go no further. And he was calm. Then Jesus Christ said, ‘Who are you inside this body who troubles this man?’ And it said that it was a legion of enemies, who could not exist elsewhere than in the body of a man. So Jesus Christ commanded them to come out; and they asked Him to command them to enter into other bodies, because they could exist in no other place than in the body of a man.     19   20   21   17

Matthew 14.22–32; Mark 6.45–53; John 6.15–21. John 21.6, cf. 21.3–8. Luke 5.5, cf. 5.1–9. Archedeclin, the architriclinus of John 2.9–10. This happened at Cana of Galilee (John 2.1–11). In the Middle Ages, a number of the gospel traditions associated with the surrounding area were relocated in Tiberias itself (see Pringle, Churches 2, p. 351). 22   Al-Ṭābgha. 23   Var. two, twenty-two. 24   Matthew 14.13–21; Mark 6.31–44; Luke 9.10–17; John 6.1–14. 25   Cf. Mark 1.29. 26   Luke 7.11–17. 18

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There was passing by there a herd of pigs [66] and Jesus Christ commanded them to leave and enter into the bodies of the pigs, and they did so. And the pigs went into the sea and the man went away home, quite cured.27 That miracle, and many others that I shall not mention, Jesus Christ performed around the sea of Galilee. Five leagues from the sea of Tiberias there is a city called Nazareth; and it is six leagues from Acre. In that city Our Lady St Mary was born. In that same city the angel brought her the news that Jesus Christ would take flesh and blood in her. When Our Lady St Mary was pregnant with the Son of God the Father, she went to a mountain that was near Nazareth to visit a pregnant first cousin who lived there who was named Elizabeth. And she was pregnant with my lord St John the Baptist. She went to see her, to be company for her and to comfort her. As soon as she arrived there she saluted her; and as soon as the voice of the mother of God entered the ear of St Elizabeth the child that was in her womb rejoiced at the coming of his Lord. In that place there is an abbey of Greeks, which is called St Zacharias because Zechariah lived there. And he was the father of St John the Baptist.28 Half a league from Nazareth there is a beautiful mountain, which is called in Latin Montem excelsum valde,29 and in French it is called the Leap, because on the side of this mountain there is a cliff where they used to take those people of Nazareth who had deserved death to make them jump down. And so it happened one time that Jesus Christ was taken there to be made to jump down, because of something that He had said to the Jews of Nazareth. And when He came there, He vanished from them, and [67] sat down on a stone that is still there, so that they could neither see nor find Him.30 The mountain that rises high above the cliff is the mountain where the devil took Jesus Christ, when he had taken Him from the Quarantine, where He fasted above the Temple.31 From above the Temple he took Him, and transported Him on to that mountain and showed Him all the countries and the whole region and the riches that were in the land, and he said that he would give Him everything that He wanted if He would worship him. And Jesus Christ told him to go away and never tempt Him again. The devil went away and the angels came near that mountain.   Matthew 8.28–34; Luke 8.26–39.   On this church near Nazareth, see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 144–5. Following

27 28

Luke 1.39–40, however, the Visitation was more usually located near Jerusalem, in the hill country of Judæa and specifically at ‘Ayn Karim: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 30–47. 29   The ‘very high mountain’ of Matthew 4.8. 30   Luke 4.30 relates simply that ‘passing through the midst of them he went away.’ The place is known today as the Mount of Precipitation, or Jabal al-Qafza: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 45–8. 31   The last three words (sour le Temple) appear to be out of place here. According to Matthew, after fasting forty days Jesus was tempted first in the desert, then on the pinnacle of the Temple, and finally on a very high mountain (ch. 4.1–11). In the Middle Ages, Mount Quarantine, where Jesus fasted forty days, was traditionally located at Jabal al-Qurunṭul near Jericho.

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Below that mountain there is another mountain, which is not so high, about which I shall tell you below. There is a very beautiful plain between the two mountains. That other mountain is called Mount Tabor. On that mountain Jesus Christ once took St Peter, St James and St John and was transfigured before them; and because of that the feast of the Transfiguration is celebrated in many lands. There they saw His white clothing and two men with Him, of whom it is said that one was Moses and the other Elijah. So St Peter came to Jesus Christ for the great glory that he saw there and said to him, ‘Lord’, he said, ‘it would be very good to be here. Let us make three booths here, one for You, one for Elijah and one for Moses.’ When St Peter has thus spoken these words, there came a voice from heaven like thunder. It said that this was His Son whom He had sent on earth. The Apostles were so frightened when they heard it that they fell unconscious on [68] their faces. When they got up from their faint and looked at each other they saw only Jesus Christ with them. And they went down the mountain. And Jesus Christ told them that of the vision that they had seen they should tell not a word until after He had been raised again from death to life.32 I forgot to tell you, while I was speaking of it, how far it is from Jerusalem to that mountain where the devil transported Jesus Christ: it is two full days’ travel. I shall now tell you of the River Jordan, how it flows and where it ends. After it issues forth from the sea of Galilee, it flows south for the distance of a good three days’ travel and it ends in the sea that is called the sea of the Devil.33 In the land and in scripture it is called the Salt Sea, because there is a mountain of salt on the shore towards al-Karak (le Crac), and because it is so salty and so bitter that nothing at all can compare with its great saltiness and bitterness. There is nothing of the Great Sea34 about it: thus it has no tide, but is like a pond, and there are no fish, for fish cannot survive in it; and it was formerly all land there where the sea is. And that land was situated between a city named St Abraham35 and al-Karak. Now that I am telling you more about that sea, I shall tell you where al-Karak lies. It is situated in Arabia. After it is Mount Sinai, in the land of the lord of Karak. Mount Sinai is between the Red Sea and al-Karak.36 There [69] God gave the law to Moses, after he has passed through the Red Sea.37 On that mountain where the law was given the angels carried the body of St Catherine, when she had her head     34   35   36   32

Matthew 17.1–9; Mark 9.2–9; Luke 9.28–36. The Dead Sea. The Mediterranean. Hebron. From 1167, the Latin archbishop of Petra, whose pro-cathedral was in Karak, claimed the Orthodox abbot of Mount Sinai as his suffragan (Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 286–8; on the date, see Mayer, Kreuzfahrerherrshaft Montréal, pp. 281–3). It appears from this passage that the lord of Karak may have made parallel claims to secular authority over Sinai. Philip of Milly is known to have visited the abbey as a pilgrim during the time of his lordship (1161–6) (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 51–2). The passage also implies that pilgrims were still following the route to Sinai through Transjordan, as Thietmar did in 1218. 37   Exodus 19–20. 33

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cut off in Egypt. There she lies in oil, which her body emits.38 And above there is an abbey of Greek monks. But the main abbey of that house is not there, but at the foot of the mountain. The abbot and the convent are there; and it is not possible to go up the mountain on horseback, nor to use a horse to carry up the food that allows them all to live up there. Up there, however, there are thirteen monks who live a hard life. Bread is carried up there and no more; and there are those who eat only three times a week, bread and water, and those who eat with their bread raw herbs, which they cultivate up there. On that mountain Moses fasted for forty days, and never ate until the law was given to him. Now I shall tell you of the Red Sea, which is after that. That is the sea which Moses struck with his staff and the sea parted and it was like a wall from one side to the other. It is the sea that the children of Israel crossed with dry feet when they came from Egypt. And when they had passed through it the king, Pharaoh, who was coming after them, went into it and wanted to take and kill them, he and all his army. Moses took up his staff again and struck the sea; and the whole army was drowned, not one person escaping. And the children of Israel escaped, for they were beyond the sea before it was brought together again.39 On the shore of this sea Prince Reynald40 at one time had five galleys made. When he had had them made, he had them put [70] on the sea and embarked knights, sergeants and enough food to cruise around and find out what sort of people were living on the other side of that sea. And when they were provisioned they departed and made for the open sea; but after they departed thence, no one heard speak of them nor knew what became of them.41 And through the Red Sea flows one of the rivers of Paradise. And when it flows out of the sea it flows through the land of Egypt. That river is called in scripture Pishon,42 and in the land it is called the Nile. We shall now leave the Nile be and tell you of the city of St Abraham, which is in the Promised Land, beyond the sea of the Devil43 of which I spoke to you earlier. The place where the city lies is called Hebron (Ebron). There St Abraham lived and made his home when he had come from Haran,44 where he was born 38   On St Catherine’s monastery and its dependent churches, see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 49–63. 39   Exodus 14.5–30. 40   Reynald of Châtillon, lord of Karak and former prince of Antioch. This episode occurred in 1182–83. 41   Muslim sources record that after a spree of raiding between ‘Aydhāb and Jidda, the Christian ships were hunted down by Malik al-‘Ādil’s chamberlain, Husām al-Dīn Lu’lu’, and their crews taken prisoner and executed (Prawer, Histoire 1, pp. 612–15; Pringle, ‘Castles of Ayla’, pp. 342–3). 42   Phison, Sison, Ason: Genesis 2.11. 43   The Dead Sea. 44   Hamam, possibly confused here with Hama in Syria. Biblical Haran is usually identified with Harran in se Turkey.

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and which scripture calls Aram, when God told him to leave and go and live in a land that He would show him.45 In that place he purchased a field in which to bury himself and his people; and there he was buried, as also was his son Isaac,46 and Isaac’s son, Jacob, who died in Egypt [df add: and was the father of Judah, Reuben, Gad, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Joseph and Benjamin.47 These are the twelve children of Israel. In the land of Israel there are nine-and-a-half tribes, and in Christendom and the land of the pagans two-anda-half.48] When his father died in Egypt, Joseph had him taken and buried with his brothers in Hebron. And when Joseph died, the children of Israel, when they came from the land of Egypt into the Promised Land, [71] carried his bones and buried them with their fathers.49 During the time when Abraham lived there, there was no town at all; but later that city was made there and called St Abraham, because St Abraham lived there. That city used to belong to the lord of al-Karak. And it is five leagues from Bethlehem, where Jesus Christ was born. Bethlehem is a city but is not at all large, so that it has only one street. And from Bethlehem it is two leagues to Jerusalem. Between Bethlehem and Jerusalem there is a church in which there are Greek monks, which is called Glory to God in the Highest.50 It was there that the angels sang to Him when Jesus Christ was born. And they spoke to the shepherds and announced that the Saviour of the world had been born, and told them to go to Jerusalem,51 where He was, and that they would find Him wrapped in swaddling clothes. And they went and found Him just as the angels had told them. So they gave thanks and praise to Jesus Christ for what they had seen.52 Near that church there is a field that is called the Field of Flowers (Camp flori).   Genesis 11.27–32, 12.1–3. Abraham was born in Ur of the Chaldees.   Genesis 25.8–11, 35.29. 47   Manasseh and Ephraim were the sons of Joseph, hence Jacob’s grandsons. Jacob’s 45 46

twelfth son was Asher (Genesis 25.22–6). 48   The reckoning of the tribes of Israel given here reflects that given in Joshua 13–19, but is faulty. Levi received no tribal territory. The tribes settled in the ‘land of Israel’, i.e. w of the Jordan, numbered eight-and-a-half and comprised Asher, Zabulon, Naphtali, Issachar, Ephraim, Dan, Benjamin, Judah, Simeon, and half of Manasseh. Those settled e of the Jordan included the other half of Manasseh, as well as Reuben and Gad. The reason for this area being described as ‘Christendom and the land of the pagans’ (Crestienté et Paienie) was probably that, before 1187, while the southern and northern parts, comprising the lordship of Montreal and the Terre de Suethe respectively, were under Christian control and inhabited by Christians, the central part, including the Jabal ‘Awf and ‘Ajlūn, were in Ayyubid hands (I am grateful to Bernard Hamilton for proposing this elegant explanation). 49   Genesis 47.29–31, 49.28–33, 50.1–14, 50.22–6. 50   Ernoul is probably here confusing the church of Shepherds’ Field with that of St Elias, between Bethlehem and Jerusalem: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 224–6, 315–16. 51   A mistake for Bethlehem. 52   Luke 2.8–20.

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Now I shall tell you of the sea of the Devil. It happened one day that Abraham was sitting under a tree [abf add: (in a valley) called Mamre (Mambré)], and saw a man coming along the [72] way; and he got up and went to meet him to ask him to lodge with him. As he came near to him, he invited him; and in inviting him as he did, he saw three men. He saw one, and invited three; for the three were one, and the one was three, all in one person. He begged him to lodge with him, and said that he would wash his feet and give him bread and water to eat and drink. And he stayed some time and they talked together; but I do not want to tell you all that they said now.53 When they had stayed awhile they left and Abraham accompanied them. When they had gone some distance from the place he saw Our Lord in the plain towards al-Karak, where the sea of the Devil is today, and he saw five cities, one of which was named Gomorrah and the other Sodom. I shall not tell you the names of the others. Anyway, Our Lord Jesus Christ said that He could no longer endure the stench of these cities and that He would have them engulfed because of the repugnant sin against nature that was there.54 And for that reason those who sin against nature are still called Sodomites, after the city whose name was Sodom. Gomorrah betokens other sins, like avarice and covetousness; which sins of avarice and covetousness can no longer be practised, now that Gomorrah belongs to the River Jordan, which is situated there. …55 [74] When the angels had taken leave, they departed. And a bolt of lightning came from the sky and burnt and destroyed the land, the cities, the people and whatever was there. In the place where the land used to be there is now the sea that is called the sea of the Devil. Lot’s wife, when she heard the noise from the cities looked behind her and immediately fell and became a rock of salt.56 And thus it happens, according to what the local countryfolk say, that a black beast comes out of the sea each Monday morning and licks that salt rock so that by midday on Saturday it is licked all away. And that beast that I told you of is similar to a cow, and each Monday when it comes it finds the rock quite whole again. And these things happen each week. Now we shall tell you of Lot, who fled with his two daughters; and they fled until they came to a city called Zoar (Segor). When Lot came to that city with his two daughters they found no one there, for everyone had fled. So the daughters of Lot came and talked together; and they imagined that it was no longer inhabited by anyone but the three of them and that God had left them behind to multiply the population. They therefore discussed how their father might sleep with them, for he was so upright and honest a man that unless they arranged things so that he was deceived he would on no account sleep with them. So they came and gave him to drink so much of the wine that they found in [75] that city that he became drunk.   Genesis 18.1–15.   Genesis 18.16–20. 55   There follows an account of the destruction of Sodom and the angels sent to help 53 54

Lot and his family to escape (Genesis 19.1–23). 56   Genesis 19.24–6.

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Then the elder of the daughters went to bed and he slept with her and engendered a son, from whom there was later descended a great people. The next day the other sister did likewise, and he slept with her and engendered a son, from whom there was also later descended a great people.57 We shall now leave Lot and tell you of a city that is two leagues from the river, which the people of the country fortified when they heard tell that the children of Israel were coming into the Promised Land and that they had to pass by there. That city was called Jericho (Iericop) and it was enclosed with walls of lodestone. When the children of Israel had crossed the river, they besieged it, because it was at the entrance to the Promised Land. That city was so strong that they could achieve nothing there. So they prayed Our Lord to advise and help them, so that they could have that city. So Our Lord commanded them to make bronze trumpets and to fast for three days and go in procession around the city; on the third day they were each to carry a trumpet, and when they were positioned around the city each was to blow his trumpet; thus would they take the city. They did not doubt His word; and so they carried out the commandment of Jesus Christ and did everything just as He had commanded. They blew their trumpets when they were in position; and when they blew them, the walls of the city fell down. And they entered it and so captured it.58 Chapter 8 [76] Near that city there is a gastine,59 which is quite full of snakes. From there they take the snakes from which they make theriac.60 And I shall tell you how they take them. The man who takes them makes a circle around the gastine and goes [77] casting his spell while singing as he makes the circle. All the snakes who hear him come to him, and he catches them as easily as one would a lamb and takes them to sell throughout the cities to those who make theriac. Now there are some wise ones among these snakes who, when they know that he is about to start his spell, thrust one of their ears into the ground and stop up the other with their tail, so that they cannot hear the spell. By this means they escape. With the theriac that is made from these snakes people are cured from all poisonings. Now I shall tell you of two snakes that are in Arabia and in the deep deserts. There are only two of them, and there can be no more. They are by nature so hot and stinking that no bird can fly over one of them, in the place where it lives, without falling dead from the heat and the stench that it gives off; and there is neither man nor beast that can experience their smell without being made to drop 57   The two peoples descended from Lot’s daughters were the Moabites and Ammonites (Genesis 19.22–3, 19.30–38). 58   Joshua 5.13–15; 6.1–21. 59   A deserted settlement (gastina or vastina in Latin, khirba in Arabic). 60   Antidote to snakebites.

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dead. Now I shall tell you how they are born and how they grow, for they have to die. When the time comes when they are in love, the male comes and puts his head in the female’s mouth. Then she conceives. As she is conceiving, she clenches her teeth and breaks the head of the male, who thus dies. And when she comes to produce children, she gives birth and two little creatures come forth, one male, the other female. They do it this way every time. Now I shall leave snakes and tell you of a rich man who used to live in Jericho at the time when Jesus [78] Christ was on earth. Some people say that he was a usurer. This man had wanted to see Jesus Christ very much. He heard one day that Jesus Christ was coming to Jericho and he went to meet him. And he climbed a tree that was over the road along which Jesus Christ had to pass, so as to get a good view of Him, because he was short and would not have been able to see Him at all without climbing the tree on account of the great press of people. When Jesus Christ approached the tree, He well knew who was up it and why he had climbed it. He called him by name and told him to come down the tree and that he wanted to lodge with him in his castle. That man was called Zacchæus. He came down happy and joyful, rejoicing greatly because Jesus Christ had said that He would lodge with him. He came to Jesus Christ and said, ‘Lord, for the honour that you do me by lodging with me, I shall give half of all my possessions to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone, I shall give it back to him four times over.’61 There on that road Jesus Christ gave sight to a man who cried after Him and who had no eye.62 From there, a league from Jericho, is the Quarantine, where God fasted on a high mountain.63 At the foot of that mountain there is a good and beautiful spring,64 which at the time of Elisha the prophet was of so marvellous a nature that there was nowhere under heaven where that water reached that no greenery sprang forth; nor was there any woman on the mountain, who, if she drank from it, ever failed to have a child; and similarly there was no female animal that ever failed to have a baby. [79] Elisha came to it and sanctified it and put salt in it.65 And after Elisha had sanctified it, it did no more harm but only great good; and it waters all the land and gardens from there as far as the river. The Quarantine where God fasted is in the desert on this side of the river; and the desert where St John lived is beyond the river. And beside the river he baptized those who came to him for baptism, and there he baptized Jesus Christ.66 And on the bank of that river where he baptized Jesus Christ there is an abbey of Greek monks, called St John.67   Luke 19.1–8.   Mark 10.46–52; Luke 18.35–43. 63   A conflation of Matthew 4.1–11. Mount Quarantine is identified as Jabal al61 62

Qurunṭul. 64   ‘Ayn al-Sultan. 65   2 Kings 2.19–22. 66   Matthew 3.1–17; Mark 1.1–12; Luke 3.1–22. 67   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 240–44.

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Between Jericho and Jerusalem there is a place, which is called the Red Cistern.68 There used to be an inn there, where those going from Jerusalem to the river would lodge.69 And there it was that the Samaritan carried the man whom he found wounded on the road, of whom Jesus Christ spoke in one of the gospels when the Jews asked Him who was one’s neighbour. He spoke to them of this when someone asked Him which was the greatest commandment of the law. And He said to them, ‘to love God above all else, and one’s neighbour as oneself.’ He then told them that a man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, who took him, robbed him, wounded him and left him for dead on the road. After that a priest came that way, and he looked at him and passed on and left him. After that there came a deacon, and he did likewise. After that there came a Samaritan, riding a pack animal. When he saw him he dismounted, placed the man on his beast and took him to an inn, just as I have told you; and he came to a house and gave two deniers [80] to the lord of the house and had the man’s wounds washed with wine and anointed with oil. And he told the lord of the house to take care of him and he would repay him all the costs and expenses that he incurred, until the man was cured. So Jesus Christ asked the Jews whom they thought was the most neighbourly. And they said that it was he who had pity on him; and Jesus Christ told them to go and do likewise.70 Now I have told you of the sea of Galilee and of the river, of this and that side of it, and of the division between the Christians and the Saracens, because I had told you that the Saracens had crossed the river after they had been a day before Forbelet71 and had gone to besiege al-Karak [1183] … Chapter 9 … [97] When [h: Baldwin] [IV], the king of Jerusalem, heard tell that Saladin was gathering all his men in order to enter his land, he summoned all his army and assembled it in a place that is called the springs of Saffūriyya (Saforie); [d: and it is located in the plains of Raymes.72] They are called the springs of Saffūriyya because they are near to a town that is called Saffūriyya.73 And in that town was born St Anne, the mother of Our Lady St Mary. The king used to spend the summers at these springs when there was no truce with the Saracens, [98] he and   At the Ascent of Blood, in Arabic Tal‘at al-Damm, in Hebrew Ma‘ale Adumim.   In the twelfth century, before 1187, the Templars maintained there a castle, church

68 69

and road station for travellers: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 345–6; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 78–9; id., ‘Templar Castles on the Road to the Jordan’, pp. 153–62. 70   Luke 10.25–37. 71   Al-Ṭayyiba, a castle near Belvoir: see Pringle, Secular Buildings, p. 104. 72   Evidently al-Rayna, 1.5 km ne of Nazareth at the head of the valley in which the springs are located. 73   Ancient Sepphoris.

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his knights, the Templars, the Hospitallers, and all the barons of the land. They remained there so that if the Saracens entered the land they would all be ready to go and meet them. The place where the springs were is a league from Nazareth, five leagues from Tiberias and five leagues from Acre. The king remained there for three months with all his army, before Saladin assembled his army and entered his land. When Saladin had amassed and assembled his army in Damascus, he came and marched so far each day that he crossed the river and came to make camp at a spring, which is called the spring of Tubanie;74 and it is situated at the foot of a mountain,75 below a rock. That spring is four leagues from the springs of Saffūriyya, where the king of Jerusalem was with his army and two leagues from a castle that is called Janīn (Le Gerin). That castle is in a place that is called Dothan (Dotain).76 In that place is the cistern in which the children of Israel threw their brother Joseph and sold him to the merchants who took him to Egypt77 … Chapter 10 [107] Now I shall tell you of Nāblus and how and where it is situated. At the time when Jesus Christ was on earth [108] Nāblus did not yet exist;78 and originally Samaritans lived there. Nāblus lies between two mountains, one of which the people of the country call the Mountain of Cain and the other the Mountain of Abel.79 The Mountain of Abel is always green, both in winter and in summer, because of the great number of olive trees that are there. And the Mountain of Cain is always dry, such that there are only rocks and boulders there. At the foot of the Mountain of Cain there is a city called Sychar (Cicar). That city is to the east. Beside the end of the Mountain of Abel, to the east, stands a mountain, which is called the Mountain of St Abraham.80 On the summit of the mountain is a place that is called Bethel (Betel). That is the place where Abraham led his son Isaac to make the sacrifice, when God commanded him; and there the angels had prepared for him a lamb to sacrifice in place of his son.81   ‘Ayn Tuba‘ūn, in the Jezreel Valley.   Mount Gilboa. 76   The plain of Dothan (Sahl ‘Arrāba), 74 75

sw of Janīn. This castle was probably the Hospitallers’ Castle of St Job (Khirbat Bal‘ama), situated beside the road 1.5 km from Janīn, rather than one in Janīn itself: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 106–7 and 4, pp. 257–8; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 29–30. 77   Genesis 37.12–28. 78   Flavia Neapolis was founded by Vespasian in ad 72, replacing the ancient settlement of Shechem, which lay some distance to the e. 79   Mount Gerizim on the s and Mount Ebal on the n. 80   Presumably Jabal al-Kabīr. 81   Genesis 22.1–19.

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Beside that mountain to the east there was a city when Jesus Christ was on earth which was called Samaria.82 Below that city there was a plain called Shechem.83 There was in that place a well that Jacob made and gave to his son Joseph, to which those of the city went for water. Now it happened one day that Jesus Christ was going from Galilee to Jerusalem and came to that well to wait for His disciples who had gone to Sychar to buy something to eat; and He found there a Samaritan [109] woman who had come from the city of Samaria for water. So Jesus Christ came and asked her to give Him some water to drink, and she said to Him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan. I am not allowed to let you drink from my vessel.’ So Jesus Christ said to the Samaritan woman, ‘If you knew who it was that asks you for a drink, you would ask him to give you living water to drink.’ To which the Samaritan woman said, ‘Sir, give me that water to drink so that I do not have to come here, for the well is very deep and the city is very high up, and it does me much harm to come here to seek water.’ Then Jesus Christ asked her to go and call her husband, and she said that she had no husband; and Jesus Christ told her that she spoke the truth, that she had had five husbands, but that the man who was with her now was not her husband. Jesus Christ said many more words to her, but I shall not tell you of them because I cannot recount everything.84 And so the Samaritan woman came and left her vessels and went through the whole city crying out to the people to come and that she had found a true prophet who had told her everything that she had done. Afterwards the Apostles came from Sychar where they had bought food and asked Jesus Christ to eat; and He told them that He had eaten of such food of which they knew little. So the Apostles said to one another that the Samaritan woman had given Him something to eat; and they were quite amazed when they saw Him and the Samaritan woman alone together.85 That well is half a league from Nāblus …86 [112] The city of Samaria was completely destroyed after the time of Jesus Christ, during the period when Vespasian was in the land.87 Ever since there has been no town, except for a church that the Samaritans have there, where they make their sacrifice at their Passover.88 They are not able to sacrifice anything anywhere else, any more than the Jews were able to sacrifice outside the Temple in Jerusalem. To that place come the Samaritans from the land of Egypt, the land of Damascus, and all the pagan lands and lands where they live. These people come   Ernoul is here, as elsewhere, confusing Sychar, ‘a city of Samaria’ (John 4.5), with the city of Samaria (Sebaste) itself, which lay several miles w of Nāblus. 83   Cycem, Scisem. Sychar and Shechem were represented in this period by the villages of ‘Askar and Balāṭa respectively: see Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 458–60, 472–3. 84   John 4.4–26. 85   John 4.27–33. 86   There follows an account of Samaria at the time of the prophet Elisha. 87   ad 67–69, during the Jewish revolt of ad 66–74. The author is still confusing Samaria with Shechem. 88   The Samaritan place of sacrifice is on the summit of Mount Gerizim. 82

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there on the day of Passover; and their Passover is when the Passover of the Jews is. There they make their sacrifice. Five leagues from Nāblus is a castle called Bethulia (Beteron).89 It happened in times long past that a seneschal of Nebuchadnezzar, who was king of Persia, besieged that castle. That seneschal was named Holofernes. The people of the castle were very uneasy when they were besieged, as they expected no help, unless from God. So they fasted and prayed to the Lord God that He would help them. [113] Our Lord God saw their fasting and heard their prayers and sent help to them in the way that I shall tell you. For God gave heart and inspiration to a widowed lady who was in the castle, whose name was Judith; and she went out of the castle well dressed and adorned and went to the army. And through her intelligence, her artistry, her artifice and the will of God she acted in such a way that one night she cut off the head of Holofernes, who was commander of the army, and brought it to the castle and put it on a stake above the gate of the castle. When those of the army got up the next morning and looked towards the castle gate they saw the head of their commander and all turned to flight. And those of the castle all came out after them and chased and killed them as long as the day lasted. Thus the Lord God came to the help of that castle.90 Two leagues from Nāblus there is a city, which is called Sebaste,91 and it is on the road by which one goes from Nāblus to Nazareth. In that city was buried the body of my Lord St John the Baptist. There his disciples carried him after Herod had his head cut off. Some time afterwards, when Herod’s wife heard tell that he had been buried, she sent there and had his bones taken out of the earth and burnt, and the ashes cast to the wind.92 And for that reason on St John’s night children still make a bone cross, because his bones were burnt. It is twelve miles from Nāblus to Jerusalem, and twelve from Nāblus to Nazareth; and Nāblus is mid-way between Nazareth and Jerusalem. Now from Nazareth to Cæsarea on Sea is twelve miles and from Nāblus to the River Jordan [114] is five miles; but that [part of the] river is not the place where Jesus Christ was baptized, for it is much more from Nāblus to the place where He was baptized, but it is all the same river. … Chapter 11 [121] Now it happened that in the first year after the leper king’s death93 it did not rain at all in the land of Jerusalem, so that in Jerusalem no water was collected     91   92   89

In the plain of Dothan (Judith 7.3) Judith 7–16. Ancient Samaria, now Sabastiyya. The burning took place in 361–2, in the reign of Julian the Apostate: see Pringle, Churches 2, p. 283; Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims, p. 169. 93   Baldwin IV died in 1185. 90

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and the people had little or nothing to drink. And it happened that there was in Jerusalem a burgess who very willingly did good for God and was called Germain. In three places in Jerusalem there were three marble basins sealed in masonry; and there were in each of these basins two chained bowls; and he kept each of them filled with water. There would go all those men and women who wished to drink. When Germain saw that there was scarcely enough water in his basins and that there was no rain he was very sorrowful, because he was afraid that he would lose his ability to give alms in the way that he had begun, by providing water for the poor people. He then remembered that he had heard tell from the old people of the land that in the valley of Jehoshaphat, beside the spring of Siloam, there was an ancient well, which Joseph had made.94 [122] And it was fallen down and filled in; and people cultivated and worked the land over it, so that it could hardly be found. So Germain prayed to Our Lord, if it pleased Him, to allow him to find that well, to help him continue the good work that he had begun, and to allow him to do this, through His good will, so that His poor people might have the assistance of water. When the next morning came, he got up and went to church and prayed God to advise him. And then he went off to the square and hired workmen and took them to the place where he had been told that the well was, and had them dig and delve until he found the well. When he had found it, he had it emptied out and built up as new, all at his own expense. Then he had made above it a wheel, which was turned by a horse, on which there were pots, such that the full pots came up and the empty pots went down.95 And he had stone basins placed where the water ran that was drawn from the well. And all those citizens who wanted water came to that place and carried it to the city. And the burgess had water drawn with his horses night and day and replenished the city and all those who wanted to take of it, all at his own expense, until the Lord God sent them rain and they had water in their cisterns. After that the good man no longer acted in this way. Instead he had three beasts of burden and three sergeants who did nothing else but carry water to his basins that he had in the city to provide water to the poor people. That well from which he had the water [123] drawn was a good forty fathoms deep. Later the Christians demolished and filled it in when they heard tell that the Saracens were coming to besiege the city.96 Now I shall tell you of the spring of Siloam, which is near the well. It is not good to drink as it is salty. With that water the leather of the city used to be tanned, clothes were washed, and the gardens that lay in the valley below it were watered. That spring does not run at all on Saturdays; instead it is completely placid.97   More likely a reference to Job’s Well (Bi’r Ayyūb), which is fed by a natural spring, further down the Kidron Valley. 95   Such a machine is called a nuria in Syrian Arabic, sāqiya in Egyptian Arabic, and antiliya in Hebrew sources: see Avissar and Stern, Pottery, p. 104. 96   After the battle of Ḥaṭṭīn in July 1187. 97   The cessation of flow on the Sabbath is also mentioned by the Bordeaux Pilgrim, in CCSL 175, p. 16, trans. Wilkinson, p. 157. 94

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Now I shall tell you what happened one day at that spring in the time when Jesus Christ was on earth. Jesus Christ was in Jerusalem one day, He and His Apostles, and they were passing along a street when they saw a man who had no eyes and had never had any. So the Apostles came and asked Jesus Christ whether it was because of the sin of his father and mother or of any other relation of his that he was without eyes. Jesus Christ replied to them that it was not because of the sin of the father, nor of the mother, nor of any of his relations, but so that [the work of God] might be accomplished in him. And so Jesus Christ came and spat on the ground and made a little mud; this He put where the man’s eyes should have been and told him to go to the spring of Siloam and wash, and he would see. And he went and washed, and he had eyes and saw. So he went back into the city of Jerusalem to his relations who marvelled greatly that he had eyes and asked him repeatedly how this had happened; and they scarcely believed that it was he. Afterwards, when the Jews and the master of the law heard tell that he who formerly had not seen had eyes, they sent for him and asked him how it was that he had [124] eyes. And he told them how it had happened. And they did not want to believe him; so they sent for his relations and asked them if they were certain that it was he; and they said yes.98 … I have forgotten to tell you, when I was speaking about the spring of Siloam, of an act of charity that the burgesses of Jerusalem used to perform, but I shall tell you now. They used to do it during Lent, on the day on which was read the gospel of the poor man for whom Jesus Christ made eyes out of mud.99 And He [125] asked him to go and wash in the spring of Siloam, and he did so, and received eyes and saw. In remembrance of that they performed this act of charity of which I shall tell you. They had basins brought and placed over the spring, and they had them all filled with wine and they had the pack animals brought loaded with bread and wine in such quantity that all the poor people who went there had bread and wine in plenty; and they also received money with it. And the men and women went in procession on that day to give those alms. … [126] So the king100 came and gave him101 a castle that is in the wilderness this side of the river, near to the place where Jesus Christ fasted forty days. That castle is seven102 leagues from Jerusalem and four103 from the river and is situated on a mountain. And it is called St Elias.104 It is called St Elias because, so they say, that   John 9.1–34.   In the lectionary of Pope Pius V (1570), that would be on the Wednesday of the

98 99

fourth Sunday of Lent. 100   Baldwin V, in 1185. 101   William V, marquis of Montferrat (c.1115–91), the king’s grandfather. 102   Var.: ‘five’, ‘two’. 103   Var.: ‘three.’ 104   Situated at al-Ṭayyiba, formerly called ‘Afrā, some 20 km ne of Jerusalem: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 339–44; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 98–9.

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is the place where Elijah suffered such a painful hardship as to fast forty days, and went to sleep; and God sent him there a piece of bread and some water in a vessel and had him woken up by an angel, so that he could drink and eat; and he drank and ate what God sent him; then he went back to sleep. And another time God had him sent bread and water in the same way, and had him woken up.105 And because of what happened in the place where the castle is, it is called by local people St Elias. … [153] … and the king106 set out to meet the count,107 and the count to meet the king, with the result that they met at a castle that is called St Job.108 That castle belonged to the Hospital and was at the entrance to the plain of Dothan;109 and it was called St Job, so it is said, because Job lived there and it was one of his dwelling places. Chapter 17. How Jerusalem is Situated and the State of It110 1. [190] Jerusalem is no longer in the place where it was when Jesus Christ was crucified, nor in that where He rose again from death to life. For when Jesus Christ was on earth, the city was on Mount Sion; but it is not there any more. There is only an abbey111 there, and in that abbey there is a church of my lady St Mary.112 In the place where the church is, so one is led to understand, was the house in which Jesus Christ dined with His Apostles on Maundy Thursday and made the sacrament of the altar.113 In that church is the place where He displayed the wounds of His feet, hands and side to St Thomas, a week after Easter, when He rose again from death to life; and He told him to show Him his finger, and He thrust it into His side. Thomas firmly believed and did not doubt at all; he was no longer faithless, and believed firmly that it was He.114 And there also He appeared to His Apostles on the day of the Ascension, when He came to take leave of them when He was on the point of [191] ascending into heaven. From there they accompanied Him as far as the Mount of Olives and from there He ascended into heaven.115     107   108   105

1 Kings 19.4–8. Guy, in 1187. Raymond III, count of Tripoli and prince of Galilee. Khirbat Bal‘ama: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 106–7 and 4, pp. 257–8; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 29–30. 109   le tiere de Thaym/Taym/Dotaïn. 110   Ernoul’s description of Jerusalem provides much of the basis for the analysis of Frankish Jerusalem set out in Vincent and Abel, Jérusalem nouvelle, pp. 945–73; cf. Prawer, ‘Jerusalem in Crusader Days’. 111   Var. l: ‘a church and an abbey of monks’. 112   St Mary of Mount Sion, see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 261–87. 113   Matthew 17.17–26; Mark 14.12–25; Luke 22.7–38. 114   Luke 24.33–43; John 20.19–29. 115   Luke 24.50–53. 106

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So the Apostles went back and waited for the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus Christ had commanded them in that same place that they should go back into the city and await the Holy Spirit, which he had promised them. In that place He sent them the grace of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.116 In that same church is the place where my lady St Mary departed from this life. From there the angels carried her for burial into the valley of Jehoshaphat and there they placed her in a tomb. In the place where the tomb of my lady St Mary is, there is a church, which is called the church of my lady St Mary of Jehoshaphat; and there is an abbey of black monks there.117 The church of Mount Sion is called the church of my lady St Mary of Mount Sion; and there, there is an abbey of canons.118 These two abbeys are outside the walls of the city, one on the hill and the other in the valley. The abbey of Mount Sion is to the right of the city, to the south; and that of Jehoshaphat is to the east, between the Mount of Olives and Mount Sion. The church of the Sepulchre, which is now on the hill of Calvary, was formerly, when Jesus Christ was crucified, outside the walls of the city. Now it is in the middle of the city. And the city is somewhat on a slope; and it declines towards the Mount of Olives, which is to the east, overlooking the valley of Jehoshaphat. There are in Jerusalem four main gates, placed at the cardinal points, [192] one opposite the other, not counting the posterns. I shall tell you their names and how they are situated. David’s Gate is to the west and is directly aligned with the Golden Gates, which are to the east, behind the Lord’s Temple. That gate is adjacent to the Tower of David, for which reason it is called David’s Gate. After entering that gate one turns right into a street in front of the Tower of David; [from there] one may go to Mount Sion, for that street goes to the street of Mount Sion through a postern that exists there. In that street, on the left, just as one is about to go out through the postern, is a church of my lord St James of Galicia,119 who was the brother of my lord St John the Evangelist. There it is said that St James had his head cut off; and for that reason that church was made there. The great street that goes from David’s Gate straight to the Golden Gates is called David Street. That street is called David Street from here as far as the Exchange. To the left of David’s Tower there is a square, where corn is sold. And when one has gone a little further along the street that is called David Street one finds on the left a street, which is named the Street of the Patriarch, because the patriarch lives at the end of the street. And on the right-hand side of the Street of the Patriarch there is a door through which one enters the house of the Hospital. Afterwards, there is a door through which one enters the church of the Sepulchre, but it is not the main door.   Luke 24.49; Acts 2.1–47.   Benedictines: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 287–306. 118   k: ‘canons regular’, i.e. Augustinians. 119   See Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 168–82. 116 117

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When one comes to the Exchange, in the place where David Street ends [193] one finds a street, which is named the Street of Mount Sion, for that street goes directly to Mount Sion. And to the left of the Exchange one finds a street completely covered with a vault, which is called the Street of Herbs. There are sold all the fruit of the city and the herbs and spices. At the end of that street there is a place where fish is sold; and behind the market where they sell fish is a very large square where they sell geese,120 cheeses, chickens and ducks. To the left of that market are the shops of the Syrian goldsmiths. And there are sold the palms that the pilgrims bring back from Outremer. To the left of that market are the shops of the Latin goldsmiths. After these shops there is an abbey of nuns, which is called St Mary the Great. After that abbey one finds an abbey of black monks, called St Mary Latin.121 After that one finds the house of the Hospital; the main gate of the Hospital is there, on the right-hand side.122 And to the right of the Hospital is the main door of the Sepulchre.123 In front of that main door of the Sepulchre there is a very fine square, paved with marble. To the left124 of that door of the Sepulchre there is a church called St James of the Jacobites. To the right125 in front of that door of the Sepulchre there is a [194] stair by which one goes up on to the hill of Calvary. Above, on top of the hill, there is a very beautiful chapel. And on the other side there is another door in that chapel by which one goes down into the church of the Sepulchre by some other steps that are there. Just as one is entering the church, to the right, below the hill of Calvary, is Golgotha. On the right-hand side126 is the bell-tower of the Sepulchre; and there is a chapel that is called Holy Trinity. That chapel is large, for in it all the women of the city used to be married; and there were also the fonts in which all the children of the city were baptized. And that chapel is a dependency of the church of the Sepulchre, such that there is a door by which one enters the church of the Sepulchre. Straight in front of that door is the Tomb.127 In the place where the Tomb is the church is quite round; and it is open above, without any roof. And inside that Tomb is the Stone of the Sepulchre. And the   g: ‘eggs.’   In fact the Benedictine nuns’ church of St Mary the Great lay to the e of St Mary

120 121

Latin: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 236–61. 122   More correctly the left or s side. On the Hospital see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 192–207; id., ‘Layout of the Jerusalem Hospital’. 123   On the church of the Holy Sepulchre and its chapels, see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 6–72; cf. Vincent and Abel, Jérusalem nouvelle, pp. 260–90. 124   ab; the other texts have ‘right’. 125   ab; the other texts have ‘left’. 126   Recte ‘left’. 127   Monument, i.e. the ædicule containing the Tomb of Christ.

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Tomb is covered by a vault. At the chevet of that Tomb, just as at the chevet of an altar, on the outside there is an altar, which is called the Chevet.128 There every day mass is sung at break of day. There is a very fine area all around the Tomb, completely paved, so that one may go in procession around the Tomb. Afterwards, towards the east is the choir of the Sepulchre, where the canons sing; it is long. Between the choir [195] where the canons are and the Tomb there is an altar where the Greeks sing; but there is a screen between the two, and a door by which one goes from one to the other. In the centre of the choir of the canons there is a marble lectern, called the Compass. On it the Epistle is read. To the right of the main altar of that choir is the hill of Calvary, such that when the mass of the Resurrection is being sung and the deacon reads the gospel, he turns to face the hill of Calvary when he says: Crucifixum.129 Afterwards he turns towards the Tomb and says: Surrexit, non est hic.130 Afterwards he points with his finger: Ecce locus ubi posuerunt eum.131 And then he goes back to his book and completes the reading of the gospel. At the chevet of the choir there is a door through which the canons enter their lodgings. And to the right, between that door and the hill of Calvary, there is a very deep pit into which one goes down by steps. There is a chapel there, which is called St Helena. There St Helena found the Holy Cross and the nails, hammer and crown [of thorns]. Into that pit at the time when Jesus Christ was crucified they used to throw the crosses on which thieves had been crucified and the limbs that they had deserved to have cut off on account of their misdeeds. And for this reason the hill is called the hill of Calvary, because justice was done there and what the law demanded, and because they threw there the limbs that those people were condemned to lose.132 Just where the canons used to come out of the Sepulchre, on the left was the dormitory and on the right [196] the refectory, adjacent to the hill of Calvary. Between these two offices is their cloister and their courtyard. In the centre of the courtyard is a large opening,133 through which one sees the chapel of St Helena, which is below; otherwise one would see nothing at all [down] there.   Le Cavec; dh: chancel; f: chavec; j: chevez.   More likely, Et postquam venerunt in locum, qui vocatur Calvariae, ibi

128

129

crucifixerunt eum (‘And when they came to the place that is called Calvary, there they crucified Him’: Luke 23.33). 130   ‘He is not here, but has risen’ (Luke 24.6). 131   ‘See the place where they laid Him’ (Mark 16.6). 132   The etymology here is back to front, as calvaire, meaning ‘agony’ or ‘ordeal’, is derived from Calvary, not the other way around. Calvaria is the Latin for ‘skull’. Thus: Et venerunt in locum, qui dicitur Golgotha, quod est Calvariae locus (‘And they came to a place called Golgotha, which means “the place of the skull”’: Matthew 27.33). The pun on Calvaire and escalvoit (threw) is unfortunately lost in translation. 133   Presumably one of the windows in the drum of the chapel’s cupola, which projects above ground level.

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Now that I have told you of the Sepulchre and how it is, I shall go back to the Exchange. In front of the Exchange, beside the Street of the Herbs there is a street, which is called Bad Cookery.134 In that street they used to cook the food that they sold to the pilgrims; and people used to wash their heads there, and go from that street to the Sepulchre. Beside that Street of Bad Cookery is a street called the Covered Street, where cloth is sold; and is it completely vaulted above, and by that street one goes to the Sepulchre. 2. Now let us leave the Exchange and come to the Golden Gates. The street by which one goes from the Exchange to the Golden Gates is called the Street of the Temple. It is called the Street of the Temple because it comes both to the Temple and to the Golden Gates. To the left, as one goes down that street to go to the Temple, is the Butcher’s, where meat is sold in the city. To the right there is a street by which one goes to the Hospital of the Germans.135 That street is called the Street of the Germans. To the left, on the bridge,136 there is a church, which is called the church of St Giles.137 At the end of that street [197] one finds some gates, which are called the Precious Gates.138 They are called the Precious Gates because by these gates Jesus Christ used to enter Jerusalem when he was on earth. These gates are in a wall139 that is between the city and the wall of the Golden Gates. Between the wall of the city of Jerusalem and the Golden Gates is the Temple. And before one comes to the Temple, there is a square, which is more than a large bowshot in length and a stone’s throw in width. That square is paved, which is why that place is called the Pavement. To the right as one comes through these gates is the Temple of Solomon, where the Templars used to live.140 Directly between the Precious Gates and the Golden Gates is the church of the Temple of the Lord.141 And it is situated high up, so that one goes up to it by high steps. And when one has mounted these steps one finds a large square all paved in marble and very broad; and the pavement extends right around the church of the Temple. The church of the Temple is quite round. To the left of this upper pavement of the Temple are the buildings of the abbey and of the canons.142 And from that side     136   137   138  

Malquisinat, or Malcuisinat. On St Mary of the Germans, see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 228–36. Where the street crosses the Tyropœon valley. See Pringle, Churches 3, pp.167–8. Portes Precieuses; j: Portes Speciouses. This, the present Bāb al-Silsila, recalls the ‘gate of the Temple, which is called Beautiful (portam templi, quae dicitur Speciosa)’ of Acts 3.2 (AV). 139   The w wall of the Temple precinct. 140   Al-Aqsa mosque: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 417–34. 141   The Dome of the Rock, or Qubbat al-Sakhra: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 397–417. 142   i.e. the Augustinian canons who served the Temple of the Lord under an abbot. 134 135

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there are some steps by which one goes up to the Temple from the lower pavement to the upper. To the east, next to the church of the Temple, there is a chapel of my lord St James the Less.143 The chapel is there because he was martyred there, [198] when the Jews threw him down from on top of the Temple.144 Inside that chapel is the place where God freed the sinner who was being led away to be stoned to death because she had been taken in adultery. And He asked her when He had rescued her where those people were who had accused her; and she said that she did not know. And so God told her to go away and sin no more.145 Beyond that pavement to the east one goes down some steps to reach the Golden Gates.146 When one has gone down the steps one finds a large square, just before one comes to the Golden Gates. There is the court that Solomon made. Through these gates no one used to pass; on the contrary, they were walled up. And no one went through them except just twice a year, when they were unblocked and people went there in procession: this happened on Palm Sunday, because Jesus Christ passed through them that day and was welcomed in procession,147 and on the feast day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, because it was through these gates that the Holy Cross was brought back to Jerusalem, when the Roman emperor Heraclius won it in Persia, and it was returned to Jerusalem through that gate and a procession went out to meet it.148 Because nobody ever used to go out of these city gates, there was a postern beside it, which was called the postern of Jehoshaphat. People used to go out of the city on that side through that postern; and the postern is to the left149 of the Golden Gates. [199] To the south, one goes down from the high pavement of the Temple to the lower by a stair; thus one reaches the Temple of Solomon. To the left, just as one is descending from the high pavement to the lower one, there is a church, which is called the Crib.150 There was the crib where God was cradled in His infancy, so people say. The church of the Temple had four doors, placed at the cardinal points. The first is to the west; by that one the people of the city used to enter the Temple. And   The Dome of the Chain (Qubbat al-Silsila): see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 182–5.   Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.23.1–18, in Loeb 1, pp. 168–75; Jerome, de Viris

143

144

Illustribus 2, in PL 23, col. 613. According to tradition, he was thrown from the Pinnacle of the Temple into the Kidron Valley; in the Middle Ages, however, he was thought to have been thrown from the Temple building itself. 145   John 8.2–11. 146   See Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 103–9. 147   Pseudo-Bede, Homiliae 3.15, in PL 94, col. 507. 148   In March ad 630. The legend associating Heraclius with the Golden Gate was developed by Rabanus Maurus c.830 (Homiliae 70, in PL 110, cols. 133–4). 149   i.e. n. 150   Masjid Mahd ‘Īsā or Miḥrab Maryam, in the se corner of the precinct: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 310–14.

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by that on the east one used to enter the chapel of St James; and one went out of it again to reach the Golden Gates. By the south door one entered the Temple of Solomon; and by the north door one entered the abbey. I have now told you about the Sepulchre and the Temple and how they are situated, and of the Hospital and of the streets that are between David’s Gate and the Golden Gates, the one facing the other, one being to the east and the other to the west. I shall now tell you of two other gates, the one of which faces the other. 3. The one to the north is called the gate of St Stephen. By that gate the pilgrims used to enter the city, along with all those who used to come to Jerusalem from the direction of Acre and from all the land extending up to the river [Jordan] and from here as far as the sea of Ascalon. Outside that gate, to the right as one is entering it, was a church of my lord St Stephen.151 There it is said that St Stephen was stoned. In front of that [200] church, to the left, was a large building, which was called the Donkey-house.152 There the donkeys and pack animals of the Hospital used to be stabled; for that reason it was called the Donkey-house. The Christians knocked down that church of St Stephen before they were besieged,153 because the church was close to the walls. The Donkey-house was not pulled down and was therefore later of great utility to the pilgrims who came under treaty to Jerusalem when it was under the Saracens, because they were not allowed to lodge inside the city. For that reason the Donkey-house building was very useful to them.154 To the right of the gate of St Stephen was the leper-house155 of Jerusalem, against the walls. Next to the leper-house was a postern, which was called the postern of St Lazarus. The Saracens used to make the Christians enter the city through it in order to go discretely to the Sepulchre, since the Saracens did not want the Christians to see anything of the state of the city; and so they made them enter the church of the Sepulchre by the back door, which is in the street of the Patriarch;156 and they did not allow them to go in by the main door.157   The gate was preceded by a barbican containing a bent entrance facing e. St Stephen’s church, standing n of the gate, was therefore to the right of it as one entered the gate. On the church see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 372–9. 152   L’Asnerie: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 374, 379, fig. 72. 153   By Saladin in August 1187. 154   This and the following paragraph relate to the period after 1192, when Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem was strictly controlled by the Ayyubid authorities. Wilbrand lodged in the Asnerie in 1212 [1.2.5], and Thietmar was detained in it in 1218 [2.8]. 155   Maladerie: the house of the Order of St Lazarus, outside the nw corner of the city wall: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 215–17. 156   Var. l: ‘by the Patriarch’s door which was in the Street of the Church of the Sepulchre.’ They therefore entered the church by the w door, through the Patriarchate, rather than by the main s door. 157   The regulations for entering the city would have become redundant after 1219–20, when al-Mu‘aẓẓam ‘Īsā demolished the city walls. 151

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When one enters the city of Jerusalem by the Street of St Stephen one finds two streets. The one to the right goes to the gate of Mount Sion, which is towards the south; and the gate of Mount Sion is directly in line with the gate [201] of St Stephen. The street on the left goes straight to a postern, which is called the postern of the Tannery; and it goes directly under the bridge.158 That street that goes straight to the gate of Mount Sion is called the Street of St Stephen from here as far as the Exchange of the Syrians. Just as one comes to the Exchange of the Syrians there is a street on the right, which is called the Street of the Sepulchre. In it is the door of the house of the Sepulchre, through which the canons of the Sepulchre enter their residence. When one comes in front of the Exchange, one finds on the right a street covered by a vault by which one goes to the church of the Sepulchre. In that street the Syrians sell their cloth and wax candles are made. Fish are sold in front of that Exchange. These exchanges are adjoined by the three streets that lead to the other exchanges of the Latins. One of the three streets is called the Covered Street. There the Latin drapers sell their cloth. And another is called the Street of Herbs; there they sell the spices. And the third is named Bad Cookery. By way of the Street of Herbs one goes into the Street of Mount Sion, by which one goes to the gate of Mount Sion, after crossing David Street. By way of the Covered Street one goes into a[nother] street, beyond the Exchange of the Latins and after crossing the Street of the Temple; that street is called the Street of the Arch of Judas. And that street goes straight to the Street of Mount Sion. That street is called the Street of [202] the Arch of Judas because it is said that Judas hanged himself there from a stone arch.159 To the left of that street is a church, which is called the church of St Martin.160 And near that church, to the left, is a church of St Peter.161 There it is said was the place where Jesus Christ made the mud that He put in the eyes of the man who had never had eyes and whom He told to go and wash at the spring of Siloam and he would see. And he did so and he received sight and he saw.162 4. Straight ahead, as one goes out of the gate of Mount Sion one finds four roads. One road on the right goes to the abbey of Mount Sion. Between the abbey and the walls of the city there was a large court163 and a church in the middle of it.164 The road to the left runs beside the walls of the city all the way to the Golden Gates. And from there165 one goes straight down into the valley of Jehoshaphat     160   161   158

The bridge that carried the street of the Temple across the Tyropœon Valley. Matthew 27.3–10; cf. Acts 1.16–20. See Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 220–22. The church of St Peter in Fetters, where Peter was imprisoned: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 349–53. 162   John 9.1–7 163   atre, which can mean a parvis, a precinct or a cemetery surrounding a church. 164   The church of St Saviour: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 365–72. 165   i.e. from the gate of Mount Sion. 159

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and to the spring of Siloam. And on the road to the right from that gate there is a church, which is called St Peter of the Cock-Crow.166 In that church there is a deep pit where it is said that St Peter hid when he had denied Jesus Christ; and he heard the cock crow and there he wept.167 The road straight ahead of the gate, facing south, goes below Mount Sion after passing the abbey. When one has gone past the abbey one descends the hill and proceeds by that road to Bethlehem. [203] When one has gone down the hill, one finds in the valley a lake, which is called the Lake of Germain.168 It is called the Lake of Germain because Germain had it made to collect the waters that came down from the mountains when it rained. And there the horses of the city were watered. On the other side of the valley, near there to the left, there is a charnel pit called Akeldama.169 There were thrown the pilgrims who died in the Hospital of Jerusalem. That piece of land where the charnel pit is situated was purchased with the pieces of silver for which Judas sold the flesh of Our Lord Jesus Christ, as the gospel testifies.170 Outside David’s Gate there is a lake towards the west, which is called the Lake of the Patriarch.171 There the waters from around that place were collected to water the horses. Near that lake was a charnel pit, which was called the Charnel Pit of the Lion. Now I shall tell you why it was so called. It happened, so they say, one day in the past that a battle took place between that charnel pit and Jerusalem in which many Christians were killed; and the citizens were going to have to have them all burnt the next day because of the stench. Meanwhile it happened that a lion came by night and carried them all into that pit, or so they say. And over that charnel pit there was a church where mass was sung each day.172 A league beyond that place there was an abbey of Georgians,173 where it is said that there was cut one of the pieces [204] of the True Cross. The upright post of the Cross was taken from in front of the Temple, for it had been brought from Lebanon with the timber for building the Temple. It was left out of the Temple of Solomon 166   S. Piere en Gallicante, also known as St Peter in Gallicantu: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 346–9. 167   Matthew 26.57–75; Mark 14.53–73; Luke 22.54–62. 168   Today Birkat al-Sulṭān. 169   ab: Chaudemar; d: Caudemar; j: la Chaude mer; g: Cholde Mar. See Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 222–8. 170   Matthew 27.3–10; Acts 1.16–19 171   Mamilla Pool. 172   In the twelfth century the church was known as St Mamilla and belonged to the Holy Sepulchre. The legend of the lion relates to the time of the Persian sack of Jerusalem in 614. See Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 217–20. 173   In two manuscripts (dh) ‘Georgians (Iorians, Géorgiens) is misleadingly changed to ‘nuns’ (nonnains). The monastery was that of the Holy Cross: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 33–40.

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because no one could find anywhere to place it, on account of it being either too long or too short. Thus it happened, so they say, that when the people came to the Temple with muddy feet, they used to wipe them on it. And so it came about that a queen, who was called Sibyl, passed by one day, saw it covered in mud, wiped it clean with her clothes, and then bowed down and adored it.174 Now I shall tell you about that piece of timber and how it is said that it came to this country. It came about that when Adam lay on his death bed he begged one of his sons, for God’s sake, to bring him a frond from the tree of whose fruit he had eaten when he sinned. It was brought to him and he took it and put it in his mouth. When he had the frond in his mouth he clenched his teeth and the spirit left him; and because it was not possible to pull the frond from between his teeth, he was buried with it. That frond, so they say, grew and became a fine tree. And when it came about that there was the Flood, the tree was uprooted and the Flood carried it to Mount Lebanon; and from there it was taken to Jerusalem with the timber of which the Temple was built, which was cut on Mount Lebanon. And it came about, so they say, [205] that when Jesus Christ was crucified, the head of Adam was inside the Wood; and when the blood of Jesus Christ flowed from his wounds, the head of Adam came out of the Cross and received the blood. Thus it is still the case that in all the crucifixes made in the land of Jerusalem at the base of the Cross there is a head in memory of that.175 Now I shall tell you of the Georgians who are in the abbey where one of the pieces of the Cross was taken, what people they are and from what land. The land from which they come is called Avegie176 and it has a king and queen. Some people call that land the land of Femenie. The reason why they call it the land of Femenie is that the queen rides to war and leads an army of her women in the same way that the king does with his men. In that land the women have only one breast, and I shall tell you why. When the woman is born and has grown a little, they burn her right breast with a hot iron but leave her the left one for suckling her babies; and because she has had her right breast burnt, it does not get in the way of her wielding a sword when she is in battle. Three leagues west from Jerusalem, there is a spring, which is called the spring of Emmaus. There used to be a castle there.177 And as the gospel testifies,   This is a variant of the story of how the wood of the Cross was rejected by Solomon, after its significance had been revealed by the Queen of Sheba: see Honorius of Autun, Speculum Ecclesiae, in PL 172, col. 944; Hugh of St Victor, in IHC 2, p. 166; Wilmart, ‘Légende du bois’; Wilkinson et al., Jerusalem Pilgrimage, pp. 74–5. 175   For some thirteenth-century examples, see Folda, Crusader Art in the Holy Land, figs. 149, 269, 365, 374. 176   Or Avegine. 177   Abū Ghosh, a casale and church belonging to the Hospitallers in the twelfth century: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 7–18. The Vulgate version of Luke 24.13 denotes the place as castellum … nomine Emmaus, though castellum in this instance has the late antique meaning of ‘village’. 174

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it happened that when He was raised from the dead Our Lord went with two of his disciples as far as that castle and they sat at that spring to eat, but they did not recognize Him until He broke bread. Then He vanished [206] from them. And from there they returned to the Apostles in Jerusalem to make it known to them how they had spoken to Him.178 Now I shall return to St Stephen’s Gate, to the street going to the left, which goes to the gate of the Tannery. When one has gone a certain way along that street one finds a street on the left, which is called the street of Jehoshaphat. When one has proceeded a little further, one comes to an intersection with a road coming from the Temple on the left and going to the Sepulchre. At the end of that street is a gate towards the Temple, which is called [the] Sorrowful Gate.179 Through it Jesus Christ came out when they led Him to Mount Calvary to crucify Him; and for that reason they are called [the] Sorrowful Gates. On the right-hand side at the crossroads was the stream that the gospel testifies that Our Lord crossed when He was led to be crucified.180 In that place there is a church of St John the Evangelist; and it has a large residence.181 That residence and the church used to belong to the nuns of the abbey of Bethany. There they used to reside when there was war with the Saracens. Now I shall return to the street of Jehoshaphat. On the left between the street of Jehoshaphat and the walls of the city as far as the gate of Jehoshaphat there are streets just like a town. There resided most of the Syrians of Jerusalem. And these streets were called the Jewry.182 In that street183 of the Jewry there was a church of St Mary Magdalene.184 And near to that church was a postern, from which one could not get out to the fields, but only between the two walls. [207] On the right-hand side of that street of Jehoshaphat there was a church, which was called the Repose.185 There it is said that Jesus Christ rested when they led Him to be crucified; and there was the prison where He was placed on the night when He was arrested in Gethsemane. A little further on, on the left side of that street, was the House of Pilate.186 In front of that house was a gate by which one went to the Temple.187

  Luke 24.13–35; cf. Mark 16.12–13.   Bāb al-Nāẓir. 180   The New Testament makes no mention of any such stream; however, the spot is 178 179

now marked by a fountain, Sabīl Ṭarīq Bāb al-Nāẓir, which was (re)built in 1537. 181   See Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 207–8. 182   This had been the Jewish quarter between the 1030s and 1099, when the Crusaders captured the city: see Prawer, ‘Jerusalem’, p. 2. 183   Rue may alternatively here mean ‘quarter’. 184   The cathedral of the Syrian Jacobites: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 327–35. 185   See Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 132–7. 186   It contained the chapel of the Flagellation: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 93–7. 187   Probably Bāb al-‘Atm.

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Near to the gate of Jehoshaphat, on the left, there was an abbey of nuns, which had the name St Anne.188 In front of that abbey there is a spring, which is called the Pool. Above the spring there was a church;189 and that spring does not flow, as it is in a cistern below the church. At that spring, at the time when Jesus Christ was on earth, it would happen that the angel would come from time to time to agitate that water; and when the angel had moved it, whoever went down first to that spring to bathe after the angel had moved it was cured of whatever infirmity he had. Before that spring there were five porticoes190 and in front of these five porticoes there were many sick, infirm and languorous people waiting for the movement of the waters. So it happened that Jesus Christ came there one day and found a man lying on his bed, who had lain there for thirty-eight years. Jesus Christ asked him if he wanted to be cured. ‘Lord’, he said, ‘I have no one to help me go down into the spring. When the angel has moved the waters and I bestir myself to get down from my [208] bed to go there, I find another has bathed in front of me.’ So Jesus Christ told him to take up his bed and walk and that he was quite cured. And the man leapt to his feet, completely cured, and went his way. That day was Saturday, as the gospel relates.191 As one goes out of the Gate of Jehoshaphat, one goes down into the valley of Jehoshaphat. To the right of that gate are the Golden Gates. In the valley of Jehoshaphat there was an abbey of black monks.192 In that abbey there was a church of my lady St Mary. In that church was the tomb where she was buried and it is still there. The Saracens, when they had taken the city, demolished that abbey and took away the stones to fortify the city, but they did not destroy the church at all.193 Before that church, at the foot of the Mount of Olives, there is a church in a rock that is called Gethsemane.194 There Jesus Christ was arrested. On the other side of the road by which one ascends the Mount of Olives, the distance of a stone’s throw away, there was a church called St Saviour.195 There Jesus Christ prayed on the night when He was taken; and there drops of blood ran from his body, like sweat.196 In the valley of Jehoshaphat there were so many hermits and recluses, all the way down it from here to the fountain of Siloam, that I am quite unable to name them for you.197   A Benedictine house: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 142–56.   The church of the Sheep-Pool, or Pool of Bethesda: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp.

188 189

389–97.

    192   193  

Portes, porches: cf. John 5.2. John 5.2–18. St Mary of the Valley of Jehoshaphat: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 287–306. Saladin began rebuilding the city walls in 1192; it is likely that the upper church was demolished at that time, leaving the lower one relatively intact. 194   See Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 98–103. 195   See Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 358–65. 196   Matthew 26.36–56; Mark 14.32–52; Luke 22.39–54; John 18.1–12. 197   See Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 434–5. 190

191

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On the summit of the Mount of Olives was an abbey of white monks.198 Near that abbey there was a road that led to [209] Bethany right along the side of the mountain. Part of the way along that road, on the right, was a church, which is called the Holy Lord’s Prayer.199 There it was that God made the Lord’s Prayer and taught it to His Apostles. Near there was the fig tree that God cursed, when He was going to Jerusalem, because when the Apostles went to it to pick figs for themselves they found none, which was fewer than there should have been. That same day Jesus Christ came back from Jerusalem to go to Bethany; and the Apostles passed by the fig tree and found it dried up.200 Between the church of the Lord’s Prayer and Bethany, on the side of the mountain, there was a church named Bethphage.201 There Jesus Christ came on Palm Sunday and from there He sent two of His disciples to Jerusalem for a sheass; and from there, after they had brought it, He went on the ass into Jerusalem.202 I have now told you and named for you the churches and abbeys in Jerusalem and up to a league from Jerusalem, as well as the streets of the Latins. But I have not named and shall not name the abbeys or churches of the Syrians, Greeks, Jacobites, Bohemians, Nestorians, Armenians or other sorts of people who were not in obedience to Rome; there were several churches and abbeys of these in the city. I do not want to speak to you of all these people whom I have named, because they are not in obedience to Rome.203

198   Augustinian canons who served the church of the Ascension: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 72–88. 199   See Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 117–24. 200   Matthew 21.18–22; Mark 11.12–14, 11.20–25. 201   See Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 157–60. 202   Matthew 21.1–9; Mark 11.1–10; Luke 19.29–36. 203   It is unclear why Bohemians (Boamins) are included in a list of Christian communities not subject to Rome, unless as a kingdom subject to the German emperor, Frederick II, Bohemia was regarded as being temporarily out of communion. This list of non-Latin congregations, however, may be related to the concluding part of John of Würzburg’s description of the Holy Land, written around 1165: ‘In describing in this way the venerable places in the Holy City of Jerusalem … I have omitted many chapels and lesser churches, which people of various nations and tongues (add. all of them true practising Christians) have there. For there are there Greeks, Latins, Germans, Hungarians (var. Bulgars), Scots, Navarese, Bretons, English (add. French), Ruthenians, Bohemians (Boemi), Georgians, Armenians, Syrians (Suriani), Jacobites, Syrians (Syri), Nestorians, Indians, Egyptians, Copts (Cephti), Capheturici, Maronites, and many others whom it would be long to list; but with these we make an end to this little book’ (translated from Huygens (ed.), Peregrinationes Tres, pp. 137–8).

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The Holy Pilgrimages (1229–39) [1 Galilee] [104] 1. These are the holy pilgrimages that one must seek out, in order, in the Holy Land. He who wishes to seek them out correctly must go first from Acre to Nazareth, which is seven leagues. On this road is Shafa ‘Amr (Safran), at three leagues, on which mountain there is a church of my lord St James, at the place where he was born; and the rock and the place are still to be seen there.1 From Shafa ‘Amr to Saffūriyya is three miles, and there was born my lady St Anne, the mother of Our Lady St Mary. And from there one goes to Nazareth, which is one league away. And there Our Lord Jesus Christ came into Our Lady St Mary; and there is the place where the angel Gabriel announced it, that is to say in a cave, which is inside the church on the left-hand side. And in that place a little chapel has been made. And near there, about a bowshot away, is the spring of St Gabriel.2 From Nazareth to the Leap of Our Lord Jesus Christ3 is one league; and on the way is a chapel of St Zacharias, which belongs to the Armenians, and it is a very beautiful place.4 2. From Nazareth to Cana of Galilee (Quane Galilée) is two leagues; and there was born St James of Galilee;5 and in Cana of Galilee took place [1041] the wedding held by the steward of the feast.6 At that wedding Our Lord made wine out of water; and one may still see where the wedding was held by the steward; and the place where the six jars were is also visible. From Cana of Galilee it is a good bowshot to the well from which was drawn the water that was taken to the wedding of the steward of the feast at Cana of Galilee, which water, as the gospel relates, Our Lord transformed into wine when He was at the wedding with His blessed mother, so that the steward was very surprised when he drank of the water that had been turned into wine.7     3   4   5   6  

Pringle, Churches 2, p. 302. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 117–45. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 45–8. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 144–5. Galilée, possibly a mistake for ‘Galicia’. Archedeclin, from the Vulgate text’s architriclinus (John 2.9–10). At this time Cana was identified as Khirbat Qana: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 162–4. 7   John 2.1–11. 1 2

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3. From Nazareth to Mount Tabor is three leagues. On that mountain Our Lord Jesus Christ was transfigured before his Apostles; and there is there a church of black Latin monks.8 And in that church is seen the place where Our Lord was transfigured; and there, according to what the gospel says, the face of Our Lord appeared like the sun and His clothes were as white as snow, so that the disciples were greatly astonished.9 From Mount Tabor to Mount Hermon10 is one league; there is found the city of Nain.11 There Our Lord revived the widow’s son before the gate of the town.12 Near there, four leagues to the east, is the sea of Galilee; and beside it on the sea is the city of Tiberias, where Our Lord lodged and performed many miracles. And there Our Lord made my lord St Peter and St Andrew cast the net into the sea;13 and on that sea Our Lord went on foot up to St Peter and St Andrew, who were in a boat; and then my lord St Peter was afraid when he saw Him coming to him walking on the water, for he thought it was a ghost from Capernaum.14 4. Near there on the other side is Capernaum; and the other side is the lake of Gennesaret. And above the lake of [1042] Gennesaret, to the right, is a mountain, which is full of hay, where Our Lord preached to the crowd of people; and near there is the place where Our Lord fed five thousand people with five barley loaves and two fish.15 Up near there is the prison where Our Lord was put until he had paid the tribute money for His journey. It was then that He told my lord St Peter to catch a fish; and when he had taken the fish, Our Lord ordered it to be opened and took out a silver penny; and He ordered it to be used for the tribute, and it was done thus.16 Many other miracles were performed in that region, about which one cannot know as much as one would wish. 5. From Tiberias to Ṣafad is three leagues, and on that same road is the well17 where Joseph was thrown when his twelve18 brothers wanted to kill him, 8   The Benedictines would probably have returned to Mount Tabor following the treaty made between the Christians and al-Malik al-Kāmil in 1229: see Pringle, Churches 2, p. 68; cf. Prawer, Histoire 2, pp. 197–20. 9   Matthew 17.1–13; Mark 9.2–13; Luke 9.28–36. 10   Little Mount Hermon, Jabal Duhy or Giv’at ha-More. 11   Na‘im. 12   Luke 7.11–17. 13   Luke 5.4–8. 14   Matthew 14.22–6; Mark 6.48–50; John 6.19–20. 15   Matthew 14.13–21; Mark 6.31–44; Luke 9.10–17; John 6.1–15. 16   Matthew 17.24–7. However, the gospel does not mention any imprisonment. 17   The well, Jubb Yūsuf, was actually a cistern, lying beside the road from Damascus to Tiberias and thence on to Egypt. In Mamluk times a khan, Khān Jubb Yūsuf, was also constructed at this point. See Lee, Raso and Hillenbrand, ‘Mamlūk Caravanserais’, pp. 72–94; Petersen, Gazetteer, pp. 189–91. 18   Recte eleven.

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because of the vision that he saw, in which twelve stars and the sun and moon were worshipping him. And the brothers heard the account of the vision as he was telling it to his father and so took counsel among themselves to kill Joseph. And Reuben, his brother, said, ‘Let us put him in this well and have our father to understand that savage beasts have devoured him.’19 At Ṣafad is the cave of Tobias (Cave de Tobie).20 At Ṣafad is the stone where Our Lady rested. In Tiberias is the firebrand that the Jews threw after Our Lord, when He showed them how they ought to make dye, and the brand lodged in a wall and has now grown into a great tree.21 At Tiberias are the Baths of Our Lady, which are heated by themselves. From Ṣafad to St George is five leagues. There is there a church of Greek monks.22 From St George to Acre is four leagues. [2 Acre to Jerusalem] 6. Whoever wants to go to Jerusalem can go there from here; and whoever does not want to may return to Acre and row from Acre to Ḥayfā, which is four leagues. And there is near there a mountain on which is the place of my lord St Denys, that is to say the place [1043] where he was born; and the place is still to be seen. And near the chapel there is a little valley. A stone’s throw away is the spring of my lord St Denys, which he found and made with his own hands. And you should know that it is a very beautiful place and it is the healthiest place on the whole mountain for the body of man.23 On that same mountain is the abbey of St Margaret, which belongs to black monks,24 which is also a beautiful place. And in that abbey there are some good sanctuaries. Below that abbey on the slope is the place where St Elijah lived. In that place there is a beautiful little chapel within the rock of the place, where the hermits of the Carmel live.25 After that abbey of St Margaret, on the edge of the same   Genesis 37.5–24.   Probably to be identified as the Cave of the Daughters of Jacob (Mughārat Banāt

19 20

Ya‘qūb): see Petersen, Gazetteer, pp. 265–7; Pringle, Churches 2, p. 209. 21   The legend of the boy Jesus and the dyers appears in an Arabic apocryphal gospel and was current in Muslim and Christian sources in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the place was marked by a church: see Pringle, Churches 2, p. 364. 22   Dayr al-Asad, beside the village of al-Ba‘ina: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 80–92. 23   The spring and chapel probably recalled Pope Denys, or Dionysius (ad 259–68), who according to legend had been a hermit on Mount Carmel. They were probably located at or near Khirbat Rushmiyya: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 205–6. 24   Other sources specify that they were Greek and Syrian Orthodox: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 244–8. 25   These hermits also seem to have been Orthodox: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 226–9.

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mountain, there is a very beautiful and delightful place where the Latin hermits who are called friars of the Carmel live. There is a very beautiful little church of Our Lady,26 and all over that place there are a large number of good streams, which issue from within the rock of that mountain. From there it is one league down to the sea. 7. Between St Margaret and the friars of the Carmel there is a village called Anne.27 There, so they say, were forged the nails with which Our Lord was crucified, and the place is still to be seen where they were forged. Near the mountain of the Carmel is the heritage of the Latin hermits. On the side facing Pilgrims’ Castle (‘Atlīt) there is a place called St John of Ṭīra (Saint Iohan de Tire); there is there a monastery of the Greeks, in which there are many good sanctuaries; and there St John performed many fine miracles.28 8. After that one goes from Pilgrims’ Castle to the city of Cæsarea, which is five leagues. On that road one finds Pain Perdu29 and the saltings on the right-hand side, on the sea. After that, on the left-hand side near Pain Perdu, there is a chapel of Our Lady, which is on the marsh and is called Our Lady of the Marsh;30 people very often go there on pilgrimage from Cæsarea, for it is a holy place. In that marsh there are many crocodiles, which were put there by a lord of Cæsarea who had them brought from the land of Egypt.31 [1044] 9. After that one goes from Cæsarea to Arsūf, which is nine leagues. On the road above it is Roche taillie,32 an evil defile; and there wicked people encamp from time to time to bar the route to those going to Jaffa. After that one goes from Arsūf to Jaffa, which is three leagues. On that road one finds a place called the Mill of the Towers (Molin des Turs).33 In Jaffa one finds, up in the castle in the church of St Peter, the stone of St James.34 26   The Latin Carmelites were granted a ‘form of life’ by the patriarch, Albert of Vercelli, between 1205 and 1214. This required them, among other things, to build a chapel. Over the following decades this was enlarged and other monastic buildings were added: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 249–57. 27   Bi’r Bayt Hanna, or Bayt Ḥanūn. 28   See Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 369–72. 29   Unlocated, though possibly identical with Burj al-Maliḥ, the Tower of the Saltings. In 1234 it belonged to the order of St Lazarus, who also had there a church of St Laurence and later a tower. See Pringle, Churches 2, p. 152. 30   Unlocated: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 257–8. 31   Nahr al-Zarqā is the Crocodile River (Crocodilon flumen) of Pliny (Natural History 5.17, in Loeb 2, p. 278; Abel, Géographie 1, pp. 470–71). 32   A river, Nahr al-Faliq, called the river of the ‘Cut Rock’ because of the artificial rock cutting, dating from Roman times, that permitted it to reach the sea through the coastal sandstone (kurkar) ridge: see Pringle, Red Tower, pp. 5, 11, figs. 2–3. 33   Probably the mills on the Nahr al-‘Awja (River Yarqon) at al-Ḥaddar: see Pringle, Secular Buildings, p. 49; Petersen, Gazetteer, pp. 141–3. 34   i.e. the stone on which St James’s body was laid before being taken to Galicia: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 267–8.

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10. After Jaffa one goes to Ramla (Rames) and to Bayt Nūbā (Bethenuble), and from Bayt Nūbā to the Mount Joy (Montioie), and from the Mount Joy to the holy city of Jerusalem straight east without deviating one way or the other. Whoever wants to enter Jerusalem correctly must go straight in by the gate of St Stephen and seek out to the right the holy places of the Holy Sepulchre.35 First he must look for the true Holy Sepulchre of Our Lord God Jesus Christ. 11. After it, in the choir is the Compass of Our Lord. Here is the place where Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea laid the body of Jesus Christ to wash it. After that, at the way out from the choir on the left is Mount Calvary, where Jesus Christ was put on the Holy True Cross; and below is Golgotha, where the blood of Jesus Christ pierced the rock and fell on the head of Adam. After that, behind the apse of the main altar is the Column where Our Lord was bound and beaten before Pilate; and there He was scourged for us all. And beside it there is a way down of eleven steps. There is the cistern where St Helena found the Holy True Cross; and after that is the treasury, where the True Cross used to be, which was lost in the army.36 After that, beside the way down from the Sepulchre, eleven steps down, is the chapel of the Greeks, where is located the image of Our Lady that spoke openly to the Holy Egyptian woman37 and converted her. [1045] And by that exit from the Sepulchre you will go to St Chariton.38 In front of the Holy Sepulchre facing the south entrance is the Hospital of St John; and after it are the nuns of Tyre.39 Next, beside them is the spring where Our Lady and the Marys rent their clothes and tore their fine hair when the Son of God died on the Holy True Cross.40 12. And two bowshots east from there is the Temple of Our Lord, which has four entrances and twenty-two gates; and inside is the blessed rock on which appears the footprint of Jacob,41 and there the Son of God was presented.42 On the   This sentence contains, somewhat confusingly, three meanings of the word droit: droitement (correctly), tout droit (straight, directly), and par droit (to the right). Par droit also appears in the corresponding passage in Les pelerinaiges por aler en Iherusalem (ed. Michelant and Raynaud, p. 93), but ‘Ways and Pilgrimages b’ [10.2.4] has instead par ordre (in order or sequence). 36   The relic of the True Cross was captured by Saladin at the battle of Ḥaṭṭīn in July 1187. 37   St Mary the Egyptian. 38   In fact the church of St Chariton seems to have been ne of the Holy Sepulchre, whereas the steps facing the icon of Our Lady led w up to the street of the Patriarch. 39   The name given in the thirteenth century to the Benedictine nuns of St Mary the Great in Jerusalem, by this time established in Acre. 40   On the site of the former church of St Mary Latin. 41   Some sources identify this as the site of Bethel, where Jacob had his dream (Genesis 28.10–22). The footprint has also been identified as that of Jesus or of Muḥammad. 42   Luke 2.22–38. 35

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right-hand side of the rock the angel appeared to Zechariah;43 and below the rock, it is said, was the Holy of Holies, where Our Lord wrote on the ground and forgave the sins of the woman who was caught in adultery.44 13. The door facing east is called Jerusalem, and towards that exit on the steps appear the hoof prints of the she-ass of Our Lord; and below are the gates that are called Golden Gates. The gate of the Lord’s Temple that is towards the west is the door that is called the Beautiful Gate, and the one that faced the north wind, which is called vent de bise, that one is the Gate of Paradise. And there is the spring that is called the spring of Paradise.45 And near that exit, against the wall of the enclosure, is the Sheep-Pool46 where the angel of God came down and moved the water and cured all the sick on whom the water fell; and on that side you can go to St Anne, and there you will find another pool.47 Now go back into Jerusalem to the Temple. Facing the Temple on the south is the Holy Temple of Solomon,48 and below the angle on the side towards the city you will find the Holy Bath where Our Lord was washed in the mortar.49 Facing the Tower of David you will find beside the steps a chapel in which are the relics of St John Golden Mouth,50 St Demetrius and St Martin; and a little afterwards is the church of the Armenians,51 where St James of Galicia was beheaded. [1046] 14. And from there you will go to Mount Sion; and there in the church, which is demolished, Our Lady passed over. And in front of that place there is a chapel where Our Lord was judged and beaten and scourged and crowned with thorns; and this was the house of Caiaphas and the Prætorium.52 Above the great church is the chapel of the Holy Spirit, and there it descended upon the Apostles and [Jesus] washed their feet very gently, and entered through closed doors and said to them, ‘Pax vobis!’ Below Mount Sion is the valley; there is a chapel on the steps, which is called my lord St Peter in Galilee.53 There he hid at the cock-crow.     45   46   47   43

Luke 1.5–23. John 8.3–11. Cf. Ezekiel 47.1–2. La Probatique piscine, here identified with Birkat Isrā’īl. Possibly Birkat Sitti Maryam outside the Jehoshaphat Gate, in view of the next sentence. 48   Al-Aqsa mosque. 49   A stone basin, located in the Masjid Mahd ‘Īsā or Miḥrab Maryam, below the se corner of the Temple platform: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 310–14. 50   Saint Iohan Bouchedor, i.e. St John Chrysostom. The chapel was that of St Sabas: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 355–7. 51   Eglyse des Hermites: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 168–82. 52   See Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 261–87 and pp. 365–72. 53   Galilée, a mistake for Gallicante, or St Peter of the Cock-Crow, on which see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 346–9. 44

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15. Above54 Mount Sion in the city is the pool of Siloam; there the blind man, who had never seen before and whom God illumined, saw; and there was laid Isaiah the prophet. And below there you will find Akeldama, where they place the [bodies of dead] pilgrims, and this was the field that was purchased for the thirty deniers for which God was sold. 16. From Jerusalem to St Elias55 is a league, and a little after it you will find the Field of Flowers (Champ fleuri). After that, beside the road on the way to Bethlehem is the Holy Tomb of Rachel.56 17. And there in Bethlehem there is a church.57 There was born Jesus Christ of the Virgin. At the exit from the choir of the church on the right is the well where the star fell; to the left lie the Innocents, and below the cloister is the tomb of St Jerome. From Bethlehem to the Shepherds is a league.58 There the angel of God appeared to the shepherds on the night when God was born and said, ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo!’ From Bethlehem to St Abraham59 is six leagues. There he was laid, with Isaac and Jacob; there God created Adam. [1047] 18. Now go back to Jerusalem. Below the Golden Gates in the valley of Jehoshaphat is the holy tomb of Our Lady. Next, beside it is Gethsemane, the place where God was arrested; and there are visible the fingers of Jesus Christ on the wall. And a stone’s throw from there is the church of St Saviour where He prayed to His Father.60 On that hill is the Mount of Olives, where God ascended to heaven. There appear His blessed footprints; and after that, beside it, there is a chapel where St Pelagia lies at the narrow pass.61 [Near there] in former times God made the Lord’s Prayer.62 19. And from there to Bethany is a league, and there God brought Lazarus back to life and forgave the Holy Magdalene her sins in the house of Simon the Leper. And from there to the Quarantine is six leagues; and there Our Lord fasted forty days. A little further on is Jericho, the place where God gave sight to the blind men.63 Four leagues from Jericho flows the River Jordan, dividing the land of Edom from Galilee and Jerusalem.     56   57   58   59   60   61  

Recte ‘below’. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 224–6. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 176–8. Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 137–56. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 315–16. Hebron. On these three sites, see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 98–103, 287–306, 358–65. See Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 72–88, 342–6. The ‘narrow pass’ was a restricted space between Pelagia’s tomb and the wall, between which no sinner could pass (ibid. pp. 343–4). 62   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 117–24. 63   les angeles, evidently a mistake for avogles. 54 55

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From Jericho to the River Jordan is twelve leagues, and in that river the Son of God was baptized by St John the Baptist, and He heard the voice of His Father. 20. And from the River Jordan to Mount Sinai is eight days’ journey; and there God gave the law to Moses, and there lies the body of St Catherine. 21. Go back to Jerusalem. From Jerusalem to the Cross64 is a league; and there grew the tree of which the Holy Cross was made. From Jerusalem to Emmaus (Esmaüs) is three leagues; and there Our Lord appeared to His disciples as a pilgrim after His Resurrection.65 From Jerusalem to Nāblus (Napeles) is twelve leagues. There is Jacob’s Well where God spoke to the Samaritan woman. And from there to Sebaste (Sabaut) is two leagues; and there St John the Baptist was beheaded. From Sebaste to Mount Tabor is ten leagues, and there Our Lord was transfigured before His Apostles.

  The Monastery of the Holy Cross, see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 33–40.   Luke 24.13–35. Emmaus is here identified as Abū Ghosh.

64 65

5

Anonymous ix and Anonymous x (c.1229–39) Anonymous ix

Anonymous x

Concerning the road for going from Jaffa to Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre and other places

If anyone should want to go from Acre to Mount Carmel, it is eight leagues to the place where blessed Elijah the prophet was. From Carmel to Cæsarea is eight leagues, and there is said to have been the Table of the Lord and the [tombs of the] four daughters of St Philip and the place of the centurion Cornelius. And from Cæsarea to Joppe is twelve leagues, and there is the stone of St James the Apostle. From Joppe to Jerusalem is twelve leagues.

If anyone should want to go from Joppe to Jerusalem, he should keep towards the rising of the sun. Outside the gate of the holy city Stephen was stoned. In the city is the Holy Sepulchre. In the choir is the centre of the world, where Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea laid the body of Jesus. At the exit from the choir on the left side is Mount Calvary, where the Lord was crucified; and there Abraham made his sacrifice to God. Underneath is Golgotha, where Christ’s blood perforated the rock and fell on the head of Adam. Behind the place of Calvary is the column at which the Lord was tied and flogged.

There St Stephen was stoned, outside the city, and for that reason that first gate of the city of Jerusalem is called the gate of St Stephen. One should enter and seek the holy places in order. First the Lord’s Sepulchre and in the choir the centre of the world. Then at the exit from the choir to the left is Mount Calvary, where the Lord was crucified. And below is Golgotha, where the Lord’s blood perforated the rock and fell on the head of Adam. In front of Golgotha lie all the kings of Jerusalem. Behind the vault (tumbam) of the great altar is the column where the Lord was tied and flogged.

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Beside it by a descent of forty steps is the place where the Holy Cross was found by Helena. At the entrance to the Holy Sepulchre, by a descent of forty steps, is the church of the Greeks, in which is the Holy Cross that was found and the image of the Blessed Virgin that spoke to blessed Mary the Egyptian. Outside the [church of the Holy] Sepulchre to the north is the church of St Chariton (sci. Kyriaci), and there is his body. In front of the entrance to the Holy Sepulchre to the south is the house of St John.1 And next to it is the monastery of the holy nuns of Tyre;2 and near there is the church where the blessed Mary and the other Marys tore their hair during the passion of Christ.3

From that place towards the Mount [of Olives] as far a bow can shoot twice is the Temple of the Lord, in which there is a large rock; and above the rock was the ark of the Lord, in which were Aaron’s rod, the tablets of the law, six golden candlesticks

Beside it by a descent of forty steps is the place where St Helena found the True Cross. And to the right of the exit from the choir is the prison and the chain. At the entrance to the Holy Sepulchre, by a descent of forty steps, is a chapel of the Greeks, where there is an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which icon spoke to Mary the Egyptian and converted her. And there is also that True Cross that was found on 21 May,4 and through that exit is [the church of] St Chariton (scs. Caratonus). At the entrance to the Holy Sepulchre to the south is the house of the Hospital of St John of the poor. Next to there is the monastery of St John of the nuns of Tyre. Next to that church is the church of St Mary Latin (de Latina), where the Virgin Mary and the other Marys tore their hair when Christ died on the Cross. Next to the door of the Sepulchre, at the entrance to the right side, is a small chapel where the blessed Virgin Mary was when Christ on the Cross said, ‘Mother, behold your son,’ and to John, ‘Behold your mother.’5 It is two bowshots from the Sepulchre to the Temple of the Lord, in which there are twelve doors, but four are large. Inside, on the rock is the sacred rock, on which Christ, the King of kings, born of the Virgin, was offered. And there appear the footprints

  i.e. the Hospital of St John the Baptist.   The church and monastery (monasterium) of St Mary the Great, occupied by

1 2

Benedictine nuns. 3   This church was probably that of St Mary Latin, formerly occupied by Benedictine monks, rather than that of the sisters. 4   The feast was celebrated by the Jerusalem church on 3 May. 5   John 19.26–7.

Anonymous ix–x

and the urn that contained manna. To the left of the rock there is visible the footprint of Jacob; and there the King of Kings born of the Virgin was offered by the hands of Simeon the Just. To the right the angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah. Below the rock is a cave in which there was ‘The Confession’ of the priests; and there is the Holy of Holies, and there God forgave the sins of the woman caught in adultery. The gate that faces east6 is called Beautiful, and another that looks north is called the gate of Paradise; and there is the spring of which the prophet said, I saw water issuing from the Temple.’7 [406] Through that exit, against the wall is the Sheep-Pool,8 where the angel of the Lord came down at the appropriate time and the water was moved. Facing the gate of the Temple that looks south is the Temple of Solomon. And in the corner of the city above the wall is the bath of Christ and the stone basin,9 and there was the tomb of St Simeon the Just. Between the Temple and the Golden Gates were the trees from which they took the palm branches and threw them on the road when God passed by on Palm Sunday. And from there one takes the road that leads to St Anne, where her tomb is. And there is there another pool. Once more at the Temple, the gate that faces east is called Jerusalem. And near the gate of Paradise and Jerusalem, where the     8   9  

Recte ‘west’. Cf. Ezekiel 47.1–2. Birkat Isrā’īl. pila, literally a ‘mortar’. 10   St Anne’s church. 6 7

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of Jacob, and there Jacob saw the ladder touching heaven; and there also on it Abraham made the sacrifice of his son. Underneath is the place that is called the Holy of Holies. There the Lord wrote with His finger in the earth. There also He forgave the sins of the woman caught in adultery. To the right the angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah the prophet. The gate that is towards the west is called the Beautiful Gate, and that which is towards the north is called the gate of Paradise, of which the prophet spoke, saying, ‘I saw water issuing [409] from the Temple from the right side.’ Through that exit, beside the precinct of the Temple is the SheepPool, where the angel of the Lord used to come down at the appropriate time into the pool. And there is the mother of the Virgin and her tomb.10 And another gate of the Temple towards the east is called Jerusalem. And on the way out of that gate on the steps appear the footprints of the Lord’s ass. A little below are the Golden Gates through which Christ entered Jerusalem riding the ass. Facing the south door of the Temple is the Temple of Solomon. And in the corner of the city near there is the stone basin and bath of the Saviour.

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Saracens worship, there was formerly the altar on which Abraham made the sacrifice of his son; and there Zechariah the son of Barachiah was slain.11 Outside the gate that is called Jerusalem was a certain chapel from which James, the brother of the Lord, was thrown. And on the way down the imprints of the Lord’s ass appear on the steps. And below are the Golden Gates. Beside David’s Tower is a certain chapel of the Greeks,12 in which are the relics of St John Chrysostom and the blessed martyr Demetrius. From there one takes the road to Mount Sion. On Mount Sion is a destroyed church where the Blessed Virgin Mary passed from this world; and from there she was taken into (the valley of) Jehoshaphat by the hands of angels. In front of that great church is a chapel13 where the Lord was bound, flogged and condemned to death. And this was the house of Caiaphas, the Prætorium. Above the great church is the chapel of the Holy Spirit, where the Spirit came down15 on the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, and above that place is a certain altar on which the Lord dined with His disciples. And below is the place where the Lord washed the feet of His disciples, Peter being the last.

Beside David’s Tower is a certain chapel of the Greeks, in which are the relics of blessed John the Golden, St Demetrius and blessed Martin. Near there is a church of the Armenians where blessed James the Apostle, [son] of Zebedee, was beheaded.14 From there one takes the road to Mount Sion. In the great church of Mount Sion the blessed Virgin Mary passed from this world. And in front of it is a chapel in which the Lord was judged, flogged, and crowned with thorns; and this was the house of Caiaphas and the Praetorium. Over the great church of Mount Sion is the chapel of the Holy Spirit, where the Spirit came down15 on the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. Above is a certain altar where there is the Lord’s table on which He dined with His disciples. And below is the place and the stone basin where the Lord washed the feet of the disciples and where the Lord Jesus entered when the doors were closed and said, ‘Peace be with you.’

11   Around 1165, John of Würzburg mentions Muslims praying at the place where Zechariah was killed in the Temple precinct (ed. Huygens, pp. 91–2; cf. Churches 3, p. 405). This passage is therefore of doubtful value for helping to date the text. 12   St Sabas. 13   St Saviour. 14   The Armenian cathedral of St James. 15   ascendit, evidently a mistake for descendit.

Anonymous ix–x

Below Mount Sion is a chapel, which was formerly called Galilee, where the Lord appeared to Simon and the women after the Resurrection.16 Below Mount Sion on the other side is the pool of Siloam, where the Lord gave sight to the man born blind. And it is said that there the prophet Isaiah was buried. And above Siloam is the place of Akeldama and burial place for pilgrims. That is the Field of Blood that was bought for thirty pieces of silver; and they purchased it from the children of Israel. Below the Golden Gates in the valley of Jehoshaphat is the Kidron brook. And there David the prophet collected the five stones with which he killed the giant Goliath. And near by is the place of Jehoshaphat and the tomb of the blessed Virgin Mary. And from there our Lord Jesus Christ took her up. And near there is the place of Gethsemane, where the Lord was arrested by the Jews; and [the impressions of] His fingers are to be seen on the wall. And a stone’s throw from there is the place where He prayed to the Father and His sweat became like drops of blood. Near there in the valley is the place in which King Jehoshaphat was laid, and for that reason the valley is called Jehoshaphat. Near there is the Mount of Olives where the Lord ascended into heaven; and the impression of His left foot is still to be seen. Next to it is a chapel of the Greeks, where the body of the blessed virgin Pelagia is; and

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Below Mount Sion is a chapel, which is called Galilee, where blessed Peter the Apostle was at the cock-crow (in gallitia). Below Mount Sion, below the city, is the pool of Siloam. There the man blind from birth to whom the Lord gave sight saw. And there was buried the prophet Isaiah. Above Siloam is Akeldama, the burial place for pilgrims, the Field of Blood, to the present day.

There David collected the five stones with which he killed Goliath. Near there is the place of Jehoshaphat and the tomb of the blessed Virgin Mary, and there she was taken up into heaven. Near there is Gethsemane, where the Lord was arrested by the Jews and there the [impressions of the] Lord’s fingers are to be seen on the wall. And a stone’s throw from there is the church of St Saviour, in which the Lord Himself prayed to the Father and His sweat became like drops of blood running on to the ground. In the valley of Jehoshaphat, King Jehoshaphat was laid. Above that mountain [recte valley] is the Mount of Olives, where the Lord ascended into heaven and His footprints are still to be seen. Next to it is a chapel of the Greeks, where the body of the blessed virgin Pelagia lies,

16   A confusion between Mount Galilee, where Jesus appeared to the Apostles after His Resurrection, and St Peter at the Cock-Crow (in Gallicantu).

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afterwards, near it is the chapel where the Lord composed the Our Father. From the Mount of Olives to Bethphage is a distance of half a mile. There is the place from which the Lord sent Peter and John to fetch Him an ass. From the Mount of Olives to Bethany is a distance of a mile; there Christ raised Lazarus and forgave the sins of Mary Magdalene. From that place it is four leagues to Quarantine, where the Lord fasted forty days and where the Lord was tempted by the Devil. Below is the place of Abraham and near there is Jericho. From there to the Jordan is a distance of two leagues. There the Lord was baptized by John and the voice of the Father was heard. From there to Mount Sinai is a distance of eight days’ journey. There God gave the law to Moses; and the body of blessed Catherine is there. From Jerusalem it is a distance of one league south to St Elias. And near there is [the Field of] Flowers. And round about there, near the road, is the tomb of Rachel, the wife of Jacob. One mile from there [407] is Bethlehem, where God was born. Opposite the place of the Nativity is the Lord’s crib, where the Magi from the East came to adore the Lord. At the exit from the choir on the right is the well where the star fell. To the left below the cloister are [the tombs of] the Innocents and the tomb of St Jerome the priest. From Bethlehem to the place of the Shepherds is a distance of one mile.

and after [it] another chapel where the Lord composed the Our Father.

From that place to Bethany is one mile; there the Lord raised Lazarus who was four days dead and forgave the sins of Mary Magdalene in the house of Simon the leper. And from there it is six leagues to Quarantine, where the Lord fasted forty days and forty nights and was tempted by the Devil. Below is the place that is called the garden of Abraham and near by is the place that is called Jericho. From Jericho to the Jordan is two leagues. There the Lord was baptized by John and the voice of the Father was heard. From the River Jordan to Mount Sinai is eight days’ journey. There the Lord gave the law to Moses and there lies the body of the blessed virgin Catherine. From Jerusalem to St Elias is one league to the south and there is the Field of Flowers, and near the road is the tomb of Rachel, the wife of Jacob. From that place to Bethlehem is one mile. There the Lord was born of the Virgin Mary. And opposite the place of the Nativity is the Lord’s crib, where the Magi came to adore Him. At the exit from the choir on the right is the well in which the star that the Magi saw fell. To the left are [the tombs of] the Innocents. And below the cloister is the tomb of blessed Jerome. And from there to the place of the Shepherds is one league; there the

Anonymous ix–x

There the angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds at His birth, singing on that night ‘Glory to God in the highest.’ From Bethlehem to St Abraham in Hebron is a distance of five leagues. There God fashioned Adam and there is his body. And the bodies of the holy patriarchs, that is to say Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are also there. God showed Himself to Abraham in the Trinity at the tree stump of Mamre. From Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus (castellum Emaus) is five leagues. There God showed Himself to His disciples as a traveller. From Jerusalem to the Holy Cross is a distance of one mile to the west. There grew the tree from which the Holy Cross was made. From Jerusalem to Samaria, which is called Nāblus (Neapolis), is a distance of ten leagues. There is Jacob’s Well and there God spoke with the Samaritan woman. And from there to Sebaste is two miles. There the blessed John the Baptist was beheaded. From there to Mount Tabor is a distance northwards of ten leagues. There God was transfigured in front of His disciples. Near there is Mount Hermon, […] where God revived the widow’s son.17 Towards the east is the sea of Galilee, where the Lord fed five thousand people. From Mount Tabor to Nazareth is a distance of three leagues. There God overshadowed the body of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And there the angel greeted her. From Nazareth to Cana of Galilee is a distance of three leagues.

angel of the Lord said, ‘Glory to God in the highest.’ [410] From Bethlehem to St Abraham is six leagues. There the Lord made Adam and he lamented his son Abel for a hundred years. And there lie the bodies of the holy patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. From Jerusalem to the Holy Cross is one mile. There grew the tree from which the Cross was made. From Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus (castrum Emaus) is three leagues. There the Lord appeared to the disciples after the Resurrection. From Jerusalem to Samaria, which is called Nāblus (Neapolis), is twelve leagues. There is Jacob’s Well, over which the Lord spoke to the Samaritan woman. And from there to Sebaste is two leagues. There the blessed John the Baptist was beheaded. From there to Mount Tabor is twelve leagues. There the Lord was transfigured in front of His disciples.

Then it is three leagues to Nazareth, where the Angel Gabriel announced to blessed Mary that she would conceive the Son of God from the Holy Spirit. From Nazareth to Saffūriyya (Zaphoriam) is one mile. There was born [St Anne, the mother of] blessed

  Evidently a passage is missing here, since the miracle occurred at Nain.

17

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There was born James the son of Zebedee.

Mary. Then to Cana of Galilee is three leagues. There the Lord made wine out of water. From Saffūriyya to Shafa ‘Amr (Cafarnaum) is three leagues. There was born St James the Apostle, [son] of Zebedee.

6

All the Land that the Sultan Retains (c.1239) 1. Here is contained all the land that the sultan retains.1 2. On the Egyptian side, on the coast the sultan retains Ascalon, where at the time of the Greeks there was an episcopal seat. 3. Likewise he retains Gaza (Gazarum) and al-Dārūm (Daronum),2 which were castles of the Templars and an episcopal seat at the time of the Greeks.3 4. Towards Jerusalem he retains Sebaste, which was and is an episcopal seat.4 5. Likewise he retains Nāblus, which together with the land of Sebaste was called Samaria in antiquity.

1

  For the location of the places mentioned in the text, see Fig. 6.   Dayr al-Balaḥ. 3   Gaza is mentioned as having a bishop at the time of the Council of Nicæa in ad 325 (Abel, Géographie, p. 200). The town and its newly built castle were granted to the Templars by Baldwin III in 1149 (William of Tyre 17.12, 20.20, ed. Huygens, pp. 775–6, 937–8; see also Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 208–16). The castle of al-Dārūm was built in the reign of Amalric (1162–73) (William of Tyre 20.19, ed. Huygens, pp. 936–7), but this is the only source to associate it with the Templars. Similarly there is no contemporary evidence to confirm the implication that it had a bishop in Byzantine times. There is evidence, however, to show that Latin clerics in the twelfth century thought that it had. A privilege issued by Pope Alexander III to the Latin patriarch, Amalric of Neslé, in 1168, for example, confirmed his right to jurisdiction over former Greek dioceses, including Jericho, Daron and Nāblus (Bresc-Bautier, pp. 275–8, no. 142). Whether the Byzantine bishop of Daron, if one ever really existed, had his seat at Dayr al-Balaḥ, however, is questionable, since Arab geographers such as al-Muqaddasī (c.985) applied the term al-Dārūm, derived from the Hebrew Darom (‘south country’), to the area around Bayt Jibrīn (where there had been and was still in the twelfth century a Greek bishop) or to the south of Palestine in general (Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, pp. 41, 412, 437). The belief in a former Greek Orthodox presence in Dayr al-Balaḥ is also found in William of Tyre, who gives a false etymology for al-Dārūm, deriving it from Dār al-Rūm, ‘house of the Greeks’ (ch. 20.19, ed. Huygens, p. 937; see also Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 194–6). 4   In the thirteenth century the Latin bishop was resident in Acre: see Pringle, Churches 4, p. 164. 2

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6. Likewise he retains Janīn (grande Gerinum),5 Yazūr (castrum Planorum)6 and al-Fūla (castrum Fabbarum),7 which were renowned castles of the Templars, and he retains all these with their appurtenances. 7. Towards Arabia and in Arabia he retains Hebron, which is now called St Abraham and is an episcopal seat.8 8. Likewise the city of Figs (civitatem Ficuum),9 which in antiquity was called Becula (Bethula) and was an episcopal seat.10 9. Likewise the renowned castle that is called Ṭafīla (Traphyla).11 10. Likewise the city of Petra (Petracensem civitatem); and it is an archiepiscopal seat, which is now commonly called Karak (Cracum).12 11. Likewise the castles of Montreal (Montis regalis)13 and al-Sila‘ (Celle, Sela)14 along with many other castles whose names I do not know, with 5   This is the only evidence that we have for Janīn having belonged to the Templars; however, it is possible that the writer has confused grande Gerinum with parva Gerinum (Zir‘īn), which is described in 1184 as a village (villa) of the Templars (Ralph of Diceto, in RS 68.2, p. 28; cf. Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 276–9 and 4, pp. 269–71; id., Secular Buildings, p. 56). 6   Provençal text: Castel planorum ho dels plas, ‘or of the plains.’ On the site, see Pringle, ‘Templar Castles between Jaffa and Jerusalem’, pp. 92–4; id., Churches 1, pp. 377–8; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 108–9. 7   Provençal text: Castel fabbarum ho de las favas, ‘or of the beans’. Al-fūl also means ‘beans’ in Arabic. On the site, see Kedar and Pringle, ‘La Fève’; Pringle, Churches 1, p. 207; id., Secular Buildings, p. 49. 8   Hebron became a suffragan see of Jerusalem in 1168 (William of Tyre 20.3, ed. Huygens, p. 914). By the 1230s the bishop and chapter would have been residing in the Montmusard suburb of Acre (see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 223–9 and 4, pp. 51–2). 9   Provençal text: ciotat ficuum ho de las figuas, ‘or of the figs’. On its possible location, see Beyer and Alt, ‘Civitas Ficuum’. 10   A bishop of Bitulion is mentioned in 536; but his see lay sw of Gaza at Shaykh Zuwayd (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 200, 285). The sixth-century pilgrimage guide by Theodosius confuses this place with Bethulia, ‘where Holofernes died’ (CCSL 175, p. 116, trans. Wilkinson, p. 65; cf. Judith 7.3). 11   See Pringle, Secular Buildings, p. 98. 12   The metropolitan see that in Byzantine times had been at Petra was moved to Karak in 1167 (William of Tyre 20.3, ed. Huygens, p. 914; John of Ibelin, Livre 226, ed. Edbury, p. 591). On the date see Mayer, Kreuzfahrerherrschaft Montréal, pp. 281–3. 13   Al-Shawbak: see Pringle, Churches 2, 304–14; id., Secular Buildings, p. 75–6. 14   Al-Sala‘ (al-Sal‘, al-Sila‘), which Yāqūt (c.1225) describes as ‘a fort in Wādī Mūsa’ (Le Strange, Palestine, p. 528), was surrendered to Saladin’s ‘amīr Sa‘d al-Dīn Kamshabah al-Asadī in Ramadan 584/November 1188 (al-Maqrīzī, trans Broadhurst, p. 88; ‘Imād alDīn, trans. Massé, p. 99; Abu Shāmā, RHC Or 4, p. 382; Ibn al-Athīr, trans. Richards 2, pp. 354–5). Its identification is uncertain, though the name sal‘, the Arabic for ‘crack’, ‘fissure’ or ‘rift’, suggests its association with a rocky natural feature. Some have plausibly identified it with the Frankish fortress on al-Habīs in Petra (Horsfeld, ‘Sela–Petra’, p. 5;

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13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

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their appurtenances; and this land ought to belong to the daughter of Prince Ruben15 and it extends five days’ journey from Jerusalem. Likewise Wādī Mūsa (Vallem de Messa, Mossa), which is part of Idumæa, and this is towards Damascus; there are there many castles and towns whose names I do not know,16 and it ought to belong to the young lady mentioned above.17 Likewise towards Acre (Acon) and Nazareth, the castle of Saffūriyya (castrum Saphorie), which belonged to the king.18 Likewise Mount Tabor, which belonged to the abbot of the same place, and the castle of Dabburiyya (castrum Burie), which belonged to the same abbot.19 Likewise the city of Nain (Naym), where there was formerly the seat of a bishop.20 Likewise Bethsaida (Betsaydam), the city of Peter and Andrew.21 Likewise the castle that is called Belvoir (Bellum videre); and it belonged to the Jerusalem Hospital.22 Likewise in the land of al-Ghawr (terra de Gor), where Sodom and Gomorrah were, the castle that is called Marescalcia, which belonged to the king.23

Deschamps, Châteaux 2, pp. 19, 39; idem, ‘Étude’, pp. 96–7), while Zayadine (‘Caravan routes’, pp. 164–6) has suggested the alternative site of al-Sila‘, a rock fortress between Busayra and Ṭafīla. 15   The daughter of ‘Prince Ruben’ mentioned here would have been Maria, daughter of Raymond Rupen, prince of Antioch (1216–19), who inherited the lordships of Toron and Transjordan from her grandmother, Alice, sometime after 1236 (see introduction to the texts above). 16   The principal Frankish castles in Wādī Mūsa and Petra were al-Wu‘ayra and alHabīs (Pringle, Secular Buildings, pp. 49–50, 105–6). 17   The description of Maria as ‘young lady’ (domicella) suggests that this was written before her marriage to Philip of Montfort in 1240 (Deschamps, ‘Étude’, p. 93). 18   See Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 209–18; id., Secular Buildings, p. 92. 19   On Mount Tabor and Dabburiyya, see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 192–4 and 2, pp. 63–85; id., Secular Buildings, p. 46. 20   There is no other evidence for the former existence of a bishop of Nain. 21   John 1.44, cf. 12.21. 22   See Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 120–22; id., Secular Buildings, p. 32. 23   Marescalcia can mean ‘marshalship’ or ‘stabling for horses’. In the twelfth century, places of this name existed near Mirabel (Majdal Yāba) (RRH, p. 22, no. 100; p. 110, no. 423) and at Khirbat Maskana, near the battlefield of Ḥaṭṭīn (de Expugnatione, in RS 66, p. 223; RRH, p. 175, no. 659). But the location of the castle of that name in the Jordan Valley is uncertain. Deschamps (‘Étude’, p. 98) followed Rey (Colonies franques, p. 428) in identifying it with the ruined fortress of Qarn Ṣarṭaba, situated on a hill overlooking Khirbat Maskara and the point where the road from Nāblus debouches into the valley to reach the crossing point of the Jordan at Jisr Damiyya. This would have been in the

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19. Likewise Jericho, which belonged to the abbess of St Lazarus of Bethany and is seven leagues distant from Jerusalem in the same direction.24 20. Likewise on the sea of Galilee, the city of Tiberias, which is an episcopal seat;25 and this land26 extends for two long days’ journeys and more, and all these things he retains with their appurtenances. 21. Likewise from that area towards Arabia, the castle that is called the Gorge of Sawād (Cava de Suet), which is a river flowing near Tiberias that runs into the River Jordan.27 The lord of Tiberias, however, is called prince of Galilee. 22. Likewise towards Tyre and Acre, towards the mountains, the castle of Ṣafad (Saphet), which belonged to the Templars.28 23. Likewise the New Castle (Castrum Novum, Hunīn),29 which belonged to the lord of Toron and ought to belong to the daughter of Prince Ruben.30 24. Likewise Jacob’s Ford (Vadum Jacob),31 which belonged to the Templars. 25. Likewise Cæsarea Philippi, which is commonly called Bāniyās (Bellinas), and is an episcopal seat,32 and ought to belong to the daughter of Prince Ruben; and all of these [the sultan] retains with their appurtenances; and this land extends through very large gorges33 above Tyre for one long day’s journey and more.

lordship of Nāblus and a likelier location for a royal castle than one near the traditional locations of Sodom and Gomorrah s of the Dead Sea. However, the identification has yet to be confirmed archaeologically. 24   Jericho was part of King Fulk and Queen Melisende’s original endowment to the sisters of Bethany in 1138 (William of Tyre 15.25, ed. Huygens, p. 710; cf. Bresc-Bautier, Cartulaire, pp. 98–101, no. 34). 25   The bishop of Tiberias died during the siege of Acre in 1190 and the see lay vacant until the election of Geoffrey, chancellor of Antioch, as bishop following the return of Tiberias to the Franks in 1241 (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 253–6 and 4, pp. 174–5). 26   i.e. the principality of Galilee, dependent on Tiberias, which was the prince’s residence. 27   The Cava de Suet contained a cave-castle, also known as Habīs Jaldak or ‘Ayn al-Habīs, which is cut into the south side of the Yarmūq gorge (Pringle, Churches 1, p. 26; id., Secular Buildings, p. 18). Although cava can mean either ‘cave-castle’ or ‘gorge’, in this instance the writer clearly means it to refer to the gorge and the river that it contained. 28   See Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 206–9; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 91–2. 29   See Pringle, Secular Buildings, pp. 78–80. 30   Maria, daughter of Raymond Rupen, prince of Antioch (1216–19): see introduction to the texts above. 31   A castle begun but never completed in 1178/9 (Pringle, Secular Buildings, p. 85). 32   A suffragan of Tyre (John of Ibelin 227, ed. Edbury, p. 593), though the bishop can only have resided there while it was in Frankish hands between 1140 and 1164 (Pringle, Churches 1, p. 108). 33   in cavas maximas.

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26. In the bishopric of Sidon, the castle that is called Beaufort (Belforte) and the gorge of Abū’l-Ḥasan (Cavam Belciassem)34 with the mountains; and this land extends for a day’s journey and more. 27. In the bishopric of Beirut, two very small gorges35 with all the mountains, which [land] similarly extends for one long day’s journey and more.

  Qal‘at Abū’l-Ḥasan is a castle, situated on a rocky spur enclosed on three sides by the gorge of the Nahr al-Awali (Pringle, Secular Buildings, p. 78). 35   As elsewhere in this document, duas Cavas minutissimas seems to refer to ‘gorges’ rather than ‘cave-castles’. The two gorges in question were probably the Nahr al-Kalb (Dog River) and Nahr al-Damūr, though the Nahr Bayrūt itself is also a possibility. 34

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Geoffrey of Beaulieu: The Pilgrimage of Louis IX from Acre to Nazareth (March 1251) I shall not consider in silence how humbly and in how catholic a manner the faithful king comported himself on the pilgrimage that he undertook from Acre to the holy and devout city of Nazareth. For on the vigil of the Annunciation of Our Lady,1 putting on a hair shirt next to his flesh, he went from Saffūriyya (Sophera), where he had lain that night, to Cana of Galilee2 and thence to Mount Tabor; from there, the same vigil, he went down into Nazareth. When he saw from afar the holy place, getting down from his horse, he worshipped it devoutly on bended knees and went forward in this way until he humbly entered the sacred city and the holy place of the Incarnation. That day he fasted faithfully on bread and water, even though he was suffering very greatly. How devoutly he conducted himself and how solemnly and gloriously he caused to be celebrated vespers, matins, the mass and the other things pertaining to so distinguished a festival can be attested by those who were there, some of whom were truly able to affirm and declare that, since the time when the Son of God assumed flesh in that place from the glorious Virgin, never was the office performed there with such solemnity and devotion. In the same place, after mass had been celebrated on the altar of the Annunciation, the pious king received Holy Communion. And Lord Eudes, bishop of Tusculum3 and legate of the Apostolic See, celebrated solemn mass on the high altar of the church and preached a devout sermon. The king, in all things a catholic, wished the church to have the most precious and devout furnishings and would provide hangings and vestments of different colours according to what was appropriate for the various festivals; and on this he would exercise his own special care and attention. In addition he solicitously sought indulgences from the Lord Pope and from other prelates of the church, and having obtained them would make use of them devoutly and humbly.4     3   4   1

25 March 1251. Probably Khirbat Qana, rather than Kafr Kanna. Frascati. The last paragraph, being in the imperfect throughout, appears to relate to the church in general rather than specifically to Nazareth. The king’s accounts between the octaves of the Ascension in 1250 and 1251, however, include £1,410. 15s. 8d. spent on gifts of clothes and silver and £1,689. 16s. 8d. on alms (‘Dépenses de Saint Louis’, trans. Riley-Smith and Riley-Smith, p. 149). 2

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Greek Anonymous i (1253–54): A Partial Account of the Holy Places of Jerusalem relating to the Sufferings of Our Lord Jesus Christ and Certain Other Persons 1. … Near there, there is a high mountain, and on the summit of the mountain there is the tomb of St Babylas, archbishop of Antioch,1 a holy and wonderful place of pilgrimage. There the pilgrims pray to the Holy One in the following way: ‘Saint of God, open to us your holy sanctuary, so that we may behold and adore you.’ At once one sees the shadow of a man, hears a sound and senses the fragrance of incense; and all glorify the wonder of the holy one. 2. The journey from Damascus to the sea of Tiberias, where Christ appeared to the disciples, is three days. Not far from Damascus runs the River Jordan, which flows into the sea of Tiberias and flows out again from the other side. This sea is triangular in shape, but has fresh water. There Christ breathed on the Holy Apostles … and sent down the Holy Spirit on them. [2] 3. From there it is a day’s journey to Mount Tabor, where Christ’s Transfiguration took place. In the middle of the mountain is the cave, in which Melchisedek dwelt for forty years. Another place of pilgrimage lies a day’s journey from there in Nazareth, where the all-pure Mother of God received the Annunciation from the Archangel Gabriel. There is the well. Another well lies near to Nazareth, in which Joseph was cast because of the envy of his brothers. 4. Another town of Samaria is the so-called Sebak (Sebaste). Near it, three hours away, is the place where Christ conversed at the well with the Samaritan woman;2 and in that place itself King Herod cut off the head of the Prodromos. Near by is the village in which Judas, so-called Iscariot, was born. There is also another village called Capernaum, where Christ performed a miracle and caused the lame man to walk.3 5. Near there also lies the town of Jerusalem. It is triangular in shape and five miles in circumference. In one part is that place from which it will be that the 1   Babylas, patriarch of Antioch (237–53), died in prison during the persecution of Christians under the emperor Decius (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 6.39, in Loeb 2, p. 94). 2   John 4.5–30. 3   Mark 2.1–12.

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River of Fire issues forth. Not far from there is the place of Gethsemane, where there is the tomb of the Panagia (Virgin Mary); forty-eight steps lead down to it.4 In the middle of it there is water: there is an opening like a well, and some people say that one day the River of Fire will flow forth from there. 6. Near there lies the Mount of Olives, on which Christ prayed together with the disciples at the time of Judas’s betrayal; and there in the rock is the impression of the hands, from which issues a wonderful fragrance.5 Near by one finds the place of the Protomartyr, where Stephen was stoned. [3] 7. Near there, there is another place of pilgrimage associated with the Lord: there, where the feet of my Lord walked, where He mounted the colt, where He drew near to Jerusalem, and where also the children hurried towards Him with palm frondes and branches, there remain the impression of His feet in the rock. There is another place of pilgrimage where Mary the Mother of God was borne upwards into Heaven, leaving her girdle to the Apostle Thomas. Near by there is another place of veneration, where Christ spoke about the fall of Jerusalem and foretold that not one stone would remain upon another. 8. Near there lies Mount Galilee,6 where the wedding in Cana took place; there is the place where Christ turned water into wine. Near there lies the Mount of Olives, where the Ascension of Our Lord took place and where an impression of His most pure feet remains in the marble.7 There are two blocks of marble there, where confession is made. Here, so people say, St Pelagia asked Christ for forgiveness, so that if anyone draws near with devotion and makes confession at her tomb,8 he can have his sins remitted with full absolution. In that place something marvellous occurs: for the marble holds people back until they make a complete confession. Thereupon, on being released, they embrace the tomb of the holy one. 9. Not far from there one finds Bethany, the town of Lazarus, where Christ raised him on the fourth day from the grave;9 near by there is also the grave of Martha and Mary, the sister of Lazarus. 10. Near there is the place in which the unfortunate Judas hanged himself in his despair. Adjacent to it is the pool of Siloam, near which is the Potters’ Field, [4] which Tartarus bought with the blood money that was got back from the miserable Judas; that field was set aside for the burial of foreigners.10 Not far   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 287–306.   In the cave-church in Gethsemane: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 98–103. 6   Karm al-Sayyad, at the n end of the Mount of Olives, which was associated with the 4 5

place called Galilee mentioned in Matthew 28.7–10 and Mark 16.7 and had nothing to do with Cana of Galilee: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 124–5. 7   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 72–88. 8   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 342–6. 9   John 11.1–44. 10   Tartarus, referring to the part of the underworld deeper than Hades that was reserved for the worst sinners, including the murderers of Christ (cf. Lampe, Greek Patristic Lexicon,

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away is found the Valley of Tears, where the sinners will be judged and mourn with tears. 11. Near there is the place where Elijah performed the sacrifice and the priests of Baal were slain.11 Near there is the tomb of Rachel, where the infants were also slaughtered by Herod, to the number of 14,000. Not far away is the cave in which Christ was born, in Bethlehem. Near there also lies the house of Ephrathah, where the Prophet David was born. 12. Near there stands the Oak of Mamre, where the tomb of Abraham is.12 Near by is the place where Abraham came to perform the sacrifice, when he meant to slaughter his son Isaac. Near there is the monastery, in which the martyrdom of St George took place; and there are still the chains at which he suffered torture.13 13. There is another place where Christ blessed the bread and fed 5,000 people.14 Also near there is the tomb of the Prophet Samuel, at the spot where the Jews pelted him with stones.15 Near there is the Hill Country, the house of Zechariah, where John the Baptist was born.16 There also is the ‘Water of the Examination’, there where the cave is in which Elizabeth hid herself with the Prodromos during the massacre of the infants on the orders of King Herod.17 Not far from there is [5] the place where the mothers, the Bearer of God and Elizabeth, embraced each other. 14. Near there is the garden of King Agrippa, in which the Prophet Jeremiah sent his student Abimelech to pick figs. There is the cave in which Abimelech slept for seventy years.18 Near there is the place where Lot planted the three timbers, and p. 1376), evokes Gehenna or the Hinnom Valley in which the Potters’ Field lay; but here it appears to be an epithet applied to the chief priests and elders themselves, who conspired to put Christ to death: cf. Matthew 27.3–10; Acts 1.16–19. 11   Evidently a reference to the monastery of St Elias on the road to Bethlehem (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 224–6), though Elijah’s encounter with the priests of Baal occurred on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18.17–40). 12   Hebron. 13   Al-Khiḍr: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 295–6. 14   This is evidently out of place, as the Feeding of the Five Thousand took place in Galilee. 15   The traditional site of Samuel’s burial is Nabi Samwīl (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 85–94), though the reference to him being pelted with stones is obscure. 16   ‘Ayn Karim, identified as the city in the hill country (oreinē) of Luke 1.39. 17   According to the proto-gospel of James, St Elizabeth and her child, John the Baptist, evaded Herod’s soldiers by hiding in a cleft that opened in the mountain side (trans. Cullman, 387); this was later shown below the church of St John in the Woods (now the church of the Visitation), in ‘Ayn Karim (Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 38–47). 18   Ebed-melech was an Ethiopian official in the palace of King Zedekiah, who obtained the king’s permission to rescue Jeremiah from the pit into which he had been lowered at the request of the princes (Jeremiah 38.4–13). According to a Christian Apocalypse of ad 136, Jeremiah sent him to collect figs for the sick in Jerusalem; but he fell asleep under a tree for 66 years, from the time of the destruction of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar until the return

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the Sacred Wood, the Cross, grew; there is also the monastery, called the Cross; and the Georgians control it.19 15. In the middle of Jerusalem is found the Tomb of Our Lord Jesus Christ; and behold, there is a large church.20 In the entrance area of the church lies the place of the deposition of Christ, where Joseph and Nicodemus wrapped Him in a linen shroud; here seven lamps burn night and day. On the right-hand side of the church is the Place of the Skull (Calvary), where they crucified Him, which is called Pavement.21 Here, so they say, was the skull of Adam. There is a solid rock there and thirty-five steps lead up to the top of it. At its summit there is a socket, in which the Cross of Christ stood. The rock is split on the left side of the Cross; some say that there the blood of the Lord was shed to baptize and wash Adam, others that the rock was split by the voice of the crucified Christ saying, ‘Father, into thy hand I commend my spirit’, as stated in the gospel,22 and then it split. 16. Near there, there is another place of pilgrimage: the same block of marble to which they tied Christ and put on Him the Crown [6] of Thorns. Not far away is the holy place of veneration, where the soldiers cast lots for Christ’s clothes. Near there, there is another place of pilgrimage, where St Helena found the Cross; and one goes down thirty-five steps to it.23 Halfway down the steps on the left side there is solid hewn rock; and there you hear a sound of water and a clamour just like human voices, one and the other. There, so they say, flows the River of Fire. There are found four marble columns; they support the roof of the church, and at the time of Christ’s suffering water flows down them like a teardrop. There is another marble throne, on which St Helena sat when they dug to find the Cross.24 17. Another place of pilgrimage of the Lord is situated near by: here the feet of my Christ are impressed in the surface of the marble. There is another place of veneration, in which there was a prison where they kept Him. Another place is there, where they placed the Cross and the dead man came to life.25 A large marble slab is located on the floor of the church, white and full of holes; there, so they say, is the grave of the coppersmith, who made the nails that pierced Christ. 18. Near there is the Tomb of Christ. There is the stone on which the angels sat and looked at the tomb of Christ. Fourteen lamps hang down from above and of the exiled Jews from Babylon, awaking to find the figs as fresh as when he went to sleep (Harris, Rest of the Words of Baruch; Hirsch et al., ‘Ebed-melech’, in Jewish Encyclopedia). 19   The Monastery of the Cross: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 33–40. 20   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 6–72. 21   The Pavement (Lithostrotos) is more usually associated with the place in Pilate’s palace where he sat in judgement on Christ (John 19.13). 22   Luke 23.46. 23   The chapel of St Helena: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 44–5. 24   On the legend of the finding of the Cross and a translation of a fifth- to sixthcentury Syriac version of it, see Drijvers, Helena Augusta, pp. 165–80. 25   The True Cross was identified by bringing a dead man back to life: see preceding note.

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they burn night and day. The Tomb of Christ the Lord is enclosed round about. It is roofed with a dome and there are seven columns supporting it. Two doors open into the Tomb of the Lord, one being the main door and the other26 the one where the angel sat on the stone. The principal rotunda is the dome of the church; it is without a covering.27 The church, however, has over it three domes: one over the Tomb of Christ, one over the bēma [7] of the katholikon,28 and one in the centre of the church. From the Tomb of Christ to this point, which is also said to be the centre of the universe or the navel of the world, is forty paces. 19. Inside the church are seven denominations; each denomination celebrates the liturgy according to its own rite. Each confession has two lamps in the Tomb of Christ; and they burn continuously. 20. Coming from the church, one comes to the Holy Anastasis, a church where the Patriarchate is located.29 There is the place where Mary [Magdalene] met Christ and He said to her, ‘Do not touch me.’30 The Holy Anastasis has three bēmata: one of them that of Great James the Hierarch, another bēma that of Great George, and the middle one that of the Holy Anastasis. 21. Above the patriarchate is located the Hodegetria, a monastery.31 There is the place where the Mother of God stood near the crucifixion of the Lord. Near there are the houses of David, a castle with three towers.32 One of the towers is large; it has a window that faces east and has an iron balustrade. On the right side there is a large room with an iron gate; it is closed and does not open. There, so they say, will be set the thrones of Him who will judge every living thing. The building has a moat and a bridge; before the bridge is a well. 22. From there is the street by which one goes to Holy Sion; and on one side of the street are the Houses of Uriah.33 Near there is an ancient building and a rock that has the imprint of an elbow; and they say that there the Mother of God   The door between the antechamber and the actual tomb.   i.e. it is open to the sky. 28   i.e. the chancel of the main church, here probably meaning the semi-dome of the 26 27

main apse, as the dome over the katholikon is mentioned next. 29   The Holy Anastasis, or Resurrection, is normally the name given to the church itself, and in particular to the rotunda enclosing the Tomb of Christ; here, however, it appears to refer to the group of three chapels on the s side of the rotunda, which in the twelfth century were dedicated respectively (from n to s) to St John the Evangelist, the Holy Trinity and St James (see Fig. 3). 30   John 20.17. 31   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 314–16. 32   David’s Tower, or the Citadel of Jerusalem. This description confirms that the destruction carried out by al-Malik al-Nāṣir Dā’ūd in 1239 was not complete: see Johns, ‘The Citadel’, pp. 167–70. 33   Uriah the Hittite, whose wife, Bathsheba, King David saw bathing from the roof of his house and subsequently seduced, thereby fathering Solomon (2 Samuel 11.2–26; cf. Matthew 1.6).

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received the news of the Crucifixion; she swooned, fell to the rock and touched it with her elbow, and so the place was impressed.34 23. Not far from there is located Holy Sion; and here there is an altar [8] for the holy service to Christ.35 There is also the tomb of David, and behind the bema of the church is the place where Christ held the Mystical Supper. Near there is a house in which the disciples were gathered for fear of the Jews, in which Christ entered when the doors were closed. There are the houses of Zebedee. Near there is located the cell, in which the all-pure Mother of God fell asleep and the place where Christ stood and took her spirit. Near there is the cell of St John the Theologian. There is a church, which is called Christos Philanthropos; it is in the possession of the Armenians.36 At that place were the houses of the High Priest. There is an olive tree and a light burning, where the denial of Peter occurred. There stands part of the stone which the Jews rolled and cast before the Tomb of Christ.37 Another place of pilgrimage came about when the Apostles were taking the body of the Mother of God to the tomb: the Jews wanted to put it to the test and the divine power cut off the hand of one who wanted to approach the body and blinded the others.38 24. Near there is the Temple in which Christ taught. There one finds the Holy of Holies.39 Not far from there are the gates through which Christ entered Jerusalem, where the children met Him with palm frondes and branches. Now they are closed with iron gates.40 25. Near there is the house of Joachim and Anne and their tomb.41 Near there is the Sheep-pool, which has five porticoes. Not far from there, besides, is [9] the Prætorium of Pilate, where Christ taught holy scripture in a human manner. Near there is the House of Caiaphas, now destroyed, and the dung heap where the Holy Cross was buried in the place where it was found by St Helena.42 34   This event is usually associated with the church of St Mary of the Spasm, which stood on the Way of the Cross at the point it meets Tarīq al-Wād, rather than on the street to Mount Sion: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 319–22. 35   On the sites associated with the former church of Mount Sion, see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 261–87. 36   Church of St Saviour: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 365–72. 37   According to Philip of Savona [14.3], this had been removed from the Holy Sepulchre after the Khwarizmian sack of Jerusalem in 1244; this appears to be the earliest mention of it. 38   The story of the Jew called Jephonias, who attempted to touch the bier of the Virgin Mary as the Apostles were carrying it from Mount Sion for burial in Gethsemane, occurs in the earliest traditions of the Dormition from the fifth century onwards: see Shoemaker, Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition, pp. 35–8, 366–8; Elliott, Apocryphal Jesus, pp. 43–4 39   The Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhra). 40   The Golden Gate (Bāb al-Raḥma): see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 103–9. 41   St Anne’s church: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 142–56. 42   Probably Birkat Banī Isrā’īl, on the n side of the Ḥaram al-Sharīf.

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26. On the way from Jerusalem to Larnax is the monastery of St Arsenius; it is yet another monastery of the same holy man.43 From there one goes to Jericho, which Joshua, the son of Nun, destroyed. Near there is the mountain where Jesus fasted for forty days.44 And down below is the monastery of St Gerasimus, and the monastery of the Prodromos near the Jordan, in which Christ was baptized.45 Across [the river] is the place where the Prodromos spent time in the valley. Near there is Hermēneim, the mountain where Elijah ascended to the sky in a fiery chariot.46 Near it are Sodom and Gomorrah, seven cities which God submerged because of the evil deeds of the people living in them. The water that covers them is salty and it stinks. 27. Not far from there is a high mountain, and at the foot of the mountain flows water. There, so it is said, is the tomb of Moses,47 and the Jews come there and make sacrifice. There is a stone there that has the form of a woman, and people say that it is Lot’s wife, who was turned to stone when she turned round.48 28. Not far from there, there is another town called Lydda, in which the sublime George suffered martyrdom. Near there is Mount Carmel. In the vicinity there is another town, Gaza by name, in which Samson lived.49 29. The way from there as far as Raythou50 takes fifteen days. [10] There is the Red Sea; there is there a marker, where the great Moses caused the children of Israel to cross over. From Raythou to Sinai is also a journey of fifteen days. Halfway along the route one finds the stone which Moses set on the wagon, and

43   St Arsenius the Great (c.350–445) was an ascetic who settled in the Wādī al-Naṭrūn, between Cairo and Alexandria, around 400. It is possible, therefore, that this sentence was interpolated from a section dealing with Egypt, as Greek Anon ii [17.10] refers to a monastery of St Arsenius two days from Cairo. Alternatively the writer may have been thinking of the monastery of St Euthymius, between Jerusalem and Jericho. In any case, Larnax, which can also mean a box or coffin, remains unidentified. 44   Jabal al-Qurunṭul. 45   See Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 197–202 and 2, pp. 240–44. 46   According to 2 Kings 2.11–12, Elijah was taken up from the e side of the Jordan. One tradition of Byzantine biblical exegesis, however, identified the Hermon (Hermōnieim) of Psalms 42.6 and 89.12 (Septuagint 41.7 and 88.13), as a hillock near the Place of Baptism on the w bank of the Jordan (Theodosius, de Situ Terrae Sanctae 20, ed. Geyer, in CCSL 175, p. 122 (Armona); Piacenza Pilgrim, Itinerarium 9, ed. Geyer, in CCSL 175, pp. 133–4; cf. Abel, Géographie 1, pp. 357–8; Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims, p. 163). The twelfthcentury Orthodox pilgrims Abbot Daniel (ch. 28, trans. Ryan, p. 136) and John Phocas (ch. 23, ed. Allatius, in PG 133, col. 952) also followed this tradition. 47   According to Deuteronomy 34.5–6, the precise location of Moses’ tomb was not known. 48   Genesis 19.26 49   This heavily abbreviated chapter is quite misleading, as the Dead Sea, Lydda, Carmel and Gaza are widely separated from one another. 50   Al-Ṭūr, in Sinai on the Gulf of Suez.

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twelve springs of water came forth.51 Immediately comes Sinai, where the body of St Catherine is to be found;52 in the centre of the monastery, in the courtyard, is the place where the Hebrews melted down their possessions and out came the head of a cow.53 Above the monastery rises the mountain summit, on which Christ spoke with Moses; there is there a mark where Moses saw God and fell to the ground in fear. There he saw the bush that was not consumed by fire and the wood from which the rod of Moses came. 30. From there as far as Egypt is a journey of nine days; here one finds the seat of the patriarch of Alexandria54 and the residence of the sultan.55 31. From Adam until the Flood was 2,242 years, and from the Flood to the Tower of Nimrod 525 years; from the Tower of Nimrod to the circumcision of Abram was 425 years, from the circumcision of Abram to Abraham 76 years, from Abraham to Moses 430 years, from Moses to the building of the Lord’s Temple 757 years, from the building of the Lord’s Temple to the Captivity 425 years, from the Captivity [to Alexander 318 years, from] Alexander to Christ 303 years, from Christ to Constantine the Great [318 years,56 from Constantine the Great] to Theophilus in the fifth indiction57 530 years, from Theophilus to John, the pious emperor,58 and his son, the emperor Laskaris,59 413 years; altogether 6,349 years, making a total of 6,762.60

  On the twelve springs at Elim, see Exodus 15.23–7; Numbers 33.9. The reference to putting the stone on a wagon is obscure. 52   On the monastery see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 49–63. 53   They melted down their gold ear-rings to make the golden calf: Exodus 32.1–6. 54   The Greek Orthodox (Malkite) patriarch, Gregory I (1243–63). 55   The second of the Mamluk sultans, al-Mu‘izz ‘Izz al-Dīn ‘Alī (1250–57). 56   The battle of the Milvian Bridge, when Constantine defeated Maxentius in ad 312. 57   Theophilus ruled jointly with Michael II from 821 to 829, and then on his own until his death in 842 (Dolger, Regesten 1, p. 49). The 5th indiction is more likely to have been 826–27, while Patriarch Nicephorus was still living (see n.60 below), than 841–42, the year of Theophilus’ death. 58   John III Doukas Vatatzes, emperor of Nicæa from 1222 until 30 October 1254 (Dolger, Regesten 3, p. 8). 59   Theodore II Doukas Laskaris, who ruled jointly with John III from c.1241 until 1254, and then on his own until 1258 (Dolger, Regesten 3, p. 8). 60   am 6762/ad 1253–54. From Adam to Theophilus, the chronology set out here follows that given in the Chronographicon Syntomon attributed to Nicephorus, patriarch of Constantinople (806–15, d. 828): ed. de Boor, p. 102; cf. Papadopoulos-Keramaus, p. iii. 51

9

Matthew Paris: Itinerary from London to Jerusalem (1250–59) (texts from the part of the map representing the Holy Land) 1 b. This land is far to the north. Here live the nine tribes that King Alexander enclosed: Gog and Magog. From here came those peoples that are called Tartars. It is said that the mountains have so many of them, albeit that they are all of hard rock, chiselled and cut by force, that having come out they have conquered, and have conquered and destroyed many great lands, notably India.1

c. The barrier of the Caspian Mountains. Here live the Jews, whom God enclosed by the prayer of King Alexander, who will come out before the day of judgement and make a great slaughter of all kinds of people. They are enclosed in the great high mountains and cannot come out. – It is … from Jerusalem. But it is very far to the north-east from Acre and Jerusalem.

A: as B. D: Here by the prayer of King Alexander God enclosed the Jews, who will come out

before the day of judgement and make great slaughter of people, as much as it pleases God. The mountains are high and hard. – The Caspian Mountains, inaccessible and uncrossable.

2 b. Towards these parts, that is to say to the north from Jerusalem at a distance of twenty days’ journey, is Armenia, which is Christian, where Noah’s Ark is, which still exists. There lived Joseph Carcaphila,2 who saw where Our Lord

c. Towards these parts, that is to say to the north from Jerusalem at a distance of twenty days’ journey, is Armenia, which is Christian, where Noah’s Ark rested after the flood, and it is still stuck in the mountains in the wilderness. –

  For discussion of these legends, see Anderson, Alexander’s Gate.   Joseph of Arimathea.

1 2

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was led to be crucified; Ananias,3 who baptized St Paul, baptized him.4

The Ark where none can approach on account of the desert and the vermin. – And know well that this land borders with India. – Armenia. – Nineveh the Great. – Jonah. Crocodile.

A adds at the start: In Armenia is Noah’s Ark. D: The ark and very high mountains of

Armenia.

3 b:

c. Abana (Albana) Pharpar (Farfar). Damascus. This city with its appurtenances, that is to say the orchards and gardens, is worth five hundred pounds of silver to the lord of the city. All the water that comes there is diverted and irrigates the orchards and gardens. There Adam, our first ancestor, was created and cultivated and worked the land.

Abana (Albana). Pharpar (Farfar).5 Damascus. Our Lady of Sardenay. – The towers of Damascus. – The gate of St Paul. – It is said that man was created here; here he cultivated the land.

A: Abana (Albana). Pharpar (Farfar). – Damascus. The city of the Damascenes is worth each day to its lord three hundred pounds of silver. This city with its appurtenances is worth each day to the lord of the city five hundred pounds sterling. – The road from Damascus: five days’ journey. D: Our Lady of Sardenay. Barada (Albana) and Pharpar (Farfar), the river. From … here St Paul was converted …

4 b. Mount Lebanon. – Jor. Dan. – River Jordan. – The Dead Sea. – Mount Tabor. – Mount of Olives. – Bethlehem. – Cairo: a branch of the Nile and crocodiles.

c. Lebanon. – Jor. Dan. – The Dead Sea. – Mount Tabor. – Nazareth. – Jericho. – Bethlehem. – The town of Rabit.6 – Cairo.

  Acts 9.10–19.   Matthew’s information on Armenia was evidently derived from an Armenian

3 4

archbishop who visited St Albans in 1252, as he records in his Chronica Majora (in RS 57.3, pp. 161–4 and 57.5, pp. 340–41). 5   The two rivers of Damascus. 6   Probably Karak, the principal Ayyubid administrative and military centre in Transjordan until it fell to the Mamluk Sultan Baybars in 1263 (Milwright, Fortress of the

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B: also gives distances of three leagues between [Nazareth], which is marked but unnamed, and Bethlehem, and between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. a: lacks distances and the words after Cairo, and adds Nazareth between Mount Tabor and Mount of Olives. d: this part missing.

5 b. Here live the best merchants, who before the time of Muḥammad worshipped Mercury, the lord of merchants.

c. Here there are many rich merchants, and the people of these parts are rich in gold, silver, precious stones, silk, spices, cattle, mules, camels and fast horses, which can endure much work, and beasts of burden more than stallions. They have corn, which comes from elsewhere, little wine, and no sea fish at all. They have plenty of oil, almonds, figs and sugar: from that they make their drinks. They have as many wives as they can support. – Camel. – Buffalo. – Mule.

A as B. D: Here reside and live many rich merchants who live between Orientals and

Occidentals. They are rich in gold and silver, precious stones and silk cloth and spices, camels, cattle, mules and asses and fast horses, which can endure much hardship, and the beasts of burden are more rapid than stallions. They have corn, but it comes from elsewhere, and they have enough oil, little wine, and no fish; they make their drinks from sugar and spices. They are slaves to their rulers. They are vile lechers and they have as many wives as they can support. On account of that, women hate the Muhammadan law.

Raven, pp. 69–72). William of Tyre states that this was the metropolis of Arabia Secunda and was formerly called Raba, and later Petra of the Desert (Chronicon, 15.21, ed. Huygens, pp. 703–4, cf. 20.26, p. 950). John of Ibelin clarifies this statement a little by claiming that the metropolitan see of Babet, ‘which the Greeks call Philadelphia’, was translated by King Amalric to Crac, which was also called Petra of the Desert (Livre 226, ed. Edbury, p. 591). In fact, both writers confuse Rabbat Moab (Areopolis or Rabbah, near Karak) with Rabbat Ammon (Philadelphia, modern ‘Ammān). In the fifth and early sixth century, the metropolitan see of Palæstina III was at Petra (Wādī Mūsa) (Abel, Géographie 2, p. 201); but it seems to have been transferred by the later sixth century to Areopolis (Rabbat Moab), which is where it is placed in a list of dioceses which William of Tyre even copied into his own chronicle (in RHC Occ 1, p. 1137; cf. Notitia, in Tobler and Molinier, Itinera, p. 340).

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6 b. All

this land, which is large and rich, is in the lordship of the Saracens; and among the other powers there lives there the Old Man of the Mountain, that is to say the ruler of the Assassins, who carry knives and kill those whom they are commanded to by their ruler. And that obedience, they say, will save them. – Ṣafad.

c. All this land, which is large and rich, is in the lordship of the Saracens; and among the other powers there lives there the Old Man of the Mountain, that is to say the ruler of the High Assassins, who carry knives and kill those whom they are commanded to by their ruler. And that obedience, they say, will save them. They are capable of all kind of outrageous lies, spells (cuntementz) and evil deeds. In the land of the pagans (en paenime) there is a caliph who lives in Mecca (Meche) and another great prelate of his here in Baghdad (Baudas).7 There is disagreement between these two and the third, who is caliph of Egypt.8 Now some of the Saracens are circumcised and the others are not. In the land of the Saracens there are many high sultans: of Persia, of Cairo (Babel[oine]), of Aleppo, of Ḥimṣ (La Chamaille), of Damascus.

A: as B, but lacking will save them. D: the caption reads simply Ṣafad, and is merged with section 7.

7 b. Here, but far to the north, lives the Old Man of the Mountain.

c. The dwelling of the Old Man of the Mountain, where he has his children raised and taught.

A: as B. D: Land of the pagans. – Here lives the Old Man of the Mountain. Here lives the Old Man of the Mountain, who is lord of the High Assassins, knifemen.

  The last Abbasid caliph of Baghdad, al-Musta‘ṣim (1242–58), who was killed when the Mongols took the city in 1258 (Bosworth, Islamic Dynasties, pp. 8–10). 8   Probably a reference to the coming to power of the Mamluks in Egypt in 1250 at the expense of the Ayyubids, who held on to Syria and Palestine until 1260 (see Holt, Age of the Crusades, pp. 82–6). 7

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8 b. Here abound camels, buffalo, mules and donkeys, which the merchants use, crossing between the Easterners and the Westerners.

c. This land is inhabited by Bedouin and mountain villagers, who turn like the reeds in the wind, for when the Christians are victorious, they take sides with the Christians and make a great semblance of love and loyalty to them; and when the Saracens have the upper hand, then they go after the Christians, and very badly, for they know all their secrets and make them known. But they cannot take flight: they are known by everyone and for that reason they are held both on one hand and the other as people of low condition and serfs.

A: as B. D: merged, like C, with section 5.

9 b.

c. All these parts, which are now in subjection to the Saracens, were formerly Christian through the preaching of St John the Evangelist and the other Apostles, who knew all wisdom and all languages and, what was more, received grace from the Holy Spirit. But because of the contagion of Muḥammad, who taught no honesty nor strictness of virtue, but only carnal delights that are pleasing to the body, all that great land is now corrupted and appropriated by the Devil as a pasture is by the shepherds.

All these parts, which are now in subjection to the Saracens, were formerly all Christian through the preaching of St John the Evangelist and the other Apostles and disciples of God. But then, through the contagion of Muḥammad, who will teach no honesty nor strictness of virtue, but only carnal delights and that which is pleasing to the body, it is now all corrupted and pasture to the Devil.

A: as B. D: lacking.

10 b. This land is called Holy Land and Promised Land, for Our Lord was

c. The part corresponding with merged with section 11.

b

is

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born there and suffered death there to redeem all the world that was lost. David and Solomon and the other great ancient king whom God [loved] so much9 were kings of this land. In this land God performed the great cures and miracles and preached and called the Apostles. For that reason it is the worthiest land that is. – Arsūf (Arsur).

c. There are many marvels in the Holy Land, of which the … there are no mention. In Sardenay, which is near Damascus, there is a panel three foot [wide] and four foot long, and less wide than tall. On it is a painted image of Our Lady and her Son in the Greek manner, from which oil flows; and when it is stopped it becomes gum or flesh. This oil is holy and medicinal. On the other hand there is a great field where one finds some stones which resemble chickpeas. The reason is that when Our Lord lived on earth and saw a villager sowing He asked him saying: ‘Good man, what are you sowing?’ And the latter replied mockingly, ‘Stones.’ And Our Lord said, ‘And stones may they be!’ And all the chickpeas that the villager had sown and those that he had still to sow became chickpeas, which are a kind of pea; the colour and appearance stayed the same, but they had the hardness of stone.10 – Arsūf (Arsur).

A: as B. D lacks this section.

  Apparently a reference to Abraham, ‘the friend of God’, though he was not a king (James 2.22–4; cf. 2 Chron. 20.7; Isaiah 41.8). 10   The story makes no sense in this version: in other accounts, such as those related by Philip of Savona [14.7] and Riccoldo of Monte Croce [15.2], the chickpeas turned into the stones that could still be seen there. The Field of Chickpeas lay between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. 9

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11 b. The city of Jerusalem, the most worthy city of all cities. – Mount Sion. – The valley of Jehoshaphat, where the tomb of the blessed Virgin is. – Siloam. – The Temple of Solom[on]. – The Sepulchre. – The Temple of the Lord.

c. Jerusalem, worthiest of all cities, first because in it the Lord was delivered up to death, then because it is at the centre of the world, and again because in the beginning it was [His] dwelling. – The valley of Jehoshaphat, where the tomb of the blessed Virgin is. – The Temple of Solomon. – The Sepulchre. – The Temple of the Lord. Jerusalem is the worthiest city and place in the world, for it is the capital of the land of Our Lord, where He was willing to be born and suffer death to save us all. And there is the centre of the world, as the prophet David and many others had foretold that there would be born the Saviour. David, the great king and a joy to God, and his son Solomon, who was endowed with so much wisdom, were kings of it and many others of great renown, and God lived there and preached and performed the great miracles, and He still normally calls it in the new law His own city.

This city, which is called Jerusalem, is the worthiest city that is, in as much as many call Jerusalem a [chief city] of the land. There God suffered death and there is the centre of the world.

A: as B. D lacks this section.

12 c. This is the tree of obedience, so called because when Our Lady St Mary fled to Egypt with her Child and Joseph, it came about that the lady had a desire to eat some fruit. The tree was tall and the fruit at the top. The Child made a sign to the tree and its fruit, and the tree with all its fruit inclined itself and bent down as if it was gently offering and giving its fruit to her; and then it stood up again and having returned to

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its original state the tree inclined itself to her, as if it was greeting her, and so it remained curved.11 Al-Manṣūra (La Masceir) – Alexandria on sea. – The way from Jaffa (Iaphes) to Alexandria.

b. Al-Manṣūra

(La Masceir) – A branch of river. – Gaza (Gazeres). – This is the way to go from Gaza to Cairo (Babiloine) through the middle of the Desert (la Berrie). – Alexandria, which is situated on the sea. – The way from Damietta to Alexandria. – Where the river is, there live forty.

A omits last sentence. D lacks this section.

13 b.

c. The Black Mountain. – Antioch. This is the renowned city of Antioch, which Antiochus founded in former times. St Peter converted it and was bishop there. It was called Cartaphilis12 because it was the first great city that turned to Jesus Christ. And there is a patriarch of the city and a prince.

House. – Antioch, monastery of the Black Mountain. – This city, which is of great renown, is towards the northnorth-east of Acre, and there is there a patriarch and a prince; and Acre is at […] days’ journey.

A lacks at the beginning: House. D: The abbey of the Black Mountain. – Antioch. – … at

one … towards Antioch.

14 b. This expanse extends a lot to the north before one goes up north to Antioch. And there are on the coast

c. This expanse continues a very long way to the north before one goes up north to Antioch. And on the coast

11   This story appears in an eighth-century apocryphal gospel and in the ‘Palm’ traditions associated with the Dormition of the Virgin (Elliott, Apocryphal Jesus, pp. 24–5; Shoemaker, Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition, pp. 292–5); it also appears in a pilgrim guide incorporated into the Rothelin version of the Continuation of William of Tyre’s Chronicle c.1261 (ch. 11, in RHC Occ 2, pp. 514–15, trans. Shirley, Crusader Syria, pp. 28–9). 12   Perhaps κάρτα φίλη, ‘loved beyond measure.’

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many monuments, cities, towns and castles beforehand; but the best is Sur, which is called Tyre (Tyrus), and then Saete, which is Sidon (Sydon). – The town of Tyre (S[u]r).

205

there are many renowned cities, towns and castles, such as Beirut (Baruth) and many others that could be neither mentioned, nor yet written, nor indicated; but the most renowned and strongest city is Sur, which is called in Latin Tyrus, and then there is another that is called Sidon (Sydon), which is Saete. And let everyone know that Our Lord, when He was living on earth, often repaired to these parts, as one reads in the gospel. Tyre is of very great strength, as it is mostly surrounded by sea. – Sur, Tyrus. – Saete, which in Latin is called Sydon.

A lacks last phrase: The town of Tyre. D lacks this section.

15 b. The town of Acre. In Latin this city is called Tolomaïda and Achon and Acaron. – The house of the knights of the church of St Lazarus, who are pre-eminent in battle. – This is the suburb that is called Montmusard (Munt Musard); it is inhabited for the most part by English. – The house of the Hospital of St John. – The gate facing St Nicolas. – The cemetery of St Nicolas, where the dead are buried. – The Accursed Tower. – The king’s castle of Acre. – The hospital of the Germans. – The gate facing the mill of Da‘uk (Dokes): the road to the city and land of Damascus. – The hospital of the Germans. – Two days’ journey from here to Jaffa (Iafes). – The house of the constable. – The tower of the Genoese. – The tower of the Pisans.

c. The city of Acre. – The house of the knights of St Lazarus. – This is the suburb that is called Montmusard (Munt Musard); it is inhabited for the most part by English. – The house of St Thomas the Mar[tyr]. – The house of the Hospital. – The gate facing St Nicolas. – The cemetery of St Nicolas, where the dead are buried. – Tombs. – The Accursed Tower. – The king’s castle of Acre. – This is the gate facing the mill of Da‘uk (Dokes) – The hospital of the Germans: two days’ journey from here to Jaffa (Iaphe). – The house of the constable. – The house of the patriarch. – The Chain.13 – The Temple. – The tower of the Genoese. – The tower of the Ge[noese].

13   La chaene, the customs house near the harbour and the name given to the surrounding quarter.

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This city that now is called Acre was formerly called Ptolomaïs (Tholomaïda); it is a hope and refuge to all Christians who go to the Holy Land and are residents there, on account of the help that it has from the sea; this comes there from all Europe and from all the islands that are in the sea and are Christian. – The route by sea. – The Temple.

This city that now is called Acre was formerly called Ptolomaïs (Tholomaïda); it is the refuge of the Christians in the Holy Land on account of the sea that it has to the west, because there the fleet comes with reinforcements of men, food and arms. And all those who live there take great solace from the islands that are in the sea. And people from all the nations of Christendom repair there; wherefore Saracens go there for their merchandise and make much of their profit there, as do many other peoples of different religions, who receive large amounts of money from all Christendom. As a result the city is very much richer from it and renowned. This is worth fifty thousand pounds of silver to its lord each year. This was found out by Earl Richard14 from the Templars and Hospitallers.

This town is worth fifty thousand pounds of silver to its lord each year.

A lacks: The route by sea. – The Temple. D: The city of [Acre]. – … of Montmusard. – The house of the knights of St Lazarus. – This suburb is inhabited for the very most part by English. – The gate facing St Nicolas. – The cemetery of St Nicolas where lie the dead. – Charnel pit. – The Accursed Tower. – The king’s castle of Acre. – This is the road to the east from Acre to Damascus; that is to say …

16 B. Ḥayfā (Kaifas). – Pilgrims’ Castle. – Cæsarea. – Jaffa (Iafes): the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem. – Ascalon (Escaloine). – al-Dārūm (Le Darun) – Damietta.

C. Ḥayfā (Kaifas). – Pilgrims’ Castle. – Cæsarea. – Jaffa (Iaphes). – Ascalon (Ascaloinne). – al-Dārūm (Le Darun) – Damietta, which [is] in the land of Egypt.

A as B. D lacks this section.

14   Richard, earl of Cornwall, brother of Henry III of England, who was in the Holy Land from October 1240 to May 1241.

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17 b. This land, which is to the right, that is to say to the south, and is called Africa and is the third part of the world, takes in much of India and Mauretania, that is Ethiopia, Egypt, Barbary, Bujaya (Bugie) and all the land of the Mumelin ‘amīr;15 it comprises a large expanse of land from east to west, for its dimension is long.

c. This land, which is to the right, that is to say to the south, and is called Africa and is the third part of the world, takes in much of India, Mauretania, Egypt, Barbary, Bujaya (Bugie), Alexandria and Ethiopia, where there are savage monstrous people, and all the land of the Murmelin ‘amīr, who is called Miramumelin,17 and the land of Morocco, which is his; it comprises a large expanse of land from east to west, but not nearly as much in breadth.

It supports and contains various bad tribes and Saracens, without law, faith or peace; and they are very hotheaded and unbalanced. And each tribe conforms to a territory; and in those places people live where the sun passes them twice a year,16 so that they are burnt, black and ugly and live in underground caves by day and work on cultivating their lands at night. They are pleasure-seeking, one and all, and lascivious, quarrelsome and warlike, not at all through knightly prowess but through the use of poisoned darts, empoisonings and Greek fire. And they sow traps and are mad as lunatics in tricking everyone else. They do not think of any other paradise beyond the delights of this world. They have little corn, for the land cannot grow or sustain greenery. They have little

It supports and contains various bad tribes and Saracens, without law, faith or peace, most of whom live in underground caves on account of the heat, for the sun is everyday almost directly above them, and is always on high. And the sun passes them twice a year, so that they are desiccated, burnt, black and ugly. They work by night and shelter and rest by day. They are pleasure-seeking, lascivious, quarrelsome and warlike, not at all through knightly prowess but through the use of poisoned darts, poisons and Greek fire. And they sow traps and are false as lunatics in tricking everyone else. They do not think of any other paradise beyond the delights of this world. They have little corn, for the land cannot [grow] or sustain greenery. They have little wine, because the vine

  ‘Abd al-Mu’min (1130–63) was the first of the Almohad caliphs (or alMuwaḍḍidūn), who ruled Spain and North Africa from their new capital of Marrakesh until 1269 (Bosworth, Islamic Dynasties, pp. 30–31). The caliph in Matthew’s day was Abū Ḥafs ‘Umar al-Murtaḍā (1248–66). 16   Around the equator the sun is directly overhead twice a year. 17   James of Vitry translates mirammomelin as ‘King of the believers’ (ch. 9, ed. Donnadieu, p. 144). 15

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fish, either from the sea or from fresh water, for the sea is far away and it is as hot as bath water. They have little iron and little timber. They live mostly from spices and the meat of the animals that are there: elephants, cattle, camels, mules and asses there are aplenty, horses few. They prefer to ride the beasts of burden that they call farises18 than stallions. They have much silk, and they dress in silk, and they are housed badly. They have many goats and bukesteins, which pasture in the mountains. They have few sheep and pelts. They are traders of gold and precious stones.

cannot survive. They have no fish from sea or river: because of the heat fish cannot live there. They live from spices and meat, and from sugared waters and preserves made from spices.

A: as B. D lacks this section.

18   In Arabic fāris (pl. fursān, fawāris) means a horseman or knight. The word farise seems more likely to be a rendering of faras (pl. afrās), meaning a horse of either sex (also a knight on a chessboard).

10

The Ways and Pilgrimages of the Holy Land (1244–65) Text b (1244–63)

Text a (1261–65)

1

1 These are the ways that should correctly lead from Acre to Jerusalem and the pilgrimages of the saints and the places that are on the right road.

1. Whoever wants to go to Jerusalem correctly must first go from Acre to Ḥayfā (Caïphas). On the road to the left is the mountain of St Margaret of Carmel, which is four leagues from Acre. On one summit of the mountain is Franche vile,1 where St Denys was born in a small church, in a small cave towards the bottom. In that cave the place is visible as a crib cut in the rock, and behind that church, to the right, is the fountain that Denys found and made with his own hands.2 And know that this is one of the healthiest places for the body of man in all the mountain; and then one goes to a little village3 near there, a little further down.

1. Whoever wants to go to Jerusalem will see how to here, as it is set out in this document: First of all one goes from Acre to Ḥayfā (Cayphas), a journey of four leagues; also after that the mountain of the Carmel, in the place where my lord St Denys is, that is to say there where he was born in a town called Ffranche ville, where there is a chapel. Beneath the altar there is a precious stone. A stone’s throw away is the fountain of my lord St Denys, which he found and made with his own hands. And know that that is a very beautiful [180] place and is the healthiest place in all the mountain for the heart of man.

2. On the other high summit of that mountain is an abbey of Greeks, black

2. On this same mountain is the abbey of my lady St Margaret, which belongs

1   Literally ‘Freetown’, probably to be identified with Khirbat Rushmiyya: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 205–6. 2   According to legend, Pope Denys, or Dionysius (ad 259–68), had been a hermit on Mount Carmel: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 205–6. 3   casalet, may mean a small village or house.

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monks, where St Margaret performed many miracles and there are there some good sanctuaries.4 On the way down from that abbey, towards the bottom, is a chapel in the cave of St Elias the Prophet,5 where he performed many miracles; and in the chapel is a good spring of cold water, which he found and made. At the bottom, to [190] the left is a village called Capernaum.6 Near by and a little further up is Anne,7 a village where the nails with which Jesus Christ was nailed to the Cross were forged; and the place may still be seen. Further down on the sea is Ḥayfā, which formerly used to be very strong, before the city of Acre was built; for in ancient times it used to have as much renown as Acre; for formerly Acre used to be a village and Ḥayfā was the town. And know that Acre is not in the Promised Land as Ḥayfā is, for a river defines the Holy Land between Acre and Ḥayfā; it is called the river of Ḥayfā8 and rises from a spring, which flows below the Carmont9 and comes beneath the mountain of St Margaret, where it is named the Palm Grove (la Palmére), and runs into the sea and thus divides the Promised Land. And it is as far from Acre to Ḥayfā as from Acre to the mountain. And afterwards one goes from Ḥayfā to Pilgrims’ Castle (Chastel Pelrin), which is three leagues away and belongs to the Temple.10     6   7   8   9  

to [Greek] monks, where there is also a beautiful place. And below this abbey on the slope is the place where St Elias lived, where there is a very beautiful chapel in the rock. After this abbey of St Margaret, on the side of this same mountain there is a very beautiful and delightful place in which live the Latin hermits, who are called the friars of the Carmel; there, there is a very beautiful little church of Our Lady. And throughout the whole of that place there is a great abundance of good waters, which issue from the rock of the mountain; from the abbey of the Greeks to the hermits is a league-and-a-half. Afterwards there is a place below in the plain above the sea, between St Margaret and the friars of the Carmel, which is called Anne. There, so it is said, were made the nails with which Our Lord was nailed; and the place where they were forged may still be seen. After that mountain of the Carmel in the direction of the Latin hermits on the flank facing Pilgrims’ Castle (Chastieu Pelerin) there is a place called St John of Tīra (Saint Iehan de Tire), where there is a church of the Greeks, where St John performed many fine miracles. After that place towards Pilgrims’ Castle there is a town called Capharnaüm, where were made the pieces of silver for which Our Lord was sold.

On St Margaret’s abbey, see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 244–8. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 226–9. Capharnaüm, probably Khirbat al-Kanīsa. Bi’r Bayt Hanna, or Bi’r Bayt Ḥanūn. Identifiable as the Kishon, or Nahr al-Mukatta. Probably Caymont (Tall Qaymūn, Tel Yoqne’am), rather than Carmel. 10   See Johns, Pilgrims’ Castle; Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 69–80; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 22–3. 4 5

The Ways and Pilgrimages of the Holy Land

Facing that castle is a holy place, which is called St John of Tīra (Seynt Iohan de Tyr), and there is an abbey of Greek monks,11 where there are good sanctuaries and St John the Baptist performed many miracles. Above that place high up on the mountain to the left is a beautiful and holy place, where there is a hermitage of Latin hermits, who are called the friars of Carmel, and there is a church of Our Lady;12 and there are many good running springs and many good flowering herbs. From Pilgrims’ Castle one goes to Cæsarea (Sesarie); the city is situated on the sea, where one finds on the right-hand side the saltings of the Hospital of St John. And then on the sea one finds Pan perdu, a tower of St Lazarus.13 On the other hand, inland to the left, is a church of Our Lady of the Marsh,14 and there many people come on pilgrimage from Cæsarea and from Pilgrims’ Castle and from the country. In that marsh are many crocodiles, ferocious beasts, which a rich man who was in Cæsarea put there; and he had them fed, for he wanted them to eat his brother because of a dispute that there was between them, and for that reason he [191] had them brought from Egypt. And one day he brought his brother to

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From Ḥayfā to Pilgrims’ Castle is three leagues. This castle stands on the sea and belonged to the house of the Temple; and there lies my lady St Euphemia, virgin and martyr.15

From Pilgrims’ Castle to the city of Cæsarea (Cezaire) is five leagues; that city is on the sea and belongs to a baron of the kingdom.16

  moygnes gris: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 369–72.   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 249–57. 13   The village of Pain Perdu belonged to the order of St Lazarus, but remains 11

12

unidentified: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 152–3. 14   Also unidentified: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 257–8. 15   According to Philip of Savona [14], the relics came from Chalcedon. They were quite possibly removed after the fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade in 1204 (cf. Johns, Guide to ‘Atlit, p. 55); in 1291 they were taken to Nicosia and eventually passed to the Hospitallers (Barber, New Knighthood, pp. 199–200). 16   Probably John Laleman, the last lord of Cæsarea to be recorded before the town and castle fell to Baybars on 5 March 1265.

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bathe, in order to kill him covertly. And his brother was cleverer than he: he made him go down first and the beasts that he had raised immediately dragged him to the deep, so that he was never found again; and the plot was seen through by those who were complicit, and thus the traitor was lost and his brother saved. From that place beside Cæsarea, at a place a little way outside the walls is the tomb of St Cornelius, whom St Peter baptized, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles,17 and he was archbishop of that city. A little further on there is a piece of marble, purple in colour, which is called the Table of Our Lord, which the Saracens cut in half. Beside that table are two other large pieces of marble, [which are] thick and quite round at the bottom and long and thin at the top and are called the Candlesticks of Our Lord,18 and a spring that is walled all around and very high. On the other hand outside the city to the right a little above the sea is a chapel of St Mary Magdalene, which is holy and efficacious, and they say that there she did her penance.19

Outside the walls of that city is a chapel where St Cornelius lies, he whom St Peter baptized and who after my lord St Peter was archbishop of that city. And near that chapel there is a very beautiful stone of marble, big and [181] long, which is called the Table of Our Lord. Similarly, there are two other stones of marble like that of the table which are quite round, thick at the bottom and long and pointed at the top, which are called the Candlesticks of Our Lord.20 Afterwards, on the left, near a town that is called Pan perdu, there is a chapel of Our Lady, which stands above the marsh, |where there is a very holy place; in that marsh there are many crocodiles.21

  Acts 10.1–48.   These were probably the metae marking the ends of the spina of the Roman

17

18

circus, which by this time was outside the city walls; the ‘table’ was presumably the spina itself. 19   Site also as yet unidentified: see Pringle, Churches 1, p. 181. 20   p adds: ‘In that chapel lie the two daughters of my lord St Philip, who converted and baptized the eunuch; and when he had baptized him, God took him up and transported him to Arsūf; and from Arsūf he came preaching the name of Our Lord as far as the city of Cæsarea.’ Acts 8.26–40 actually says that the spirit of the Lord took Philip to Azotus, the Greek name for Ashdod, between Jaffa and Ascalon; but in the thirteenth century ‘Isdūd was only a village and its harbour (Ashdod Yam, Minat al-Qal‘a) seems to have been abandoned. His four prophesying daughters are mentioned in Acts 21.8–9. 21   Var. p: ‘People very often go to it from Cæsarea on pilgrimage, for it is a very beautiful and holy place. In that marsh there are many crocodiles, which were put there by a lord of Cæsarea, who had them brought from Egypt.’

The Ways and Pilgrimages of the Holy Land

3. After Cæsarea one goes to Arsūf (Arsur),22 a castle that stands on a rocky knoll a little above the sea, on the sands nine leagues from Cæsarea. Up from there towards the mountain there is also a very dangerous place, which is called Cut Rock (Roche talie),23 for there thieves repair and cause much harm to pilgrims and others. Afterwards one goes from Arsūf to Jaffa (Iaffe), which is three leagues. Jaffa is a town and castle, and a county, and it lies on the sea. In Jaffa is the house where St Peter lived, when he was called to baptize Cornelius. And it was the house of Simon the Tanner,24 and is now called the Tower of the Patriarch.25 There, up in the castle in the church of St Peter is the stone of St James, on which it is said that he crossed the sea, and there are other sanctuaries.26 And know [192] that Jaffa is one of the good places that are situated on the sea. Outside the walls of Jaffa a little distance as one goes to Ramla is a chapel of St Habakkuk, very holy, but very ancient.27

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3. From Caesarea (Sezaire) to Arsūf (Assuf) is two leagues. The castle stands close to the sea on a sandy knoll and belongs to the Hospital.28 On the road above [Arsūf] lies Cut Rock (Roche talliée), a bad place where evil people encamp from time to time to block the road to those going to Jaffa (Iaphe). From Arsūf to Jaffa, which is a town and castle, is three leagues, and there is the castle on the sea. And there is [the] count of Jaffa. One finds up in the castle in the church of St Peter the stone of St James, the apostle of Galicia.

  See Roll and Arubas, ‘Le château d’Arsur’; cf. Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 59–61; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 20–21. 23   So-called because of the rock cutting, dating from Roman times, through which the Nahr al-Faliq reaches the sea, n of Arsūf. 24   Simeon le Canut (silk-weaver) appears to represent a miscopying of le tan(e)ur (cf. Acts 9.43). 25   This tower formed part of the residence, no doubt also containing a chapel, built by Patriarch Gerold of Lausanne (1225–39): see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 266, 271–2, fig. 79. 26   On St Peter and the other churches, see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 264–73. 27   The Premonstratensian abbey of St Habakkuk, located at Kafr Jinnis: Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 283–5. 28   The Hospital acquired Arsūf on 1 May 1261 and lost it to Sultan Baybars on 30 April 1265: CGOH 3, 6–7, no. 2985; RRH, 341, no. 1302; Annales de Terre Sainte, p. 452; cf. Tibble, Monarchy and Lordships, pp. 181–5. 22

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From Jaffa one takes the road to go to Jerusalem and one goes straight to Ramla, which is three large leagues away. Lydda faces Ramla on another side,29 and there is a church of St George.30 In Lydda St Peter revived Tabitha,31 and there is a good pilgrimage because of the church, which is very holy, and the miracles that St George does there. From Lydda to Ramla is three leagues. Ramla used to be of great renown. The Saracens have greatly honoured it and still do, for they have their great mosque there, where they still perform their acts of prostration.32 To the right on the sea on another side of Ramla is Ascalon, nine leagues from Jaffa. Three leagues beyond Ascalon on

From Cæsarea33 it is seven leagues to Ascalon (Celone), a town lying on the sea;34 and [from] Ascalon it is three leagues to Gaza (Guadre), a town lying on the sea that is [also] called Gaza.35 From Jaffa to Ramla (Rames) is three leagues. Ramla is a city and a bishopric.36 In the plain of Ramla King Baldwin [IV], king of Jerusalem, with 500 knights defeated Saladin and all his army, a good 300,000 knights, and there was carried the True Cross on which Our Lord suffered death in Jerusalem. And there St George was seen openly in that battle, when he led the charge on the Saracens, which battle was held on St Catherine’s day.37

  To the n.   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 9–27. 31   Tabitha died in Jaffa while St Peter was staying in Lydda and he was called there to 29 30

bring her back to life (Acts 9.36–42). 32   This is evidently a reference to the White Mosque, whose prayer hall was partially rebuilt in 1190, at the time of Saladin, and completed by Baybars in 1267/8: cf. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 185–6. 33   Recte ‘Jaffa’, as in p and v. 34   p adds: ‘And the bishop of Bethlehem used to be called bishop of Ascalon after it. But because of the dignity of the place of Bethlehem, the bishop of Ascalon was translated to the holy place of Bethlehem; and the bishop’s throne is still there in the church of my lord St Paul, with all its trappings.’ The see of Ascalon was merged with that of Bethlehem between 1163 and 1168. This text suggests that the church of St Paul in Ascalon continued thereafter as pro-cathedral of the bishop of Bethlehem, but it is uncertain to which period the description relates: before the city’s destruction in 1192 or between 1239 and 1247, when it was reoccupied and its castle rebuilt. Alternatively it is possible that the church remained derelict with its throne intact until Baybars razed the city once again in 1270: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 61–3. 35   p adds: ‘and Samson the strong broke its gates and carried them up on to a hill far from the town’ (Judges 16.1–3). The hill was above Hebron. 36   Robert of Rouen was consecrated first Latin bishop of Lydda in June 1099 and was granted a lordship embracing both Lydda and Ramla; but although the bishop was still styling himself bishop of both Lydda and Ramla as late as c.1160, the lordship of Ramla had reverted to the crown within a year of being granted to Robert: see Mayer, ‘Origins of the Lordships of Ramla and Lydda’; Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 182–3. 37   The battle of Montgisart (Tall al-Jazar), 25 November 1177.

The Ways and Pilgrimages of the Holy Land

the sea is Gaza (Gadres), whose gates Samson the strong broke and carried to a hill very far from the town. Three leagues from Gaza is Harbiyyā (Forbie), where the Christians of Outremer were at one time defeated.38 After that one goes from Ramla to Bayt Nūbā (Betenuble), which is five leagues away; that road is very uncertain on account of the attacks of the Bedouin, who kill the people who go to Jerusalem. From Bayt Nūbā one goes due east to Mount Joy (Mont Ioie), without deviating one way or the other; it is three leagues away and near to Jerusalem. From Mount Joy one goes down to Jerusalem. 2

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From Ramla to Bayt Nūbā (Detenuble) is five leagues. Bayt Nūbā is a large town. From Bayt Nūbā to M[ount Joy] is five leagues. On the Mount Joy (Montioye) is the church of [St] Samuel,40 and it is three leagues from there to Jerusalem. From the Mount Joy one goes [182] due east to the holy city of Jerusalem without deviating one way or the other. 2 These are the ways into the holy city of Jerusalem and the holy places, which one must recall and adore.

4. Whoever wants to enter correctly must go in by the gate of St Stephen, where he was stoned, for that is the most special entrance that there is. Once one has entered, one must look for the Holy Places in order. First [193] one must seek the True Sepulchre of Jesus Christ.39 Afterwards in the choir is the Compass and the Circle where Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea placed the body of Jesus when they wanted to bury Him.

4. First, whoever wants to enter Jerusalem correctly goes straight in by the Gate of St Stephen and must seek the Holy Places. First after that is the Holy Sepulchre of Our Lord, that is to say in the choir where there is the Compass of Our Lord. And there is also the place where Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea placed His blessed body, when He was buried after the blessed Passion.

38   The battle, in which the Franks and their Muslim allies, the ‘amīrs of Ḥimṣ and Karak, were defeated by the combined forces of Egypt and the Khwarizmian Turks, took place on 17 October 1244 (Prawer, Histoire 2, pp. 312–13). 39   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 6–71. 40   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 85–94.

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5. At the exit from the choir on the lefthand side is the Hill of Calvary, where God was put on the Cross, and there St Abraham made a sacrifice to God. And below it is Golgotha, where the blood of Jesus fell and pierced the rock, and is still visible.

5. At the exit from the choir on the lefthand side is the Hill of Calvary. This is the place where God was put on the Cross. And below is Golgotha; this is the place where the blood of Our Lord pierced the rock and fell on the head of Adam.

6. After that, behind the apse of the high altar, below the Hill of Calvary is the Column where Jesus was beaten. And beside it there is a descent of forty steps down to the place where St Helena found the Holy Cross of Our Lord.

6. After that, behind the apse of the high altar, below the Hill of Calvary is the Column where Our Lord Jesus Christ was tied and beaten; and there, beside a descent of forty steps, is the place where my lady St Helena found the True Cross.

7. And after that, at the way out of the Sepulchre on the right-hand side is a place that is called the Prison of Our Lord, where He was put in prison, and there also used to be a chain there with which He was bound. From the other entrance to the Sepulchre41 there are forty-one steps down to a chapel of the Greeks, in which chapel there used formerly to be the Holy Cross that was found and an icon of Our Lady, which spoke to [St Mary] the Egyptian.

7. After that, at the way out of the choir near the Sepulchre is the Prison of Our Lord on the right-hand side, and there is the chain with which He was bound. From the other entrance to the Sepulchre [there are forty] steps down to the Chapel of the Greeks, where there used to be the Holy Cross that was found and the icon that spoke to Mary the Egyptian and converted her.

8. Outside, to the north is the church of Chariton (Carito) and his tomb.42 From the other entrance of the Sepulchre, near by is [St Mary] Latin (la Latyna),43 and another place where [Mary] Magdalene and Mary Clopas wept, when Our Lord died on the Cross. And beside that is the Hospital of St John.44

8. Afterwards, outside that exit from the Sepulchre to the north is the church of St Chariton (Carito), and there also is his [183] body. On the other side of the Sepulchre towards the south, near by, is the church of St Mary Latin (Nostre Dame de la Latyne), the first church that was ever held by the Latins in Jerusalem; and for that reason it is called Latin (la Latine), and it belongs

    43   44   41 42

The w entrance from the street of the Patriarch, today Christian Quarter Street. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 158–60. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 236–53. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 192–207.

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to black monks.48 This is the place where St Mary Magdalene and St Mary Clopas tore their hair when Our Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, and there [is] the house of the Hospital of St John. 9. From in front of the Sepulchre, two bowshots to the east is the Temple of Our Lord,45 where there are four entrances and twenty-two doors. In the centre of the Temple is the great Sacred Rock where in ancient times there used to be the Ark of the Old Testament, the seven candlesticks, the coffer in which was the manna that came from heaven, the fire that used to consume the sacrifices, and the oil that flowed, with which the kings and prophets were anointed. [194]

9. In front of the Sepulchre two bowshots to the east is the Temple of the Lord, where there are four entrances and twelve doors. In the centre of the Temple is the great Sacred Rock, where the Ark of Our Lord was at the time of David, and the Rod of Aaron, and the Tablets of the Old Testament, and the seven gold candlesticks, and the coffer in which was the manna that came from heaven, and the fire that used to consume the sacrifice, and the oil that flowed, with which the kings and prophets of Our Lord were anointed.

10. Beside that on the Rock Jesus was presented. There also Jacob saw the ladder that reached to heaven and saw the angels ascending and descending when he went to sleep. To the right of that Rock the angel appeared to Zechariah the prophet.46 And below there is a chapel that is called the Holy of Holies. And there Our Lord forgave the sins of the woman who was taken in adultery.47 There St John the Baptist was named, and there even now the Saracens pray. And there was an altar where Abraham made a sacrifice to God.

10. And beside that on the Rock the Son of God was presented, and there Jacob saw the ladder that reached to heaven, and there he saw the angels ascending and descending. To the right of the Rock the angel appeared to Zechariah the prophet. Below there is the Holy of Holies, [and] there Our Lord forgave the woman who was taken [in ad]ultery. There St John the Baptist was announced: and in that place the Saracens pray even now. It is also said that there was an altar, where St Abraham made a sacrifice to God.

11. And in that place was a church from which St James, who was called

11. Below is the Tomb of St James, the first bishop of Jerusalem; near there

    47   48   45 46

The Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhra): Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 397–417. Not the prophet, but the father of John the Baptist: Luke 1.5–23. John 8.2–11. Benedictines.

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the brother of Our Lord, was thrown.49 Outside the Temple is an altar where Zechariah the son of Baruchiah was killed, that is between the Temple and the altar.50 At the entrance to the Temple is a gate, which is called Beautiful.51 To the south-west52 is the Temple of Solomon. And near that temple is a place, which is in the form of a bath and is called the Bath of Our Lady and of Our Lord.53 And there they sometimes took their rest. After that is the tomb of St Simeon. And in the Temple of the Lord facing east is the door that is called Jerusalem. And outside facing that door are visible the footprints of the she-ass that Our Lord rode on Palm Sunday. And below and near there are the Golden Gates. At the Temple at the exit facing north is the gate that is called the Gate of Paradise. And against the wall of the Temple is a pool which is called the Sheep-Pool (Probatica Piscina).54 After that is St Anne and her tomb.55 And some people say that the Sheep-Pool is there.56 Above St Anne is the church of [St Mary] Magdalene.57 To the south above     51   52  

is the church of St James. Outside the Temple is an altar where Zechariah, son of Baruchiah, was killed, and that is between the Temple and the altar. At the entrance to the Temple is a gate, which is called Beautiful to the west; and to the east is the Temple of Solomon. [184] To the east is the Bath of Our Lord.58 And there is His bed and that of Our Lady also. At the Temple of the Lord facing east is the Gate of Jerusalem, and outside that exit appear the footprints of the beast that Our Lord rode on Palm Sunday. And below there are the Golden Gates.

|At the Temple in the street towards that exit is the Sheep-Pool (Probatica pissina), and near there is St Anne and her tomb.59 Above St Anne is the church of St Mary Magdalene. To the south above the city of Jerusalem is Mount Sion; there is the place and

Qubbat al-Silsila: Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 182–5. 2 Chronicles 24.20–22; Matthew 23.35. Acts 3.2. Identified in the Middle Ages as Bāb al-Silsila. Devers ponent, par devers demi cor. The last words should evidently be demi ior (i.e. midi). In text a the phrase is even more illogical. 53   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 310–14. 54   Birkat Isrā’īl. 55   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 142–56. 56   See Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 389–97. 57   The Jacobite cathedral, by this time once again the Maymūniyya madrasa: Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 327–35. 58   p adds: ‘at the corner of the city.’ 59   Var. p: ‘At the Temple, at the north exit is the Gate of Paradise and the spring; by that exit, beside the wall of the Temple is the Sheep-Pool. Near there is St Anne and her tomb, and some say that the Sheep Pool is there.’ 49

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the city is Mount Sion, and there is the great destroyed church where Our Lady passed away,60 and from there the Apostles carried her to [the valley of] Jehoshaphat.

the great church, which is destroyed, where Our Lady St Mary passed away and from there they carried her to [the valley of] Jehoshaphat.

12. In front of that is a chapel61 where Our Lord was judged, mocked, spat upon, whipped, abused and crowned with thorns; and this was the Prætorium62 of Caiaphas, where [195] the Jews were assembled in council against Our Lord. Above the great destroyed church is the chapel of the Holy Spirit,63 [where the Holy Spirit descended] on the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. And there to the right on the altar is the table on which God had supper with His disciples, and below there is the place where Our Lord washed the feet of His disciples, and the basin64 may still be seen. There He entered through closed doors to His disciples or Apostles and said to them, ‘Peace be with you!’65 and there He said to St Thomas, ‘Put your finger and your hand here in my side, and do not be faithless, but believing.’66

12. There is a chapel where Our Lord was judged and beaten and whipped and crowned with thorns, and it was the Prætorium of Caiaphas and his house. Above the great demolished church is the Church of the Holy Spirit; there descended the Holy Spirit on the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, and [there] to the right is the Table where God had supper with His disciples, and below there is the place where Our Lord washed the feet of His apostles, and the basin is still there. There God entered through closed doors and said to His disciples, ‘Peace be with you!’ and He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger and your hand here in my side.’

13. Below Mount Sion is a chapel, which is called Galilee.67 There Our Lord appeared after His Resurrection to Simon Peter and the good women. On Mount Sion King Solomon was

13. Below Mount Sion is a chapel, which is called Galilee. There Our Lord appeared to Simon. On Mount Sion was anointed King Solomon. Then up in the city is the Pool of Siloam,

    62   63   64   65   66   67  

St Mary of Mount Sion: Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 261–87. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 365–72. A common confusion, the prætorium being the seat of the Roman governor. In the surviving part of the church of St Mary of Mount Sion. pyle, can mean ‘mortar’ or ‘basin’, but also ‘pillar’. John 20.26. John 20.27. This is misplaced, possibly through confusion with St Peter in Gallicantu: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 124–5, 346–9. 60 61

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anointed.68 Near there up in the city is a pool, which is called the Pool of Siloam. Near there St Isaias the prophet was laid. Above the Pool of Siloam is a field, which is called Akeldama (Acheldemach); this is the place that was bought for thirty pence (deniers) for the burial of pilgrims. Below the Golden Gates in the valley is a brook, which is called Kidron (Cedron). In that brook David gathered the five stones with which he killed Goliath.

and near there was buried St Isaias. Above the Pool of Siloam is Akeldama (Acheldemac); this is the place that was bought with the thirty pieces of silver for which Our Lord was sold, and there is the burial place where the pilgrims are placed.74

14. Near there is Jehoshaphat (Iosaphat), the place where the Virgin Mary was laid.69 Behind there is Gethsemane, the place where God was arrested.70 In that place are visible the fingers of the hands of Our Lord, and there Our Lord left St Peter and St James and the other disciples, when He went to pray. And near there, as far as a stone’s throw, is the place where He prayed to God the Father and sweated drops of blood, which ran on to the ground.71 Near that place were laid St James, St Simeon and Zechariah the prophet.72 Near there is the Mount of Olives. From that place Our Lord ascended to heaven on Ascension Day, and the outline of His left foot is still visible.73 There He instructed His Apostles [196] to preach the gospel to all people. There

14. And there is Jehoshaphat (Iosaphat), the place where Our Lady was placed and interred. After that is Gethsemane, the place where God was arrested and where the fingers of Our Lord are visible in a stone. There God left St Peter, St James and St John when He went to pray. A stone’s throw from there is the place where God prayed to His Father and sweated drops of blood, which ran on to the ground. There were laid St James, St Simeon and Zechariah. On the slope of that valley is the tomb of King Jehoshaphat, after whom the valley is named. Above to the east is the Mount of Olives, from which Our Lord ascended to [heaven] on Ascension Day. And His left [foot is] still [visible] there. There He instructed His disciples to go and preach the gospel to all people. Below

Below the Golden Gates in the valley is the brook that is called Kidron (Cedron); there David gathered the five stones with which he killed Goliath. [185]

68   Not Sion, but Gihon, the eastern hill (1 Kings 1.38–40): a common confusion at this time. 69   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 287–306. 70   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 98–103. 71   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 358–65. 72   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 185–9. 73   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 72–88. 74   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 222–8.

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is the chapel of St Pelagia (Pelageon)75 […] Our Lord composed the Lord’s Prayer. Between the Mount of Olives and Bethany […] He brought Lazarus back to life and forgave the Magdalene her sins.76

Near there is the place where Mary77 and [Mary] Magdalene ran to Our Lord. Below Jerusalem it is a small league to the west to the place where the tree of the Holy Cross grew. And to the south it is a league to St Elias.78 A little further on is the Field of Flowers, and a short way from there is the Tomb of Rachel.79 To the north of Jerusalem it is two leagues to St Samuel.80 And there is a hill, which is called the hill of Mount Joy; to the east is the place where Our Lady greeted St Elizabeth, and there the Baptist was born.81 Two leagues away is Emmaus (Amans),82 where Our Lord appeared to two disciples, St Luke and Cleopas.83     77   78   79   80   81   82   83  

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is the chapel in which lies St Pelagia (Pelage) the martyr. Near there to the south is a chapel where Our Lord composed the Lord’s Prayer.84 Between the Mount of Olives and Bethany is Bethphage, where Our Lord sent St Peter and St James for the she-ass and its colt on Palm Sunday.85 Near Bethany is the place where God brought Lazarus back to life and forgave the Magdalene her sins; this is the house of Simon the Leper, which is one league from Jerusalem.86

Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 342–6. This paragraph has been abbreviated to the point of losing much of its meaning. Presumably a mistake for ‘Martha’. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 224–6. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 176–8. Nabi Samwīl: Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 85–94. ‘Ayn Karim: Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 30–47. Abū Ghosh, Qaryat al-‘Inab: Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 7–17. Luke 24.13–35 names only Cleopas; the identity of the other disciple is therefore unknown. 84   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 117–24. 85   Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 157–60. 86   Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 122–37. 75 76

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3

3 This is the way to go from Jerusalem to the Quarantine, where God fasted, and to the other holy places near there.

15. From Jerusalem it is six leagues to the Quarantine,87 where He fasted forty days. And below it is the Garden of St Abraham, and near there is Jericho. From there to the River Jordan is two leagues. There Our Lord was baptized by St John the Baptist.

15. From Jerusalem to the Quarantine it is seven leagues, and there Our Lord fasted for forty days and forty nights. And after that is Jericho. From Jericho to the River Jordan is three leagues; there Our Lord was baptized by St John the Baptist. From the River Jordan to Mount Sinai is eight days’ journey. There [186] Our Lord gave Moses the law, and on that mountain my lady St Catherine lies in an old marble tomb.89 One league from Jerusalem to the south is St Elias,90 and a short distance from there is the Field of Flowers (Cham flori). And no more than a short distance from that road is the Tomb of Rachel,91 the wife of Jacob.

From Jerusalem to Bethlehem is two leagues. Bethlehem is below a hill where Our Lord was born, and there is the crib in which He was placed.88 And on another side is the place where the three kings honoured Him.

Against that mountain on the other side is the city of Bethlehem, where Our Lord was born. Two leagues from Jerusalem is the crib where Our Lord was placed, when He was born and wrapped in small cloths. Near there is the place of the Nativity, and the place where the Three Kings who came from the east worshipped Our Lord, when they offered Him gold and incense and

  Jabal al-Qurunṭul.   Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 137–56. 89   v adds: ‘which is so holy that there frequently issues from it oil from which many 87

88

people have been cured; and the power of God is so great; that many wild animals which exist on that mountain live from nothing else than from licking the tomb of my lady St Catherine and from the manna that falls on the mountain.’ On the church, see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 49–58. 90   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 224–6. 91   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 176–8.

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There, beside the choir on the righthand side is the well where the star fell, and to the left lie the Innocents. Below the cloister lies St Jerome. Above Bethlehem is a chapel where Our Lady rested.92 And from there one takes the road to go to St Abraham in Hebron.

myrrh.95 There beside the choir on the right-hand side is the well where the star fell. To the left lie the Innocents. Facing it96 is the Tomb of St Jerome. Above Bethlehem is a chapel where Our Lady rested, when she about to give birth to Our Saviour; and from there one takes the road to go to St Abraham in Hebron.

16. In Hebron God made Adam and Eve. And near there is the House of Cain and Abel. Near there God appeared to Abraham in the form of the Holy Trinity. From the River [197] Jordan to Mount Sinai is eight days’ journey. There Our Lord gave the law to Moses. On that mountain lies St Catherine, and there are there many abbeys of the Greeks,93 and there are many fine countries and many wild animals, which live from nothing other than the manna which falls from the sky. From the tomb of St Catherine comes openly oil smelling softer than balm, by which many sick people are cured when they are anointed. From Jerusalem to Samaria, which is called Nāblus (Naples), is twelve leagues. There Our Lord spoke to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well, and from there to Sebaste is two leagues. There St John the Baptist was beheaded and there is his tomb.94 From Sebaste to Mount Tabor, to another mountain,

16. And there Our Lord made Adam and Eve, and there is the House of Cain and Abel. Near there Our Lord appeared in the form of the Trinity to St Abraham.97 To the east is the place where Our Lady greeted St Elizabeth. There was born St John the Baptist, and Zechariah his father. Two leagues from there is a castle that is called Emmaus (Hermaüs); there Our Lord appeared to St Luke and to Cleopas after the Resurrection. One league from Jerusalem there is the tree from which was made the True Cross.

    94   95   96  

From Jerusalem to Samaria, which is called Nāblus (Naples), is twelve leagues; there Our Lord spoke to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well. Two leagues from there is the city of Sebaste. There St John [was beheaded and there is his tomb]. From Sebaste to Mount Tabor is ten leagues. There

In Greek, Kathisma; in Arabic, al-Qadismū: Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 157–8. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 49–63. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 283–301. p adds: ‘Jaspar, Balthazar and Melchior.’ El encontre: probably a corruption of Desous le cloistre (below the cloister), which is how it appears in p. 97   p adds: ‘and St Abraham saw three persons and worshipped one.’ 92 93

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which is called Mount Hermon, and below Nain, where God revived the son of the widow.98 Below Mount Tabor is a village, which is called Dabburiyya (Bourie), and it used formerly to be like a faubourg.99

Our Lord was transfigured before His Apostles. [187] Now we shall leave off speaking of the Holy Land of Jerusalem and of the places round about it.

Text b: From Mount Tabor to Tiberias is four leagues, and [beyond is] the sea of Tiberias, in which Our Lord made St Peter and Andrew cast the net. In that sea He made St Peter catch a fish, from which He took a silver penny (denier), which was paid by them for the tribute. From there one goes to the Table of Our Lord, off which it is said that He ate with His disciples.100 Between Tiberias and the Table is Capernaum, where He performed many miracles. A little up from there He was put in prison. Above the sea of Tiberias to the right is a hill, which is full of hay, where He fed five thousand people from five loaves and two fish. Near by below that hill is the Lake of Gennesaret, in which country He performed many miracles. From Tiberias to Cana of Galilee is five leagues; there was the wedding of the steward of the feast (Architriclin),101 and the water was turned into wine, and the place where the jars were placed is still visible.102 And there is also a place below there where one descends crouching into the rock where Our Lord hid because of the Jews. [198] 4 17. From Cana of Galilee to Nazareth is three leagues. There the Annunciation was made to St Mary by the Angel Gabriel, in a place that is to the left inside the church,103 at the entrance to a cavern in the rock, where there is a chapel; and above there is visible the recess104 where the angel greeted her.   This sentence is evidently much abbreviated.   cum un burke: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 192–4. 100   Al-Ṭābgha: Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 334–9. 101   John 2.1–11. 102   Khirbat Qana: Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 162–4. 103   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 116–40. 104   le partus. 98 99

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From the church of the Annunciation of St Mary it is a large bowshot to the fountain of St Gabriel,105 which is very healthy and formerly used to be very beautiful, and the city of great renown, above which is the Mount Joy (Mont Ioie).106 A little above the city of Nazareth to the right is a chapel that is called St Zacharias;107 and there St Zacharias and St Elizabeth sometimes lived when they came from Jerusalem to Nazareth; and there is the altar where St Zacharias sang. And above St Zacharias are two mountains where it is said that Our Lord jumped from one to the other.108 From Nazareth one goes to Saffūriyya,109 which is four leagues away, and on that road one leaves Saffūriyya to the right. On the other side of the mountain down below one finds a spring which is called the spring of Saffūriyya (Saffarie). And afterwards there is on the way a stream that is called Kaladie,110 and after it the spring of the Lion (Fontaigne de Leon).111 Then there is a place called Kafr (Kephar), which is like a village.112 Near Kafr (El Phar) is Shafa ‘Amr (le Saffran); Shafa ‘Amr [is] a place where St James of Galicia was born, and the place is still visible in the rock, and it used formerly to be a very beautiful and strong place.113 And after Shafa ‘Amr one comes to Acre, which is three leagues away. On that road one finds Saphet of the Germans (des Alemauns), but it is all destroyed.114 Afterwards beyond the road to the right one comes to Da‘ūk (Doch). On the other hand, to the left are the mills of Da‘uk.115 And a little beyond there one comes to Kurdāna (Ricardane), and from there to Acre. [199]   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 140–44.   The place on the road from which pilgrims would first catch sight of the goal of

105 106

their pilgrimage. 107   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 144–5. 108   The Lord’s Leap, or Mount of Precipitation (Jabal al-Qafza): Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 45–8. 109   Here the text mistakenly has Saffran (Shafa ‘Amr), instead of Safforie (Saffūriyya). 110   Wādī al-Khalladiyya, a tributary of the Kishon. 111   Possibly Bi’r al-Maksūr. 112   casalet, meaning the same as kafr (Arabic) or kefar (Hebrew). In this case the site is unidentified. 113   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 301–4. 114   Possibly Khirbat Ṣafṭa ‘Ādi, nw of Shafa ‘Amr. It was a village belonging to the Teutonic Order (TOT, nos. 34, 53, 58, 63, 75, 76, 112). There is also mention of a vault in 1231 (TOT, no. 75; cf. no. 128, p. 124). It may have been destroyed in the raid by Baybars of April 1263, when the mill at Da‘uk was also damaged (Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 10–11). 115   The Templars’ mills of Da‘uk (cf. Pringle, Secular Buildings, pp. 62–4) are now

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Outside Acre is a holy cemetery, which Our Lord Jesus Christ blessed.116 In that cemetery St William acts with such virtue that he cures those of that sickness that in called ‘hot and cold’, when they lie out of devotion on his tomb. Near his tomb is a fountain, which he is said to have made, and for that reason it is called St William’s.117 That cemetery is divided into two parts: one in honour of St Nicolas; the other in honour of St Michael.118 In that cemetery there are also many holy bodies, more than one can say or number. Text a: 4 This is the way from Acre to Nazareth and of the other sanctuaries round about it. 17. First one must go from Acre to Nazareth, which is seven leagues. On this road is Shafa ‘Amr (Ssafran), which is three leagues away, on which mountain is the church of my lord St James,119 when [sic] he was born; and the place is still to be seen. From Shafa ‘Amr to Saffūriyya (Ssaforie) is three leagues, and from there one goes to Nazareth, which is a league. And there Our Lord came into the Virgin Mary.120 From Nazareth to Cana of Galilee is three leagues. At Cana of Galilee was held the wedding of King Architiclin,121 and at that wedding water

identified as the surviving ones at Khirbat Kurdāna; the Hospitallers’ mills of Kurdāna (Ricordane) would have been upstream from them: Boas, Archaeology of the Military Orders, pp. 240–41; Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 168–9. 116   Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 151–5. 117   St William was possibly Bishop William of Acre (c.1166–72), who was murdered at Adrianople by a member of his own household while returning home from Italy; he forgave his murderer before he died (William of Tyre 20.25, ed. Huygens, pp. 947–8). 118   The burial chapel of St Michael was built by the Hospitallers after they had obtained Bishop Theobald’s approval in 1200: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 150–51. 119   p adds: ‘and St John.’ On the church, see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 302–3. 120   p adds: ‘and there is the place where the angel announced Him, that is to say in a rock cave, which is inside the church on the left-hand side, and in that place a chapel has been made in honour of Our Lady. After that, a bowshot away is the spring of St Gabriel. From Nazareth to the Leap of Our Lord is a league; and on this road, beside it, is a chapel of St Zacharias, which belongs to Armenians; and it is a beautiful place.’ 121   i.e. the wedding presided over by the ‘steward of the feast’ (architriclinus): John 2.1–11.

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was made into wine. The place may still be seen where the wedding was held, and the place where the seven jars were.122 From Cana of Galilee it is a bowshot to the well where the water was drawn. Near there is Mount Tabor.123 From Mount Tabor to Mount Hermon is a league, and there is the city of Nain (Naym). There Our Lord brought back to life the widow’s son before the gate of the town.124 Near to the city, three leagues away, is the sea of Galilee. And beside it on the sea is Tiberias (Tabarie), where Our Lord stayed and performed many miracles. And there Our Lord had St Peter and St Andrew, who [were] in a boat, cast a net into the sea.125 On that sea Our Lord walked, [seeing St Peter and St An]drew; and then my lord St Peter took fright when he saw Him coming by foot on the water, for he thought that it was a ghost.126 After that, in another place there is Capernaum and [188] elsewhere the Lake of Gennesaret. Above the Lake of Gennesaret to the right is a mountain full of hay where Our Lord preached to the crowd of people. After that, there is the place where Our Lord fed five thousand people from five barley loaves and two fish.127 Up near there is the prison, where Our Lord was put until they had paid the tribute money for his journey. It was then that He commanded my lord St Peter to catch a fish; and when he had caught it, Our Lord commanded it to be opened. And they took out a penny (denier), which was paid for the tribute for His journey.128 Many miracles were performed in that encounter,129 about which one cannot know as much as one would wish. From Tiberias to Ṣafad (Ssaphet) is three leagues. On that road is the well where Joseph was thrown when he was sold to the Ishmaelites.130   Khirbat Qana: Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 162–4.   pv add: ‘On that mountain Our Lord was transfigured before His disciples, and

122 123

there is there a monastery of black Latin monks.’ v continues: ‘and in that monastery may be seen the place where Our Lord was transfigured, and there, according to what the gospel says, the face of Our Lord appeared as the sun and his clothes were white as snow, so that his disciples were very astonished.’ The Benedictines transferred Mount Tabor to the Hospitallers on 1 April 1255 and the church was demolished by Baybars in April 1263. On the monastery see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 63–81. 124   Luke 7.11–17. The modern Arabic name is Na‘im. 125   Luke 5.4–8. 126   Matthew 14.26–7. 127   Matthew 14.13–21; Mark 6.31–44; Luke 9.10–17; John 6.1–15. 128   Matthew 17.24–7 129   encontrée: earlier versions, such as ‘Holy Pilgrimages’ [4.4], have contrée (region). 130   Jubb Yūsuf. The biblical site was near Dothan: Genesis 37.12–28. p then adds here: ‘At Ṣafad is the cave of Tobias, where the dead are buried.’

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On the bridge of Ṣafad is the stone where Our Lord rested. From Ṣafad to St George is five leagues, and there is there a church of black monks.131 From St George to Acre is four leagues.132 From Acre to Sardenay (Terdeney)133 is three-and-a-half days’ journey, and one passes through Damascus, for that is half a day’s journey. Know too that there is a panel of Our Lady from which oil dripped; [and] many sick are cured; [and in Tor]tosa (Ṭarṭūs) is the first [church, which] the Apostles [made] in the semblance of that of Nazareth.134

  St George is al-Ba‘ina, the caput of a lordship known as Sainte Jorge de La Baene. The ruins of the abbey lie just outside al-Ba‘ina, in the more recent Druze village of Dayr al-Asad. In this case, as at St Margaret on Mount Carmel (above), the ‘black monks’ were Greek Orthodox: Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 80–92; 4, p. 250. 132   pv add: ‘In Tiberias is the firebrand that the Jews threw after Our Lord, when He showed them how they ought to make dye; and the firebrand stuck in a wall and has now grown into a large tree. In Tiberias are the baths of Our Lady, which are heated by themselves.’ 133   Saydnaya: Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 219–21. 134   Enlart, Monuments des croisés 2, pp. 395–426; Deschamps, Terre Sainte romane, pp. 231–6. 131

11

Pilgrimages and Pardons of Acre (1258–63) 1 [Pilgrimages] [229] These are the common pardons that Christians make in the Holy Land. From the town of Acre to St Elias,1 four leagues; from that place and from the Cave of St Elias to the Carmel,2 one league; and from the Carmel to St John of Tīra (de Tyr),3 one league. There is there a town of St John the Baptist, and one league from there is the stone on which God rested, before Pilgrims’ Castle (Chastiel Pelryn),4 and inside the castle lies the body of St Euphemia, and near by is Merle:5 there St Andrew was born, and near by is the cave where Our Lady hid with her Son, through mistrust of the Jews. And from there to Our Lady of the Marsh,6 three leagues; there Our Lady rested. And from there to Cæsarea, one league. And from there to Jaffa, twelve leagues; there is a stone which is called the Stone of St James,7 and a chapel where St Habakkuk used to live.8 And from there to Ramla, where St George was martyred,9 four leagues; and from there to Bayt Nūbā (Betynoble), a bad road, three leagues. And two leagues to Emmaus,10 where Jesus spoke with Cleopas, and he recognized Him through the breaking of bread. And from there to [230] Mount Joy (Montioie), two leagues; and there was buried Samuel the Prophet.11   Seynt Elye: the Orthodox monastery of St Elias of Carmel (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 226–9). 2   La Carme: the Carmelite monastery of St Mary of Mount Carmel (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 249–57). 3   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 369–72. 4   The Templar castle of ‘Atlīt (Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 69–80). 5   A small castle on the coast south of ‘Atlīt at Ṭanṭūra (Dor). 6   Location uncertain: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 257–8. 7   In the church of St Peter: see Pringle, Churches 1, p. 268. 8   The chapel of St Habakkuk was located at Kafr Jinnis, north of Lydda: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 283–5. 9   St George’s place of martyrdom and burial was in Lydda, near Ramla. 10   This reference indicates that by this time the traditional location of Biblical Emmaus was in the process of shifting from at Qaryat al-‘Inab (Abū Ghosh) to al-Qubayba, the former Frankish ‘new town’ of Parva Mahumeria, on the more northerly road between Bayt Nūbā and Nabi Ṣamwīl (Pringle, Churches 1, p. 8 and 2, pp. 168–9; cf. Pringle, ‘Templar Castles between Jaffa and Jerusalem’, pp. 90–91). 11   At Nabi Ṣamwīl (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 85–94). 1

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2. And from there to the city of Jerusalem is two leagues by a good road, and the entrance into the city is through the gate where St Stephen was stoned, and then you will go to the Holy Sepulchre and there you will say your prayers. The compass within the choir is not far at all from the Sepulchre, and there is there a stone that God said was the centre of the world. Mount Calvary, where Jesus was crucified, is to the right side12 of the choir, and the blood is still visible on the rock that is called Golgotha; and near by there is a stone tomb where lie the seven kings, who were formerly kings of the city,13 and Godfrey of Bouillon; there beside the high altar is the pillar to which Jesus was tied, when he was scourged. Near by is the Prison and the chain by which God was enchained inside the prison, and there were seen on Easter Day three Marys, and to the side you will go down forty steps and there St Helena found the Holy Cross. And near by, going down forty steps, there is the Greek chapel; and there is a picture of Our Lady, which spoke to [St Mary] the Egyptian and taught her the law.14 And beside the Sepulchre, not very far at all, is the Hospital of St John,15 and near there is the church of St Chariton (Seint Caryout)16 and to one side is [the church of St Mary] Latin (la Latyne);17 there the Three Marys tore their hair when God had to be crucified. And a bowshot from there is the Temple of the Lord,18 and inside it are many marvels, and inside are twenty gates and strong doors;19 there is the stone on which God was placed on the feast of Candelmas, before the old man Simeon. There Jacob saw the ladder, by which angels descended from heaven to earth, and by that ladder an angel came to Zechariah and told him that he would have a son who would proclaim the coming of God; and there within an arch is Aaron’s rod, and the seven golden candlesticks and the tablets of Moses; and near there God pardoned the woman who [231] was taken in adultery, as the gospel testifies.20 And near there is the gate where St Peter and St John found the paralytic who asked them for alms, and St Peter said to him, ‘I have no gold or silver, but what I have I shall give you; get up, and walk as a healthy man.’21 And that gate is called Jerusalem, and the north gate is called Paradise; there is the spring that is called Paradise, of which Holy Church teaches that living22 water came out of it.23 The west gate is called Beautiful (Speciouse).24     14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   12 13

i.e. s. Baldwin I, Baldwin II, Fulk, Baldwin III, Amalric, Baldwin IV, Baldwin V. These references are to the chapel of St Mary on the n side of the Holy Sepulchre. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 192–207. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 158–60. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 236–53. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 397–417. fortz portes, probably a mistake for ‘four doors’. John 8.3–11. Cf. Acts 3.1–10. vyne, for vive? Cf. Ezekiel 47.1–2. Acts 3.2.

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The east gate is called Golden Gate; and through that gate God entered riding the donkey, and the footmarks of the donkey are still visible on the hard rock. 3. And on the north side is the Sheep-Pool (Probatica piscina), and there an angel used to move the water; and he who entered first would regain his health from any infirmity; and a good distance from there is the Temple of Solomon, and further up is the Bath where Our Lady used to bathe her Son, and very close to it is the bed where Jesus used to lie down.25 And beside it is the Tower of David,26 and in front of the Tower there is a chapel; and inside it is St John Golden Mouth and many other relics;27 beyond is a church where St James was beheaded,28 and by there you can pass towards Mount Sion. There Our Lady died, and the Apostles buried her a great way from there in the valley of Jehoshaphat. On Mount Sion God made the [last] supper and washed the feet of His Apostles; and there came Jesus to them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you!’29 And there He showed His wounds to St Thomas, and not far from there is the place where Jesus was maltreated and crowned with thorns, and there was the palace and the Prætorium of Caiaphas.30 And near there is the church where the Holy Spirit came down upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost;31 and near there is the Cave of the Cock-crow (Cave Galycant), where St Peter denied knowing Jesus. And beside that is the Pool of Siloam, and there Jesus gave sight to one who was born blind, and there was buried Isaiah the Prophet. And beside there is Akeldama. 4. Between the Mount of Olives and the city is the valley of [232] Jehoshaphat, which has been spoken of before; and near the valley there is a place that is called St Anne.32 There Our Lady was initially brought up, and near there is Gethsemane; there Jesus was arrested and His fingermarks are still visible on the hard rock, where He put His hand, and a little way from there is a church of St Saviour.33 There God went all alone to pray to His Father before the Passion, and there God sweated blood. And on top of the Mount of Olives, so it is said, is a place where God ascended into heaven in the sight of His Apostles. And there is a stone on which God placed His foot, the print of which is still visible and will be always.34 And near there is buried a holy woman,35 whose tomb no sinner can pass by or approach. Near there is the place where God made the Lord’s   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 310–14.   In fact the Tower of David is on the opposite side of the city. 27   Seint Iohan bouche orriene, i.e. St John Chrysostom. The church was that of St 25

26

Sabas (Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 355–8). 28   The Armenian cathedral of St James: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 168–82. 29   John 20.26. 30   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 365–72. 31   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 261–86. 32   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 142–56. 33   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 98–103, 358–65. 34   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 72–88. 35   St Pelagia: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 342–6.

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Prayer. And near there is a place where God showed Himself on Easter day to His disciples.36 5. And from there at the sum distance of an English league37 is Bethphage. From there God sent Philip and John to Jerusalem for the donkey on Palm Sunday, on which day the Hebrew children payed Him the greatest honour that God had on earth. And from there you go to Bethany, where God revived Lazarus: two leagues; and afterwards he was bishop of Marseilles (Marcille).38 And there, in the house of Simon [the Leper], God forgave Mary Magdalene her sins. And from there to the Quarantine,39 where God fasted forty days and nights, is seven leagues. 6. And near there is Jericho; and from there to the River Jordan it is two leagues to the place where St John baptized God, and a dove descended on God in the form of the Holy Spirit; and you can go no further by that road,40 but if you go from Jerusalem towards the city of Bethlehem, you will go by St Elias,41 one league from the city of Jerusalem, and beside there is the Field of Flowers (le Champ Flory), a very beautiful spot; and there, so it is said, each will receive according to what he accomplishes, if deserved. And near there lies St Rachel.42 [233] And a league from there is Bethlehem, and there came the Three Kings to give their presents: Jaspar, Melchior and Balthazar; and they carried respectively gold, myrrh and incense. Beside the choir43 is a well where the star fell that led the Three Kings; on the other side are the Innocents who were killed; and a league from there the angel appeared to the shepherds announcing the birth of God. 7. And from Jerusalem to St Abraham (Hebron) is seven leagues, and there Adam was formed. And near there is the Double Cave (Spelunca dupplici); and there, enclosed by a wall, in flesh and bone are the three patriarchs, Abraham,   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 117–25.   une lywe englesche. 38   According to Orthodox tradition, he became bishop of Larnaca in Cyprus, where 36

37

his tomb is still shown in the church dedicated to him (Chotzakoglou, Church of Saint Lazarus). A French tradition, however, which developed as late as the eleventh or twelfth century, claimed that St Lazarus had sailed with his sisters, Mary Magdalene and Martha of Bethany, to Ste.-Marie de la Mer in Provence, from where they set off in different directions to convert the inhabitants. Lazarus became bishop of Marseilles, where he was later martyred and buried in a cave over which the church of St.-Victor was raised four centuries later (Rabanus Maurus, de Vita Beatæ Mariæ Magdalenæ 36–50, PL 112, cols. 1492–508; Gervase of Tilbury, Otia Imperialia 2.10, 3.90, ed. Banks and Binns, pp. 294–6, 734; Chotzakoglou, Church of Saint Lazarus, pp. 18–23). 39   Jabal al-Qurunṭul. 40   Earlier guides proceed from here to Sinai, by way of al-Karak and al-Shawbak in Transjordan. It seems that that route was now closed, perhaps as a result of the coming to power of the Mamluks between 1250 and 1260. After this the normal route was by way of Gaza, al-‘Arish and the oases s of it. 41   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 224–6. 42   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 176–8. 43   On the church, see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 137–56.

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Isaac and Jacob; and there is the Tomb of Eve and the three wives of the patriarchs in one place.44 And beside the town is a cave where Adam lived for a long time, and other marvels are there. 8. And from Jerusalem it is one league to the place where the tree grew from which the Holy Cross was made;45 and two leagues from there is St John of the Woods (Seint Iohan de Boys),46 and there was born St John the Baptist;47 and there are many other pilgrimages there. And from Jerusalem to Nāblus is twelve leagues; there is Jacob’s Well,48 where God spoke with the Samaritan woman; and from there to Sebaste (Basque), where St John was beheaded, is two leagues; and from there to Mount Hermon is nine leagues. And to the south is the city of Nain (Names), and at the gate of the city Jesus revived the son of a widow. 9. And from there to Mount Tabor is two leagues, and there is a church49 where God presented Himself to Peter and John, and showed that He was God and man; and He was completely clothed in white and those who were there fell unconscious to the ground. And from there to Tiberias (Bebie) is five leagues, and beyond is the sea of Galilee, and around it in various places God performed many miracles; and near there God fed five thousand people with two fish and five loaves, and Peter and Andrew left their boat and followed God near there, and performed many other miracles there.50 10. And beside there is the castle of Magdala (Chastiel Magdalon); there was [234] born [St Mary] Magdalene; and from there you can go to Nazareth, where Our Lady was born, and to the place where the Annunciation was made to Our Lady, that she would conceive the Saviour of heaven and earth.51 There is a fountain of St Gabriel;52 there Our Lady and her Son used to go to find water; and near there is the Leap, where the Jews ordered Jesus to jump because He taught them the word of God, and there God said that no one will be held as a prophet in his home country. And from Nazareth to Sepphoris (Zaphory) is one league, and there was born St Anne, the mother of Mary, the mother of God. And from there it is one league to Cana of Galilee, where Our Lord made wine from water in the house of the Steward, and this was one of the first miracles that God did   On the tombs of the patriarchs in the former Crusader church, see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 223–39. 45   The Monastery of the Holy Cross: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 33–40. 46   A former Cistercian monastery in ‘Ayn Karim, now the church of the Visitation: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 38–47. 47   John’s birthplace is usually shown in another church of St John, also in ‘Ayn Karim: Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 30–38. 48   Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 258–64 and 4, pp. 267–9. 49   Church of the Transfiguration: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 63–81. 50   The plural form of the verb, fesoient, suggests that Peter and Andrew performed these miracles; but this is most likely an error. 51   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 116–40. 52   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 140–44. 44

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openly. And from there it is two leagues to the church of St Soffroun,53 and there were born St John and St James; and from there it is three leagues to the church of St Nicolas,54 and there lie many holy bodies, and indulgence is granted in great measure to all who will come there. 11. From Acre to Kuwaykat (Koket)55 is one league; there God became a lamb, and took the form of a lamb.56 And from there to Tyre (Sur) is nine leagues. There Jesus preached the word of God, and a woman said to Him there, ‘Blessed be the womb that bore you and the breasts that gave you milk!’57 and Jesus replied to her, ‘Blessed be those who hear the word of God and keep it well!’58 And from there to the Well of the Waters (Puteus aquarum)59 is one league. And from Tyre to Ṣarafand (Serphent)60 is four leagues; there St Elias was sent to a woman to save her and her son from poverty;61 and from there to Sidon (Seete) is three leagues; there is a church of St Saviour;62 and there are there many relics. There God delivered the Caananite woman for her faith,63 and there are many other marvels there. And from there to Beirut (Baruch), by land or water, is nine leagues. There was there in ancient times an icon of Our Lord, and a Jew wounded it in the side with a lance, and now there comes out of it blood and [235] water; and through this miracle many Jews converted to God, and some of this blood is in many lands: in Rome, France, England and other different places, by which God does many miracles.64 12. There are many other pilgrimages in that land, such that I cannot or do not know how to name them all. Of Sardenay (Sardayne), of Mount Sinai and other pilgrimages that there are in those countries, I have said nothing, for the journeys are difficult and the ways long.

  La Eglise de Seint Soffroun is a mistake for Le Saffran, or Shafa ‘Amr.   The cemetery church of Acre, located outside the city walls: see Pringle, Churches

53 54

4, pp. 151–5. 55   Now Kibbutz Bet ha-Emeq; its medieval Arabic name was Kawkab. 56   This tradition seems to be unattested elsewhere and its meaning is obscure. 57   Luke 11.27. 58   Luke 11.28. 59   Ra’s al-‘Ayn, from which the aqueduct of Tyre took its water. 60   Ancient Sarepta, identified as Old Testament Zarephath. 61   1 Kings 17.8–24; cf. Luke 4.25–6. 62   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 281–2. 63   Matthew 15.21–8. 64   On this icon, which is today housed in the chapel of St Laurence in the Lateran Palace in Rome, see Pringle, Churches 1, p. 117.

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2  [Pardons of Acre] 13. These are the pardons of Acre: at the edge of the town,65 three years and [one] quarantine;66 at St Nicolas,67 four years and four quarantines; at the Germans,68 four years, and each day [thereafter] 100 days; at St Leonard,69 one year and 100 days; at St Romanus,70 forty days; at St Stephen,71 four years and forty days; at St Samuel,72 one year and 40 days; at St Lazarus of Bethany,73 eight years and four quarantines; at [the Holy] Sepulchre,74 seven years and four quarantines; at Our Lady of the Knights,75 five years; at Our Lady of Tyre,76 three years; at Holy Cross,77 three years and forty days; at St Mark of Venice,78 five years; at St Laurence,79 forty days; at [St Mary of the valley of] Jehoshaphat,80 four years and forty quarantines; at [St Mary] Latin,81 one year; at St Peter of Pisa,82 five years; at St Anne,83 five years; at Holy Spirit,84 seven years; at Bethlehem,85 seven   à la bourde la vile: probably the Gate of the Pilgrims facing St Nicolas’s church, where the pilgrims entered the city. Offerings made there would presumably have been used for the upkeep and improvement of the city’s defences, in the same way as bequests made in wills of the 1260s to the ‘work of the city of Acre’ (labori civitatis Acconensis, a labur de la vile de Acre) (Pringle, Churches 4, p. 23, fig. 2). For locations see Fig. 7. 66   karantaine, i.e. 40 days. 67   In the cemetery outside the walls: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 151–5. 68   The Teutonic Order’s church of St Mary of the Germans: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 131–6. 69   Church belonging to the abbey of St Mary of Mount Sion: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 124–5. 70   Also belonging to St Mary of Mount Sion: see Pringle, Churches 4, p. 158. 71   Hungarian church of St Stephen of Hungary: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 160–61. 72   Church to which the abbot and canons of St Samuel of Mountjoy moved after 1191: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 158–60. 73   House of the Benedictine sisters of Bethany: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 120–21. 74   Church of the canons of the Holy Sepulchre: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 52–3. 75   Church of the see of Nazareth, acquired by 1256, possibly from the Order of St Thomas: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 136–7. 76   House of the Benedictine nuns of St Mary the Great (Jerusalem): see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 142–3. 77   Cathedral of Acre: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 35–40. 78   Venetian parish church: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 125–9. 79   Genoese parish church: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 117–19. 80   Benedictine monks: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 144–7. 81   Benedictine monks: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 139–40. 82   Pisan parish church: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 156–7. 83   Benedictine nuns, from Jerusalem: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 70–71. 84   Hospital of the Cross-bearing Friars (Fratres Cruciferi) in the Pisan quarter: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 54–5. 85   House of the bishop and chapter of Bethlehem: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 42–4. 65

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years; at St Andrew,86 five years; at the Temple,87 eight years and 120 days; at the Preaching Friars,88 three years and forty days; at St Michael,89 four years and four quarantines; at the Friars of the Sack,90 140 days; at the Hospital of St John,91 eight years, and each time that you go around the palace of the sick,92 forty days, and on Sunday at the procession, six quarantines; at St Giles,93 five quarantines; at [St Mary] Magdalene,94 eleven years; at [St] Catherine,95 four years and four quarantines; at the Trinity96 [236], one year; at St Brigid,97 eight years; at St Martin of the Bretons,98 four years and forty days; at [St] Lazarus of the Knights,99 fifteen quarantines; at St Thomas,100 fifteen years, and each Tuesday seven years; at St Bartholomew,101 four years and four quarantines; at St Antony,102 three years and forty days; at the Friars Minor,103 300 days; at the Penitent Sisters,104 one year and forty days; at St Denys,105 four years and four quarantines; at St George,106 seven years. 14. Thus ends the pilgrimages of those parts and the pardons of Acre. May God have mercy on the living and the dead! Amen!     88   89   90  

Parish church: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 63–8. House of the Templars: see Pringle, Churches 4, p. 166–72. Dominicans: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 46–8. Parish church: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 149–50. Also known as the Brothers of Penitence of Jesus Christ, an order of mendicants established in the 1240s and disbanded by order of the Council of Lyons in 1274: see Pringle, Churches 4, p. 50. 91   See Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 82–114. 92   This lay s of the church and conventual building (see preceding note). 93   Church and hospital in Montmusard, leased from 1258 to the Templars: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 80–81. 94   Cistercian nuns, first mentioned in 1222: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 147–8. 95   Hospital of St Catherine of the Battlefield, relocated to Acre from Mont Gisart (Tall al-Jazar) and not to be confused with the quite separate Orthodox church of St Catherine in Acre: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 73–4. 96   House of the order of the Holy Trinity and Captives, dedicated to the ransoming of prisoners taken by the Muslims: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 56–7. 97   Church and hospital of St Brigid, or Bride (Seinte Bryde): see Pringle, Churches 4, p. 72. 98   Hospital founded in 1254: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 129–30. 99   House of the order of St Lazarus: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 121–3. 100   Church and hospital of the English order of St Thomas the Martyr: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 161–4. 101   Leper hospital of St Bartholomew of Beirut: see Pringle, Churches 4, p. 72. 102   Church and hospital: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 71–2. 103   Franciscans: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 48–50. 104   Magdalenes, or Convertite Sisters: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 58–9. 105   Church and hospital: see Pringle, Churches 4, p. 76. 106   Pro-cathedral of the bishop of Lydda: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 77–8. 86 87

12

Friar Maurice ofm: Journey to the Holy Land (1271–73) Fragment 1 … is called Ṭaraf al-Ghurāb (Tarfalgurfa),1 or in Spanish Cape St Vincent (Cabo sant Vincent), because there the body of St Vincent was found on the shore.2 From there to Cartagena the course is always set towards the east, with Spain to the left and Africa to the right. After Cape St Vincent one comes to the promontory that is called Ṭaraf al-Naba’a (Tarfanaban).3 Then there is the town of Silves (civitas Silvestris), the castle of Albufeira (Albuier),4 Faro (Sancta Maria del Faran), and afterwards Gàdes (Gades), that is, the island of Hercules, which is otherwise known as Cadiz (Kadis).5 Here is the port of entry for the city of Hispalis, which is otherwise known as Seville (Sibilia). Up to this entry point or island extends al-Gharbiyya (Algarbia).6 On this island is the statue of Hercules holding the key and the club in his hands, his face turned towards Africa, giving it to be understood that the island of Gàdes is the key to Spain from that direction. In that island there have often been great massacres of men, both Christians and Saracens, because it has been occupied in turn by either side. At the present time, the Saracens having been ejected, a strong and well-walled city has been built by Alfonso [X], king of Castille, and a bishop from the order of Friars Minor has been established there.7 [166] From that place begins the land that according to the ancients is called Blessed but according to modern people is called Frontera (Frontarea), because it is the frontier of Christendom against the infidels and it is necessary to oppose strenuously the barbarian attacks there with a solid front. Here one comes at first to the promontory that is called in Spanish Cabo de Beta8 and afterwards to another   ‘Point of the Crow’. For the locations see Fig. 8.   The legend of St Vincent’s body and the crow is related in AA SS, Jan. 3, pp. 10 and

1 2

19.

3   ‘Elevated’ or ‘Protruding Point’. On its possible identification see Dalché, Carte marine, p. 187. 4   Al-Buhayra, ‘the small sea’. 5   On these identifications, see Dalché, Carte marine, p. 188. 6   ‘The westerly (land)’. 7   Cadiz fell to Alfonso X of Castille in 1262. Friar Juan Martinez was appointed as bishop the following year. 8   Cape of Thread, or Cord.

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that is called Cabo de Plata.9 After that one comes to a third, which is called in the Saracen language Ṭaraf al-Gharb10 (Tarfalaga, Trafalgar), opposite which – that is, to the south – in Africa is a very high mountain, which is called Cabo de Spartel. In that region there are Saracens on both sides: the kingdom of Granada in Spain on the left and Africa on the right. Now there begins the strait of Morocco, where to the left in Granada there is the castle called Calcadara,11 facing a large mountain in Africa overlooking Ceuta (Ceptam). Then to the left in Granada in the same strait there is a large city called Tarifa (Iazeraterfa).12 Facing it to the right in Africa is the greatly renowned city of Ceuta (Ceptensis civitas). From Lisbon (Ulixibona) to this place, that is, to the strait of Morocco, is a journey of two days and two nights when the wind is favourable and the distance may be estimated at 440 miles. After a short distance there lies at the exit from the strait on the left in Granada a large and very strong castle called Gibraltar (Gibeltare),13 also called Vulan. It is said that, in former times, when it belonged to the Christians in the time of King Roderic,14 the whole of Spain was lost from that place. Here, having conquered all Spain, Charlemagne hurled his lance into the sea when he was unable to go any further because of the sea. From the strait of Morocco the course lies uninterruptedly straight along the coast of Granada as far as Cartagena (Kartaginem). From that strait begins the Mediterranean Sea, narrow at first, but then quickly widening to the south towards Barbary. The kingdom of Granada continues beside the sea for 500 miles and from there – that is, from the strait – the whole of that sea extends for miles. It is one hundred miles from the strait to the city of Málaga and two hundred from Málaga to Almuñécar (Muletam, al-Munakkab). [167] From these two cities are exported the finest figs to reach the lands of the Christians. From Almuñécar to Almería, a most famous city from ancient times, is sixty miles. From Almería to Cartagena is 240 miles. The kingdom of Granada extends to this point. I firmly believe this land to be the highest of all lands next to the sea. Before our eyes the tops of its mountains penetrated the clouds. From Cartagena it would have been a briefer journey to have gone straight to the east for 550 miles to Sardinia, leaving the island of Majorca to the right.15 We deviated, however, by going to Marseilles. Indeed, we bent our course due north; and just as before when we were sailing south-west on the other side of Spain we   Cape of Silver.   The ‘western cape’. 11   Perhaps Algeciras (al-Jazirat al-Khadra, ‘the green island’), though geographically 9

10

it should come after Tarifa. 12   Jazirat Arfa‘, the ‘higher island’. See also Dalché, Carte marine, p. 190. 13   Jabal al-Tāriq, ‘Tāriq’s mountain’, Tāriq being the Muslim commander who led the conquest of Spain in ad 711. 14   King of the Visigoths. 15   Recte ‘left’.

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had the kingdom of Castille on the left, so now sailing north-east we had the same land similarly on the left. From Cartagena coasting the kingdom of Murcia and Castille to the place that is called Alicante (Alachant) in Aragon is 150 miles. It is the same again to the island that is called Ibiza (Euisa), to the south of which lies the island of Majorca mentioned above. From Ibiza to Marseilles is 550 miles. In total from the strait to Marseilles is 1,350 miles. From Marseilles to Sardinia the voyage is to the south-east and 500 miles long. The nearest place is called St Peter’s Island and lies almost touching Sardinia.16 That sea is the worst in the whole journey from Marseilles to Acre. Sardinia is a very large island and belongs for the most part to the Pisans, who have two counts there. The strongest castle of the island is called Cagliari (Kalie). This land is very rich in cattle and corn, but of wine it is ignorant and more than usually feeble. The people are fleet of foot, rough and … Fragment 2 … [two castles] of great renown, Jabala (Iubeltare),17 which used to belong to the prince of Antioch, and Crac (Cracum), which had belonged to the Hospital. Crac is said to be the best castle in the whole world because of its unbelievable revenues. The sultan18 stormed this castle around [168] ad 1271, fifteen thousand Christians being inside it for its defence. In Ṭarṭūs (Antrodo) within the main church is the chapel of the glorious Virgin, of wondrous beauty indeed though small, in which no outsiders are allowed to celebrate apart from bishops, Friars Minor and Preaching Friars.19 Here there is a great pilgrimage on account of the frequency of miracles. It is said that St Peter worked with his own hands on the construction of that chapel. There is another chapel inside the castle itself. It is asserted that the Blessed Virgin herself worked on its construction with her own hands; but, knowing that there was going to be a castle there, she exchanged it with St Peter for the chapel   The Isola di San Pietro lies 7 km off the sw coast of Sardinia.   After falling to Saladin on 16 July 1188, Jabala, the port of Balatonos, does not

16 17

appear to have returned to Frankish hands until 1261, after the Mongol occupation, when the Hospitallers and Templars were dividing its revenues – this despite Raymond Rupen, prince of Antioch, promising the town and port to the Hospitallers in May 1207 and their receiving a formal grant in 1216. It would have fallen to Baybars by 1268, when Antioch itself was taken (Cahen, Syrie, pp. 667, 706–7, 716–17; Deschamps, Châteaux 3, pp. 127– 33, 161 n.5, 170, 178). Remains of the castle, incorporating the Roman theatre, were noted by Rey in 1859 (Étude, pp. 215–16, 175–6, fig. 45; Jacquot, État des Alouites, pp. 226–34). 18   Crac was taken by Baybars in April 1271: see Deschamps, Châteaux 1; King, ‘Taking of Le Krak’; Biller et al., Crac des Chevaliers, pp. 285–92. 19   i.e. Franciscans and Dominicans.

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mentioned above, so that the pilgrims would be able to enter it more freely, as is evident at present.20 Up to this point we have traversed the coastland of Syria.21 And there is no Christian territory beyond it other than Margat (Marqab), six leagues away, until one comes to Armenia. From Margat to Laodicea (Latakia) is nine leagues. From Laodicea to Antioch is fifty leagues. From Antioch to Armenia is the same number of leagues, that is, fifty. We, however, returned from Ṭarṭūs to Acre by the road along which we came. Before Ṭarṭūs there is a small island22 on whose shoals the mother of St Clement suffered shipwreck. Being separated in the same shipwreck from her sons Faustinus and Faustus, otherwise known as Nicæa and Aquila, she thought them drowned until St Peter came there to the same place; and, through the dispensation of divine grace, by a wonderful miracle he found again at the same time not only her two sons, safe and sound, but also Clement, whom she had left with [his] father at home, together with their father, that is to say her husband. The same story is explained more clearly in the journey of the same Clement.23 I ask anyone who as a result of my efforts receives any solace from this brief travelogue, whether by passing through the places mentioned or by reading it, to hold in commendation before God the soul of Lord Andrew Nicolas of happy memory and to commend me, poor Friar Maurice, no less devotedly to divine mercy.

  On the castle and churches of Ṭarṭūs, see Enlart, Monuments des croisés 2, pp. 395–426; Deschamps, Châteaux 3, pp. 287–91; id., Terre Sainte romane, pp. 231–6; Müller-Wiener, Castles, pp. 50–51, pls. 32–5; Piana, Burgen, pp. 408–21. 21   Friar Maurice appears to have travelled overland from Acre to Ṭarṭūs. 22   Aradus, al-Ruwād. 23   The story comes from an early Christian religious romance known as the ‘Clementines’, which survives in two principal forms: the Homiliæ, attributed to St Clement of Rome (fourth bishop of Rome after St Peter), and the Recognitiones, a Latin translation made by Rufinus of Aquileia (d. 410). In the passage referred to here – with some variations – Clement is accompanying St Peter n from Cæsarea with the latter’s companions, Nicetas and Aquila, the foster-sons of Justa, the Syro-Phœnician woman healed by Jesus. On the island of Aradus, Peter finds a beggar women who turns out to be Clement’s mother, Mattidia, who had disappeared long before with her twin elder sons after being sent by her husband, Faustus, for safety from Rome to Athens (Pseudo-Clement, Homiliæ 12.1–23, in PG 2, cols. 301–20; Rufinus (trans.), Recognitiones S. Clementis 7.1–23, in PG 1, cols. 1355–64, cf. Chapman, ‘Clementines’). 20

13

Burchard of Mount Sion op: Description of the Holy Land (1274–85) As St Jerome tells us,1 when we read in ancient histories of certain people who have wandered through provinces and crossed seas in order to see placed before their own eyes those things that they had learnt about from books – such as Plato visiting the soothsayers of Memphis and Apollonius Egypt (he also entered Persia and crossed the Caucasus and the lands of the Albanians, Scythians, Massegatæ, India and the Brahmins, to see Iarchas, and finally entered Egypt to see in the sand the famous table of the sun) – what wonder is it if Christians should desire to see and visit that land of which all Christ’s churches speak out? The ancients venerated the holy of holies because within it was the Ark of the Covenant, the Cherubim with the mercy-seat, the manna and the rod of Aaron that put forth leaves, all of which were a shadow of things to come. Is not the tomb of Jesus Christ more worthy of our respect, which whenever one enters one sees in the mind’s eye the Saviour wrapped in a linen cloth? And when one has proceeded a little further one sees the rolledback stone, the angel sitting on it and showing to the women the handkerchief with the linen cloths. What Christian having seen these things would not hasten to come to Bethlehem and contemplate the Child crying in the manger, Mary giving birth in the lodging place beneath the hollow rock which is to be seen to this day, the angels singing over and over again, ‘Glory to God and peace to men’, in the presence of the shepherds, and (what is even more amazing) the way in which the Three Magi in noble majesty fall down before the manger with no roof above their heads apart from the hanging rock?2 Afterwards he may return to Jerusalem and see and hear Jesus preaching in the Temple, teaching the disciples on the Mount of Olives, dining on Mount Sion, washing the disciples’ feet, giving up His body and blood, praying in Gethsemane, perspiring with bloody sweat, kissing the traitor, being led away a prisoner, scoffed at, spat upon, judged, carrying the cross, stumbling under the weight of the cross in the city gate that may be seen today,3 [20] being relieved by Simon of Cyrene and celebrating the mysteries of the Passion for us on Calvary. The memory of each and every one of these places is still as complete and clear as   Second letter to Paulinus: Epistolae 50, PL 22, cols. 540–41.   This description is evidently inspired by the twelfth-century mosaic in the Cave of

1 2

the Nativity of which only fragments survive, although it was fully described by the Greek John Phocas in 1177: see Hamilton, Church of the Nativity, pp. 86–8, fig. 15. 3   Today the Seventh Station of the Via Dolorosa: see Alliata and Kaswalder, ‘Settima stazione’, pp. 220–22.

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it was on that day when things were done in their presence. In truth, in this city so many places are distinguished by the holy events of the Lord’s Passion that a day would not be enough to examine each one of them profitably. Besides, there are certain things which arouse a greater devotion in those places. For who could say how many monks and nuns from Georgia, Greater and Lesser Armenia, Chaldæa, Syria, Media, Persia, India, Ethiopia, Nubia and Nabatæa and of the Maronite, Jacobite, Nestorian, Greek, Syrian and other communities now roam through each place in troops of one or two hundred more or less, kissing the ground with an eager spirit and venerating the places on which they have heard that sweet Jesus sat, stood or performed some work? Now beating their breasts, now emitting tears, groans and sighs in a gesture of the body and of the devotion that they show outwardly and doubtless also possess inwardly, they move many, even Saracens, to tears. O Lord God, I see Abraham, as is related in the ancient histories, leaving his country, his father’s house and his kindred and hastening to this land, setting up his tent between Bethel and Ai, and dwelling in Gerar, Beer-sheba and Hebron. I see Ezekiel forsaking the rivers of Babylon and, in order to come to Jerusalem, flying there, carried by the hair of his head between heaven and earth. What shall I say of the glorious Virgin, who, after the angelic salutation and promise was made to her by which she knew that her womb had been made the tabernacle of God, immediately hastened to go up into the mountain country of Judæa, wishing to draw near to the holy places? What shall I say of the patriarch Jacob and of Joseph and his brothers, who because they could not remain in that land when living chose to be buried in it when they died. What else? We may sigh over the dull-wittedness of the Christian people of our time, who having so many and such great examples delay in delivering from the hands of our enemies the land that Jesus Christ consecrated with His blood, the name of which resounds in all churches every day. For what hour is there of the day or night throughout the whole cycle of the year in which every devout Christian does not recall by singing, reading, psalmody, preaching and meditating those things that were done or written in this land and in its cities and localities? Seeing, however, that some people are affected by a desire to picture for themselves in some degree at least those things that they are unable to look upon face to face and wanting to satisfy their wish as far as I can, I have inspected, diligently recorded and studiously described in so far as I have been able that land through which I have frequently passed on foot; and I would wish the reader to know that I have included nothing in this description except what I saw with my own eyes when I was in the place itself or, when I was unable to gain access, what I saw standing on some mountain or in another suitable place; and I have noted down what I have learnt from Syrians, Saracens or other inhabitants of the land, diligently questioning them. For as I have said, the whole land from Dan to Beer-sheba and from the Dead Sea to the [21] Great Sea, those being its limits, I have either walked through on foot or else have carefully surveyed by eye on the occasions when I was unable to gain access. Considering, however, how I might usefully describe these things, so that they might be easily understood by my readers in their imagination, I thought of

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defining a central point among them and of setting out all the land around it in due measure. And for this centre I have chosen the city of Acre, as it is better known than other places. However, it is not located in the centre but at its western border on the sea. From it I have drawn four lines corresponding to the four parts of the world and each quarter I have divided into three, so that those twelve divisions might correspond to the twelve winds of heaven; and in each division I have placed the cities and places mentioned more especially in scripture, so that the location and disposition of individual places might more easily be found, and the part of the world in which they lie. Here begins the First Division of the Holy Land 1. It should be known first of all that one part of the land that we call the Holy Land, which fell to the lot of the twelve tribes of Israel, was called the kingdom of Judah and contained two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. The other part was called the kingdom of Samaria, that is to say of the city that is now called Sebaste and was the capital of the ten remaining tribes, which were called Israel. Both of those kingdoms, however, along with all the land of the Philistines (Philistiim) was called Palestine, which was part of Syria, just as Saxony and Franconia are parts of Germany, and Lombardy and Tuscany parts of Italy. So that this may be more clearly understood, note that there are many Syrias, called by different names. All the land that is between the River Tigris and Egypt is generally called Syria. The first part of it, however, which is between the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris and extends lengthwise from north to south, that is to say from Mount Taurus to the Red Sea, is called Mesopotamia of Syria, ‘in the middle between the waters’ so to speak, and has many tribes, such as the Parthians and Medes. On the south it adjoins Chaldæa, in which is Babylon, and to the south this in turn lies next to Arabia, which extends to the Red Sea, which in those parts is called the Arabian Gulf. The first part of the whole of Mesopotamia that faces north and in which is the city of Edessa,4 which in antiquity was called Races and now is called Rasc,5 is called in particular Mesopotamia of Syria. And this is First Syria. Second Syria is Syria Cœlia, which begins at the River Euphrates and ends on the bank of the Valania, which flows below the castle of Marqab (Margath) and falls into the Great Sea at the town of Bāniyās (Valania), in which there is an episcopal see, one league away from the castle already mentioned. In this Syria Cœlia is the city of Antioch, with its dependent towns, such as Laodicea,6 Apamea7 and many others.     6   7   4 5

‘Urfa. Rages in Media (Tobit 4.20), which is identifiable as medieval and modern al-Raqqa. Latakia. Qal‘at al-Mudīq.

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Third Syria is Phœnician Syria, which starts at the above-mentioned River Valania in the north and extends south to Petra incisa8 or the desert below Mount Carmel, which place is today called Pilgrims’ Castle9 and belongs to the knights of the Temple. In it there are [22] many cities, such as Marqab, Ṭarṭūs (Antardus), Tripoli, Beirut, Sidon, Tyre, Acre and Capharnaum.10 It is called Phœnician Syria after Phœnix, son of Agenor and brother of Cadmus, who restored Tyre and established it as the chief city of this land, calling it after his own name. Fourth Syria is Syria of Damascus, in which Damascus is the capital city. This adjoins Third or Phœnician Syria on its east side. However, Fourth Syria is also called Lebanese Syria, because it has the famous Mount Lebanon in it. After Fourth Syria, that is to say Phœnician Syria, there follows Palestine, which is properly called the land of the Philistines, because there are three Palestines, as will be seen, but they are all part of Greater Syria. First Palestine, whose capital is Jerusalem, extends with all its mountains as far as the Dead Sea, the desert and Kadesh-barnea. The Second, whose capital is Cæsarea of Palestine or Cæsarea Maritima, with the whole land of the Philistines, begins at the above-mentioned Petra incisa or Pilgrims’ Castle and extends as far east as Bashan (Basan). The Third, whose capital is Beth-shean (Bethsan), is sited below Mount Gilboa beside the Jordan. This was formerly called Scythopolis. That Palestine is properly called Galilee or the great plain of Esdrælon. There are also three Arabias, which are similarly part of Greater Syria. The first is that whose capital is Bostra (Bostrum), which is now called Busereth and was formerly called Bosra. This adjoins the region of Trachonitis and Ituræa on the west and Damascus close by to the north, for which reason Syria of Damascus is sometimes called Arabia. Thus Aretas is called king of Arabia when in truth he was king of Damascus.11 Second Arabia, whose capital is the city of Petra, formerly called Rabbat,12 is sited above the Arnon brook. That Arabia was the land of the sons of Ammon, albeit that the city of Ar was in Moab. It was also the land of the kingdom of Sihon, king of Heshbon (Eseban) and included the kingdom of Og, king of Bashan, and Mount Gilead. It adjoins First Arabia on the latter’s south side. Third Arabia is that whose capital is Montreal (Mons regalis), which is called Karak (Krach), and was formerly called Petra of the Desert (Petra Deserti), sited   Dustray, or le Detroit in medieval French.   ‘Atlīt. 10   Khirbat al-Kanīsa, between Ḥayfā and ‘Atlīt. 11   Cf. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 13.15.2, in Loeb 7, pp. 423–5, trans. Whiston, p. 8 9

388; idem, Jewish War 1.4.8, in Loeb 2, p. 51, trans. Williamson, p. 35. 12   Burchard is evidently referring here to ‘Ammān (Philadelphia), formerly Rabbat Ammon; but the metropolitan see of Petra (Wādī Mūsa) was transferred in the later sixth century not to ‘Ammān but to Rabbat Moab (Ar Moab, Areopolis, now al-Rabba, near Karak) (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 201, 248, 424–5; Notitia, in Tobler and Molinier, Itinera, p. 340). The same confusion is also found in William of Tyre (Chronicon 15.21, ed. Huygens, pp. 703–4) and John of Ibelin (Livre 226, ed. Edbury, p. 591).

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above the Dead Sea.13 It contains below it the land of Moab, which is properly called Syria Sobal, the whole of Idumæa or Mount Seir, all the land around the Dead Sea as far as Kadesh-barnea and Ezion-geber (Siongaber), and the Waters of Strife, extending towards the Red Sea through expansive wildernesses as far as the River Euphrates. This is Great Arabia, in which lies Mecca, the city of the tomb of the detestable Muḥammad. [23] Let what has been said up to now about the situation of the lands adjoining the Holy Land suffice. For the most part I have taken it from the sayings of the venerable father, James of Vitry, legate of the Holy Roman church in the Holy Land,14 although I have seen most of these things with my own eyes. For the rest, let me turn my pen to a particular description of the land that fell into the possession of the ten tribes. Let it be known first of all, as has been said above, that I have divided the Holy Land into four parts, corresponding to the four quarters of heaven, that is to say the eastern, western, southern and northern, notwithstanding that the whole of the western division faces the Great Sea as do those parts of the southern and northern divisions that adjoin the western. I shall begin first of all by proceeding in a straight line south from the city of Acre, which in antiquity was called Ptolomaïs, passing by the cities and places that are located on the shore of the Great Sea. 2. We therefore take up the beginning of our description from the city of Acre, proceeding in a straight line towards Tyre and thence to the other cities following it, which I shall speak about in turn. It should be known, however, that this city was never part of the Holy Land nor was it in the possession of the children of Israel, despite being assigned to the tribe of Asher in the distribution of land, because the people of Asher never took possession of it.15 It is located in the province of Phœnicia, having Mount Carmel four leagues to the south and the city of Ḥayfā (Cayphas) at the foot of the same mountain, beyond the Kishon brook where the Prophet Elijah killed the priests of Baal. The region of Phœnicia, or Phœnician Syria, extends three leagues south beyond this place as far as Petra incisa, which is called Pilgrims’ Castle. This place is the southern boundary of Phœnicia. The city of Acre is fortified with walls, forewalls, towers, ditches and very strong barbicans. It has a triangular shape, like a shield, two sides of which lie   This reference is to al-Karak, which replaced al-Shawbak (Montréal) as the caput of the lordship of Montreal in 1142 and was therefore sometimes referred to as le Crac de Monréal, or al-Karak al-Shawbak. It was also called Petra because the metropolitan see of Petra was transferred to it from Rabbat Moab–Areopolis in 1167 (cf. Deschamps, Châteaux 2, pp. 36–7; id. ‘Les deux Cracs des croisés’; see also previous note). 14   James of Vitry, Historia orientalis 98, ed. Donnadieu, p. 442. James of Vitry was bishop of Acre (1216–28), not apostolic legate, though on his return to the West he became cardinal archbishop of Tusculum (Huygens, Lettres de Jacques de Vitry, p. 1; Hamilton, Latin Church, pp. 253–7). 15   Judges 1.31. 13

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against the Great Sea while the third faces the plain that surrounds it. The plain is two leagues wide, more in some places and less in others. It is very fertile both in arable fields and in pasture, vineyards and orchards, in which grow various kinds of fruit. The city is also defended by the great body of soldiers of the Hospital, the Temple and the Teutonic Order, by their castles and by the town’s citadel. It belongs to the king and has a good capacious harbour to the south of the city for accommodating ships. Four leagues to the north of there is casale Lamberti,16 built beside the sea below Mount Sharon and abounding likewise in vineyards, gardens and running waters. [24] Three leagues from there after crossing Mount Sharon17 is the castle of Scandalion (Iskandarūna), which Alexander is said to have built when he was besieging Tyre. But Baldwin [I], king of Jerusalem, rebuilt it and gave it to be held by certain noblemen, who take their name from it.18 It abounds in meadows, pasture, orchards of figs and olives, vineyards, rivers and gardens. Slightly more than a league from there is that wonderful ‘well of living waters’,19 a bowshot from the road for those going to Tyre. These waters, according to the Song of Solomon, ‘flow vigorously from Lebanon’.20 Although it is called a well in the singular, there are despite this four, similar in shape but of different sizes. One of them, the principal one, is square and forty cubits long and broad according to my own measurements, while the other three measure about twentyfive cubits. They are all enclosed by very strong walls of very strong stones, built in indestructible masonry to the height of a lance or more. In these the water is collected and rises until it overflows the walls on every side. None the less, from there aqueducts have been made, running down between banks as high and as wide apart as the height of a man. This I proved for myself by entering the channel along which the water flowed. They distribute those waters throughout the whole plain of Tyre and in this way irrigate the gardens, orchards and sugar-canes, which grow there in great quantity and from which the lord of Tyre receives extremely large revenues. These springs are a little more than a bowshot from the Great Sea and in that short space they power six fairly large mill-wheels before being swallowed straight into the sea. These springs appear to correspond literally with what Ecclesiasticus says: ‘“I will water my orchard of plantings and drench the fruit of my offspring.” And behold, my channel was made to overflow and my river drew near to the sea.’21 These waters are of great benefit to the local inhabitants.   Al-Zīb, Biblical Akhziv: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 384–5.   The Ladder of Tyre. 18   Scandalion was rebuilt by Baldwin I in 1117 (‘Petite chronique’, ed. Huygens, 16 17

p. 363; William of Tyre 11.30, ed. Huygens, p. 543; Favreau, ‘Die Kreuzfahrerherrschaft Scandalion’; Pringle, Churches 2, p. 251; id., Secular Buildings, p. 51). 19   Ra’s al-‘Ayn. 20   Cf. Song of Solomon 4.15. 21   Cf. Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 24.31.

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Less than a league from that spring is the city of Tyre. It is sited on the sea shore. Enough has been said in its praise by Ezekiel,22 Isaiah,23 Jeremiah24 and other books of holy scripture. It had a channel of living waters from the abovementioned well [25] led to it through wonderful underground channels and pyramids, all of which I went around and saw with my own eyes. The city of Tyre is said to have been built by Tiras, son of Japhet,25 after the Flood. It was restored by Phœnix, as stated above, and was made capital of Phœnicia. It has a great circuit of walls and in my opinion is larger than the city of Acre, having a rounded shape and being located in the midst of the sea on a very hard rock surrounded by sea on all sides save that facing east, where first Nebuchadnezzar and later Alexander joined it to the land a bowshot away. Here it is girded by a triple wall, strong, high and twenty-five feet thick. These walls are further fortified with twelve very strong towers, compared to which I do not recall having seen better ones anywhere in the world. To these towers is joined the town’s citadel, a strongly fortified castle sited on a rock in the midst of the sea and defended likewise by towers and very strong palisades.26 Justly, the whole world should not be able to storm the city. In the city there are many relics, as we learn from the Ecclesiastical History of the martyrs who died there under Diocletian, whose number is known only to God.27 Origen lies there enclosed within a wall in the church of the Holy Sepulchre; and there I saw his inscription.28 There are there marble columns and other stones so large that it a wonder to behold them. In this city there is an archbishop’s see and it is the metropolis of Phœnicia, having as suffragans the bishops of Beirut, Sidon and Acre.29 This metropolitan see extends as far as Petra incisa or Pilgrims’ Castle, as has been mentioned. I spent ten days in Tyre and have examined it as diligently as I could on many other occasions. Before the east gate of the city a bowshot away among the dunes is shown the place of Jesus Christ’s preaching, where a woman in the crowd raised her voice, saying, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you’, etc.,30 and a large stone on which Jesus Christ was standing at the time. This place is never covered by sand, even though the sand there is light and volatile like the snow in western and northern     24   25   26   27   28   22

Ezekiel 26–8. Isaiah 23. Jeremiah 27.3. Cf. Genesis 10.1–2. palaciis may mean ‘palisades’, ‘halls’ or ‘palaces’. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 8.7.1–8.1, in Loeb 2, pp. 270–73. The church, belonging to the canons of the Holy Sepulchre, was St Mary’s, the former Greek Orthodox cathedral: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 216–17. 29   John of Ibelin adds Bāniyās to this list, but that was no longer in Frankish hands (Livre 227, ed. Edbury, p. 593). The bishop’s cathedra stood in the church of the Holy Cross: see Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 182–204. 30   Luke 11.27. 23

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lands, which blown by the wind in winter is accustomed to fly about and form drifts around hedges and similar places. Indeed, that place in the middle of the sands always remains uncovered both in summer and winter, as I have seen with my own eyes.31 There is also in the same place a column lying prostrate, where, so it is said, some pilgrims visiting that place were ambushed and killed by Saracens. Three small leagues to the north of Tyre the River Eleutherus32 enters the Great Sea. [26] It was as far as this river that Jonathan pursued King Demetrius, as is told in the first book of Maccabees.33 This river comes from Ituræa or Galilee of the tribes, from the region that was called in antiquity the land of Rehob (terra Roob)34 and later Cabul (Kabul);35 and it flows below the castle of Belfort,36 which belonged to the knights of the Temple,37 and passes by Ramah (Horma),38 up to which Joshua followed the thirty-one kings, as is told by Joshua.39 Two leagues from this river is Zarephath of the Sidonians (Sarepta Sidoniorum),40 before whose southern gate is shown a chapel in the place where Elijah the prophet came to the woman of Zarephath and stayed there and revived her son.41 In the same place is shown the upper chamber in which he rested. Zarephath has scarcely eight houses, though its ruins show it to have once been very magnificent. Two leagues from there is Sidon, a great city of Phœnicia, whose ruins still attest to its size, which if described would hardly be believed. It was laid out in a plain, extending longitudinally from south to north below the Anti-Lebanon mountain, between it and the sea. It was an exceptionally beautiful city. Out of its ruins another 31   A church of the Holy Saviour commemorating Christ’s visit and containing part of a column on which He was supposed to have stood was built outside the city in the twelfth century and part of it is still intact; but by Burchard’s time it had probably been covered by sand and its existence and location seem to have been forgotten (Pringle, Churches 4, pp. 220–27). 32   Nahr al-Litāni, also known in its lower reaches as Nahr al-Kāsimīja. The Eleutherus was in fact the Nahr al-Kabīr, further n (see Abel, Géographie 1, pp. 257, 463 and 2, pp. 117, 128, 137; Dussaud, Topographie, pp. 91–2). 33   1 Maccabees 12.30. 34   2 Samuel 10.6–8; Judges 18.28; Joshua 19.28 and 30. 35   1 Kings 9.13; Joshua 19.27. 36   Qal‘at al-Shaqīf Arnūn. 37   It was in Templar hands between 1240 and 1268: see Bessac and Yasmine, ‘Étude préliminaire’; Corvisier, ‘Les Campagnes de construction’; Yasmine, ‘Burg Beaufort’; cf. Deschamps, Châteaux 2, pp. 176–208, pls. liii–lxxv; Pringle, Secular Buildings, p. 31; id., Churches 1, p. 110. 38   Joshua 19.29. 39   Joshua 12.7; cf. 11.3, 8 and 17. 40   Ṣarafand. 41   1 Kings 17.8–24; Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 281–2.

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city has been built, small indeed but fortified, if only it had people to defend it. On one side it is set in the sea, having to either side of it two well enough defended castles, one to the north built by pilgrims who had come from Germany and sited on a rock in the midst of the sea and the other on the south sited on a hill and fairly strong. The knights of the Temple hold these castles together with the city.42 The adjacent land is very fertile, abounds in all good things and has a healthy climate. There are there very good sugar-canes and vineyards. [27] Before the east gate of the ancient city, which is now deserted, is a chapel, built in the place where a Canaanite woman came to the Lord pleading on behalf of her demoniac daughter,43 on the road that leads towards Ituræa and Cæsarea Philippi.44 The Anti-Lebanon mountain is one league east of Sidon. That mountain begins, however, above the River Eleutherus, of which I have spoken earlier, and extends for a distance of nearly five days’ travel to a point five leagues beyond Tripoli. It is never more than two leagues from the sea, except near Tripoli where the distance is almost three leagues. Sometimes, however, it comes so close to the sea that the place is completely impassable. It abounds in excellent wines, as it is written: ‘His memorial [shall be] like the wine of Lebanon.’45 And the good quality of the wine continues as far as the castle of Marqab (Margathum). Nine leagues beyond Sidon is the noble and ancient city of Beirut (Beritum), where it is said that the Lord preached.46 There also the Jews made an image of Him in paste and mocked it; and when they finally crucified it, they drew from it a large quantity of blood, which is reverently kept in many places today.47 The bishop of this city, like the bishop of Sidon, is a suffragan of the archbishop of Tyre. The metropolitan see of Tyre ends three leagues further on, at the river that is called the river of the Dog’s Pass,48 which enters the Great Sea at that point. Here similarly the patriarchate of Jerusalem ends and the patriarchate of Antioch and county of Tripoli begin. This place is called the Dog’s Pass and cannot be passed by land except with the good will of the Saracens, for a few men could easily deny passage there to all the world. Six leagues from Beirut on the sea is Byblos (Biblium), which is the first city of the patriarchate of Antioch and has a bishop. Of it, it is said in Ezekiel 27, praising   The Sea Castle was built over the winter of 1227/8 and passed to the Templars with the rest of the lordship in 1260. The Land Castle stood at the sw corner of the town walls, incorporating remains of the Roman theatre (Deschamps, Châteaux 2, pp. 224–33; Piana, Burgen, pp. 367–83; Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 317–29; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 94–5). 43   Matthew 15.21–8, cf. Mark 7.24–30; Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 321–2. 44   Bāniyās, by the springs of the Jordan. 45   Cf. Hosea 14.7 (RSV): ‘they shall blossom as the vine, their fragrance shall be like the wine of Lebanon.’ 46   Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 111–19; id., Secular Buildings, p. 32. 47   See Pringle, Churches 1, p. 117. 48   Nahr al-Kalb. 42

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Tyre, ‘The old men of Byblos [Gebal] and her wise men had sailors to attend to your various household goods.’49 The lord of Byblos is a vassal of the count of Tripoli. The city is now called Giblet (Sibleth)50 and is fairly small.51 Four leagues from Byblos is the city of Baṭrūn (Botrum), which was once rich in very fine wine and all the goods of the world but is now completely destroyed. Three leagues from there is the castle of Nephin (‘Anfa), which is almost entirely in the sea. It belongs to the prince [28] of Antioch. In it I have seen twelve good towers and a strongly fortified place.52 The wine of this town is the most renowned of all the wines of those parts. Two leagues from Nephin is the city of Tripoli, which is extremely fine and almost wholly sited in the midst of the sea, like Tyre. It is very populous, for in it live Greeks, Latins, Armenians, Maronites, Nestorians and many other peoples. Much work is done there in silk. I have heard for certain that there are there weavers of silk, camlet and other similar fabrics. The land adjacent to it may be said without doubt to be a paradise on account of the unending loveliness of its vineyards and plantations of olives, figs and sugarcanes, of all which I do not recall having seen the like anywhere else. The plain before the city is one league in length and half a league in width. In that space there are gardens, in which grow various fruits in such a quantity that they are said to be worth 300,000 gold bezants each year to their lords.53 Three leagues from the city is Lebanon, at whose foot rises the ‘spring of the gardens, flowing with strength from Lebanon’, as it is called in the Song of Solomon.54 This spring appears to rise meagerly but suddenly gains strength and becomes a very large and powerful river. It waters all the orchards and the plain between Tripoli and Lebanon and enhances the region wonderfully. Its waters are excellent, cold and sweet and on its banks many religious houses and many churches have been built. It comes, as has been stated, from the foot of the mountain, encircles in part the Mountain of the Leopards55 and is then led through the orchards, watering them. It enters the sea in three goodly sized channels, not counting other streams that similarly flow into the sea in various places. And it is certainly true what is said in the book of Esther of that spring, because ‘a tiny spring grew into a great river and abounded in many waters.’56 Two leagues from Tripoli is the Mountain of the Leopards, which is rounded in appearance, fairly high and one league from Lebanon. At its foot on the north I saw a cave in which there was a monument twelve feet long, which the Saracens     51   52   53   54   55   56   49 50

Garbled and truncated quotation after the Vulgate version of Ezekiel 27.9. In Arabic, Jubayl. Deschamps, Châteaux 3, pp. 203–15. Deschamps, Châteaux 3, pp. 297–301, pls. lxi–lxiii. In Burchard’s day the count was Bohemond VII (1275–87). Cf. Song of Solomon 4.15. Jabal Turbul. Esther 11.10 (deuterocanonical text).

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devoutly visit, saying that it is the tomb of Joshua. This I do not believe to be true, since the text says that he was buried in Timnath-heres (Thamnathsare), which is near Shechem (Sichem) on the side of Mount Ephraim (Effraym).57 I believe this rather to be the tomb of Canaan, the son of Ham, son of Noah, or that of another of Noah’s grandsons, as they are explicitly shown to have lived round about this place, as will be explained below. Some three leagues north from that cave is the end of Anti-Lebanon and similarly of Lebanon. Where they both terminate is shown today the castle of ‘Arqa (Arachas),58 which [29] Aracheus, son of Canaan, built and called after his own name, as relates the gloss on Genesis 10 and 1 Chronicles.59 And the land where Lebanon ends is very glorious, beautiful and fertile. I shall tell you about the mountain’s location and length below, when I make mention of Cæsarea Philippi and the source of the Jordan. Half a league east of the castle of ‘Arqa is the town of Sin (Syn), which Sin, the son of Canaan and brother of Aracheus, built after the Flood not far from ‘Arqa, as the gloss of Genesis relates.60 A Nestorian living there, however, told me on inquiry that the town was called Synochim; and a Saracen in the same place told me the same thing. Below the castle of ‘Arqa and the town of Synochim is a great plain, pleasant and very fertile, which stretches eleven leagues in length and six in breadth as far as Crac (Krach), which once belonged to the Hospital of St John, and as far as Antaradus (Anteradum), which is now called Ṭarṭūs (Tortosa). That plain has many villages, beautiful woods of olives, figs and other trees of different kinds, and much timber. Moreover, it is very richly provided with streams and pastures. As a result Turkomans, Midianites and Bedouin live there in tents with their wives, children, flocks and camels. I have seen there a great herd of camels and believe that there were many thousands of camels there. On the east the plain is enclosed by mountains of no great height, which begin near ‘Arqa and extend as far as Crac. In these mountains live certain people who are called Vannini, a wild and malicious tribe who are troublesome to the Christians.61 From the towns of ‘Arqa and Synochim to Antaradus is eight leagues through the plain. It is called Antaradus because it stands facing Aradus (ante Aradium).62 Aradus is an island in the midst of the sea half a league from the mainland. Down to our own times there was on it a good city, of which it is said by Ezekiel:   Judges 2.9.   On the medieval fortifications and finds from the site, see: Thalmann, ‘Tell ‘Arqa’;

57 58

Leriche, ‘Les défenses’; Hakimian and Salamé-Sarkis, ‘Céramiques médiévales’. 59   Genesis 10.17 and 1 Chronicles 1.15 relate that Canaan was father of the Arkites. 60   Cf. Genesis 10.15–19. Its modern name is Shayn (Dussaud, Topographie, pp. 88– 9). 61   Apparently the Alawites, inhabiting the Nuṣayrī mountains or Jabal Anṣāriyya (Dussaud, Topographie, pp. 138–9). 62   The island of al-Ruwād.

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‘The sons of Arvad (Aradius) were with your army upon your walls round about.’63 And the gloss says: ‘The city of Aradus is sited completely surrounded by the sea facing Antaradus near Tyre.’ The truth is that it is five days’ journey from Tyre. Arvad, son of Canaan, founded this city after the Flood. [30] Note here that Ham, son of Noah, begat Canaan after the Flood. ‘Canaan, however, was the father of Sidon, his first-born, and Heth, and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. And through these were spread abroad the peoples of the Canaanites.’64 From these eleven sons of Canaan, four, that is to say Sidon, the first-born who built Sidon, Aracheus, who founded ‘Arqa (Arachas), Sin, who founded Synochim, and Arvad, who founded Aradus, as is related above – these four, I say, remained in that land around the end of Lebanon, as has been shown; the other seven, however, that is to say, Heth and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites65 and the Hamathites, these you left, O Lord God of Israel, that they might become accustomed to engaging in battle. The pyramids and tombs of those four, however, are shown today one league before Antaradus; they are sumptuous beyond measure and of astonishing size. I have seen stones in them (for I measured the stone) twenty-four feet long and as broad and thick as the height of a tall man, such that it is a wonder to behold them. How they can have been erected or brought together in a building is altogether remarkable. To one side of Antaradus, half a league to the east, are some mountains,66 which are not very high or inaccessible, according to some. This is called the land of the Assassins, which it is. More will be said of their religion and customs below. In Antaradus St Peter preached for a long time when he was going to Antioch, as we read in the ‘Beehive’ of Clement.67 There also Clement found his mother. Moreover, there St Peter constructed the first church in honour of the Blessed Virgin, which remains to this day.68 In this church I celebrated mass, for I stayed there six days. Seven leagues from Antaradus is the castle of Marqab (Margath), belonging to the brothers of the Hospital of St John. It is sited on a very high mountain, overlooking the city of Bāniyās (Valania) one league from the sea, and is strongly     65   66   67   63

Cf. Ezekiel 27.11. Cf. Genesis 10.15–18. ‘Arkites’ is evidently a mistake for ‘Zemarites’. Jabal al-Anṣāriyya. The reference (in alveario Clementis) is to the so-called ‘Clementines’ attributed to St Clement of Rome, in which he described his travels with St Peter, in the course of which he was reunited with his mother, Mattidia, on Aradus island (Pseudo-Clement, Homiliæ 12.1–23, in PG 2, cols. 301–20; Rufinus (trans.), Recognitiones S. Clementis 7.1–23, in PG 1, cols. 1355–64). See also Friar Maurice [12.2]. 68   Enlart, Monuments des croisés 2, pp. 395–426; Deschamps, Terre Sainte romane, pp. 231–6, pls. 79–94. 64

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fortified.69 The episcopal see that was formerly in Bāniyās [31] has been moved into the castle on account of the attacks of the Saracens. The bishop is a suffragan of the archbishop of Apamea, as is the bishop of ‘Arqa.70 The kingdom of Jerusalem ends at the city of Bāniyās and the river of the same name that flows past it. There also begins the principality of Antioch, in the same place where the county of Tripoli ends.71 That place is eight days’ journey distant from the city of Acre and it is four days from there to Antioch. Although I have gone further into that land investigating it, I shall write nothing of it, for I do not propose to write about any lands other than the Holy Land. Let these sayings suffice concerning the first division. Here begins the Second Division of the Holy Land 3. The second division extends north from Acre. Proceeding four leagues north in it from Acre one comes first of all to the castle that was called Montfort (Mons fortis). This used to belong to the Hospital of the Germans, but is now completely destroyed.72 Four leagues from there in the same direction is the strongly fortified castle of Toron (Tibnīn), which the lord of Tiberias built against Tyre when the Saracens were holding it, it being seven leagues from Tyre.73 Four leagues from there is the ancient city of Hazor (Asor), in which lived that strong king Jabin, who fought with thirty-one kings against Joshua and Israel at

  It fell to Sultan Qalā’ūn on 27 May 1285. On the castle, see Deschamps, Châteaux 3, pp. 259–85. 70   Before the Crusader conquest, ‘Arqa had been a suffragan of the archbishop of Tyre (Notitia Antiochiæ & Ierosolymæ (6c.), p. 331; Patriarcats de Jérusalem et d’Antioche (c.1180), p. 15; William of Tyre, in RHC Occ 1, p. 1155). Its transfer to the archbishopric of Apamea was presumably a result of the ceding of the archbishopric of Tyre and four of its suffragans from the patriarchate of Antioch to that of Jerusalem in 1137–40 (William of Tyre 13.23, 14.11–14, ed. Huygens, pp. 614–18, 642–51, trans. Babcock and Krey 2, pp. 35–8, 61–6; cf. Hamilton, Latin Church, pp. 27–30, 66–7, 70–71; Pringle, Churches 4, p. 183) and the merging of ‘Arqa with the Latin bishopric of Tripoli (William of Tyre 14.14, ed. Huygens, p. 649, trans. 2, p. 68; Hamilton, Latin Church, p. 140). 71   The boundary between the county of Tripoli and the principality of Antioch more probably lay a little further s, just n of Maraclea (Khirbat Marqiyya), leaving Bāniyās and Marqab in the territory of Antioch (Deschamps, Châteaux 3, pp. 13, 75). It is also debatable whether the counts of Tripoli would have regarded themselves as subjects of the king of Jerusalem. 72   It was taken by Sultan Baybars in June 1271 (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 40–43; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 73–5). 73   Toron was built by Hugh of St Omer, prince of Galilee, in 1106, and fell to Baybars in 1266 (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 367–8; id., Secular Buildings, p. 102). 69

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the waters of Merom (Maron).74 Of this place it is also said in Joshua 11 that ‘a ravenous flame consumed strong Hazor alone’.75 The ruins of this city attest its fame down to the present day.76 Some six leagues north of it is the city of Bāniyās (Belinas), at the foot of Mount Lebanon, which, as is said in the book of Judges, was first called Laish (Lais). And because it was far from Sidon, that is, about eleven leagues, and because the people there had no alliances – it being in the region of Beth-rehob (Roob) – the children of Dan took it and called it Leshem Dan (Lesen Dan), after the name of Dan their father.77 Often, however, it is simply called Dan, after [32] this: ‘all Israel gathered together, from Dan to Beer-sheba.’78 For this city is at the northern boundary of the Holy Land, while Beer-sheba is at the southern, according to Kings: ‘Elijah came to Beer-sheba of Judah.’79 And further on: ‘And he went away into the wilderness.’80 And there is no doubt that the wilderness adjoins that city, which is now called Bayt Jibrīn (Giblin).81 When Philip was tetrarch of Ituræa and Trachonitis, however, he wanted to name the city of Bāniyās, or Dan, Cæsarea Philippi after his own name. By the Greeks, however, it is called Paneas. But today all these names have ceased to be used and it is commonly called Bāniyās (Belinas). Above this city on either side two springs, the Jor and the Dan, rise at the foot of Mount Lebanon. Before the gate of the city they come together and flow as one river: the Jordan. Note, however, that the truth of the matter is that this is not the actual source of the Jordan. For Josephus says, and it is the truth, that about 120 stadia south from that place is a spring, which is called the Phiala.82 It is always full but never issues forth from there. Instead it runs underground to the other place, flows forth there and is called Dan. This has very often been proved by putting straws into Phiala and recovering them in the spring of Dan. The Saracens, however, call that spring not Phiala but Medan, that is, the ‘waters of Dan’. For instance, they might say, ‘These are the waters of Dan,’ for me83 means ‘water’ in Arabic and Dan is   Joshua 11.1–9.   Cf. Joshua 11.13. 76   Identified today as Tall al-Qadaḥ, or Tall Waqqāṣ, n of the sea of Galilee: see Abel, 74 75

Géographie 2, p. 345; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 436. 77   Judges 18.27–9; Joshua 19.47–8. 78   2 Samuel 17.11. 79   1 Kings 19.3. 80   1 Kings 19.4. 81   Bayt Jibrīn was commonly misidentified as Beer-sheba by medieval writers, e.g. William of Tyre, Chronicon 14.22, ed. Huygens, pp. 659–61, trans. Babcock and Krey 2, pp. 80–82. 82   i.e. the ‘Bowl’, or ‘Saucer’: Jewish War 3.10.7, in Loeb 2, pp. 719–21, trans. Williamson, 220–21. 83   mā’, pl. miya.

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one of the above-mentioned springs. Matthew indeed calls that place Magadan (Magedan)84 and Mark Dalmanutha.85 It is not far from the city of Sawād (Sueta), next to the pyramid of the tomb of blessed Job, in the region of Trachonitis.86 This will be described more fully below. The River Jordan having come together before the gate of Bāniyās, as has been said, and having wound its way a long distance from the two springs that form it, dividing Trachonitis from Ituræa, finally enters the sea of Galilee between Capernaum and Chorazin (Corroazim),87 four leagues from the city of Kedar (Cedar),88 which is located above it on a mountain. Midway between Bāniyās and the sea of Galilee it enters a valley, where it forms a pool at the time of the melting of the snows from Lebanon. That pool is called today ‘at the waters of Merom’ (Maron).89 There Joshua contended with Jabin, king of Hazor, and thirty other kings and being victorious pursued them as far as the waters of Misrephoth (Maserephot) and [33] Great Sidon,90 a distance of almost eight leagues. This water dries up for the most part in summer time. From it there grow there in dense profusion bushes and herbage in which lie concealed lions, bears and other wild animals; and there are the royal hunting preserves.91 Half of this valley is in this second division, which faces north, while the other half is contained in the following third division. The third part, however, which lies beyond this valley and extends all the way along the east bank of the Jordan as far as Lebanon to the left and Mount Hermon to the south-east and as far as the city of Būsra‘ (Bosra), which is to the east on Mount Senir (Sanyr), which is joined to Mount Hermon,92 this third part is called in Joshua93 the plains of Lebanon or the region of Trachonitis, because, since that land lacks running waters, the inhabitants collect water in pools94 and cisterns when it rains and convey it from   Matthew 15.39.   Mark 8.10. 86   Al-Sawād was a region lying 84 85

s of the Jawlān, e of the sea of Galilee, thus considerably more than 120 stadia from Bāniyās. Other sources, however, refer to the plain around Muzayrib, n of Dar‘ā, as Medan. The tomb of Job lay in the same area (see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 238, 239–40). 87   Identified in this period as Kursi (ancient Chorsia, Gergesa), on the e shore of the lake (TIR, p. 104); ancient Chorazin was at Khirbat Kerraza, nw of Capernaum (TIR, p. 103). 88   Burchard identifies Kedar as Gamala, which he appears to have located at Jamla (see below). 89   Lake Hula. 90   Joshua 11.1–8; 12.24. 91   ‘Royal’ in this case presumably refers to the Mamluk sultans. 92   Busra lies far to the se of Mount Hermon on the w side of Jabal al-‘Arab. Senir was the name by which the Amorites called Mount Hermon itself (Deuteronomy 3.9). 93   Joshua 11.17. 94   in bercilibus, from the Arabic birka, pl. burāk.

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place to place by underground channels (tracones) in order to sustain themselves and their beasts of burden.95 Here it seems necessary, since I have made mention of Mounts Lebanon, Hermon and Senir, that I should say more about them so that other things may be understood. It should be known that the mountains that are above the Arnon brook and are between Ammon, Moab and the Ammonites – likewise Mount Gilead (Galaad), which is in the land of Og, king of Bashan, Mount Senir, Mount Hermon above Baal-gad96 and the sea of Galilee and Mount Lebanon – are all one continuous mountain, but in different places it is called by different names, just as may plainly be seen in the Alps that separate Germany from Lombardy. Mount Gilead, however, is the highest of all those mountains and appears as the summit of them all. Whence I believe that saying of Jeremiah to be true to the letter: ‘You are Gilead to me, as the summit of Lebanon.’97 Mount Senir (Sanyr) adjoins Mount Gilead and is also called Seir (Seyr), because there lived Esau, also known as Seir,98 as will be explained below, and it is beyond the sea of Galilee and fell to the lot of the half-tribe of Manasseh.99 In the same place it adjoins Mount Hermon, which encloses the region of Trachonitis and extends as far as Damascus, near which, between Bāniyās (Belinas) and Damascus, it merges with Mount Lebanon. Mount Lebanon itself is in my judgement higher above the city of Bāniyās than it is anywhere else in the whole range that is called Lebanon. In that place it is two leagues from Tyre and is to be seen clearly in Tyre. [34] I myself have seen it from there, luminous in the middle of the night. Its length is equivalent to five days’ journey and for the whole of that distance it has its summit covered in snow. It comes closer and closer to the sea, such that whereas at the beginning, that is above Bāniyās, it is eleven leagues from the sea, at the end beside ‘Arqa (Arachas) it is only three leagues away. It is seen by those sailing by sea the whole way from Tyre to Ṭarṭūs (Anteradus); and below it the Anti-Lebanon comes similarly ever closer to the sea. There are fertile and well-tended valleys in Lebanon itself and in AntiLebanon, which abound in pastures, vineyards, gardens, orchards and in brief all the good things of the earth. Many races live in them, as has been said above, such as Maronites, Armenians, Greeks, Nestorians, Jacobites and Georgians; they are all Christians and are, as they say themselves, in obedience to the Roman church.

  Trachonitis was the name applied to the extensive lava region around Būsra‘: see Dussaud, Topographie, p. 371; Abel, Géographie 2, p. 156. Burchard’s explanation of its derivation is fanciful. 96   Cf. Joshua 13.5. 97   Jeremiah 22.6 (RSV). 98   Recte Edom. 99   Cf. Genesis 32.3 and 36.1–40; Deuteronomy 2.12 and 22. See also Abel, Géographie 1, pp. 281–4. 95

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Here begins the Third Division of the Holy Land 4. The third division extends from Acre towards the south-east.100 In it, four leagues from Acre, is the castle known as Jiddin (Iudin), in the mountains of Sharon; it belonged to the German house, but is now destroyed.101 Three leagues from there in a valley is the Castle of the Kings (castellum regium),102 a former possession of the same house, abounding in all good things and fruits, which furthermore are rare in that land except in that place. Now the Saracens hold it. Four leagues from there towards the waters of Merom (Maron) is the valley of Zaanannim (Sennim), where Heber the Kenite set up his tent not far from the city of Hazor.103 His wife, Jael by name, killed Sisera, commander of the army of Jabin, king of Hazor, by transfixing him through the temple with a tent peg, as is told in Judges.104 Two leagues from that valley is Cabul (Kabul), which the Saracens call Zabul.105 That land is called the land of Cabul, which means displeasure, as is told in the third book of Kings.106 Two leagues south from there is the castle and city of Ṣafad (Saphet), the strongest and most beautiful of all castles in my opinion, which I saw sited on a very high mountain. It had belonged to the knights of the Temple (militie templi), but was betrayed and captured very ignominiously to the detriment of all Christendom;107 for from it the sultan holds all Galilee, that is the tribes of Zebulun, Naphtali, Asher, Issachar and Manasseh and all the land as far as Acre, Tyre and Sidon. [35]   More correctly ‘north-east’.   It belonged to the Teutonic Order (Pringle et al., ‘Qal‘at Jiddin’; Pringle, Churches

100 101

2, p. 162; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 80–82). 102   Mi‘iliya (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 30–32; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 71–2). 103   Judges 4.11; cf. Joshua 19.33. 104   Judges 4.17–22. 105   Cabul is now identified with Kābūl, se of Acre (Abel, Géographie, pp. 14, 67, 286). The Arabic form that Burchard gives (Zabul), however, suggests that he may have been referring to Kh. Zābud, some 6 km w of Ṣafad. 106   1 Kings 9.10–14. 107   It was taken by Baybars on 22 July 1266 and all but one of the garrison (including two Franciscans) executed, owing to the treachery of a Templar sergeant, Leo, administrator of the estates (casalia) dependent on the castle, who was sent to negotiate a surrender but to save his own life betrayed his companions and converted to Islam (Templar of Tyre §§109–11 (245–7), ed. Minervini, p. 108; Sanudo 3.12.8, ed. Bongars, p. 222; Golobovich, Biblioteca bio-bibliografia 1, pp. 259–61). Baybars subsequently refortified it. On the castle, see de Constructione castri Saphet, ed. Huygens; Barbé and Damati, ‘Château de Safad’; Pringle, ‘Reconstructing the Castle of Safad’; id., Churches 2, pp. 206–9; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 91–2.

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Four leagues north from there just beside the valley of Zaanannim is Kedesh in Naphtali (Cedes Neptali).108 From it came Barak, son of Abinoam, who fought against Sisera on Mount Tabor.109 This was the city of the fugitives of the tribe of Naphtali, abundant in all the good things of the earth; and to this day large ruins are shown there as well as very beautiful tombs. Two leagues from the castle of Ṣafad, on going down the mountain towards the east, a stone’s throw from the sea of Galilee above the road leading east is the way up that hill, which Christ Jesus so often ascended and on which according to Matthew he made that sermon [on the Mount]110 and satisfied five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish.111 To that place having dismissed the crowd He went up alone to pray.112 He fled there when they wanted to make Him king.113 There He taught the disciples to pray.114 On it He spent the whole night in prayer.115 As He was descending from it the centurion implored Him on behalf of his paralytic boy.116 There came to Him there a multitude of sick people and of those troubled by unclean spirits.117 There He touched the leper and cured him.118 There He stood in the fields with a crowd of His disciples. From that hill is seen the whole of the sea of Galilee, Ituræa and the region of Trachonitis as far as Lebanon, as well as Senir (Sanyr) and Hermon, the land of Zebulun and Naphtali as far as Kedar (Cedar),119 the whole of Chinnereth (Cenereth) as far as Dothan (Dothaym) and Bethulia,120 and many other places. The hill is as long as two bowshots, as wide as a stone’s throw or more, grassy, pleasant and suitable for preaching. There is still shown the stone on which the Lord Jesus Christ sat and preached, as well as the places where the Apostles sat. [It is called by the Christians ‘The Table’ (tabula siue mensa).]121 At the foot of this hill beside the sea at some thirty paces from it rises a living spring enclosed by a wall, which they say is a course of the Nile, because it     110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120  

Kh. Qadīsh or Qadas, 18 km n of Ṣafad (Abel, Géographie, pp. 14, 416). Judges 4.6–16. Matthew 5–7. Matthew 14.15–21; Mark 6.32–44; Luke 9.10–17; John 6.1–13. Matthew 14.22–3; Mark 6.45–6; John 6.15. John 6.15. Matthew 6.5–14; Luke 11.2–4. Luke 6.12. Matthew 8.5–13; Luke 7.1–10; John 4.46–53. Matthew 8.16–17; Mark 1.32–4; Luke 4.40–41. Matthew 8.1–4; Mark 1.40–45; Luke 5.12–14. Apparently identified with Gamala (see below). Like other writers of this period Burchard erroneously places Dothan and Bethulia near the sea of Galilee. 121   These words have been added in a marginal note, apparently in the wrong place (see below).The place referred to is al-Ṭābgha, on the n side of the lake (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 334–9). 108

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supports a fish called coracinus, which is found nowhere else.122 Josephus calls this spring Capernaum (Capharnaum), because the whole plain that extends for two leagues from that spring at the Jordan is called Capernaum.123 Twenty paces from that spring on the sea of Galilee is the place where after His Resurrection Jesus stood on the shore while seven disciples were fishing and said to them, ‘Children, do you have anything to eat?’124 There moreover I saw on a stone three of the Lord Jesus’ footmarks [36] imprinted into the stone when I was there on the feast of St Augustine (28 August), but when I returned later on the feast of the Annunciation (25 March) the Saracens had removed the stone from that place. Ten paces from there is the place where the disciples having disembarked from the boat saw the lighted coals with the fish laid upon them and the bread. [It is called by the Christians ‘The Table’ (tabula siue mensa).]125 One league east of that place is the city of Capernaum (Capharnaum),126 once renowned but now quite abject, having barely seven houses of poor fishermen. In it is truly fulfilled those words of the Lord Jesus, ‘And you, Capernaum, if you ascend into heaven, you will plunge into hell.’127 Two leagues from that place the River Jordan enters the sea of Galilee, on whose farther shore are still to be seen the ruins of the city of Chorazin (Corrazaym)128 on the sea of Galilee. One league from that place, that is, from Chorazin, begins the ascent of Mount Senir (Sanyr), or Seir (Seyr) according to some, and the way into Idumæa. Three leagues from there is Kedar (Cedar),129 a renowned city placed in a strong location on Mount Senir, to the east. Through this city passes the road, which, as has been told above, runs along the shore of the sea of Galilee and leads west, as is said in Tobit.130 In Isaiah, however, that road is called ‘the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, of Galilee of the nations.’131 It is called ‘the way of the sea’ because it runs entirely along the sea shore. ‘Beyond the Jordan’ is added because it leads across the Jordan [37] into the region that is called Aram.   Pliny refers to the coracinus as a species of river fish, found especially in the Nile (Natural History 9.24, 9.32, in Loeb 3, pp. 200, 208). 123   Jewish War 3.10.8, in Loeb 2, p. 723, trans. Williamson, p. 221. Josephus describes the fish as being like the perch caught in the lake of Alexandria. 124   Cf. John 21.5: ‘Children, have you any fish?’ 125   These words are added in a marginal note (see above). 126   Tall Ḥum (TIR, p. 97). 127   Cf. Matthew 11.23; Luke 10.15. 128   Evidently Kursi (ancient Chorsia, Gergesa), rather than Khirbat Karraza (TIR, pp. 103–4). 129   Here identified with Gamala, which was incorrectly identified as Jamla (see below). 130   Reference obscure. 131   Cf. Isaiah 9.1. 122

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It is called ‘of Galilee of the nations’ because Galilee ends in the same place at the Jordan. It is four leagues from that place, where the Jordan flows into the sea of Galilee, to Kedesh in Naphtali (Cedes Neptali).132 Halfway between them is the other half of the waters of Merom (Maron), which have been spoken about above. The Jordan passes through the middle of this valley of the waters of Merom and on leaving it directs its course first to the east and then to the south and thus enters the sea of Galilee. Four leagues north of the city of Chorazin and the mouth of the River Jordan is the city of Sueta,133 after which, in Job, Bildad is called the Shuhite (Suithes).134 Near it to the east is the tomb of blessed Job.135 In the plains below that city towards the city of Kedar, Saracens from Aram, Mesopotamia, Hamath, Syria, Moab, Ammon and all the eastern lands used to come together around the spring of Phiala, which has been spoken of above, and hold a fair the whole summer long on account of the pleasantness of the locality. They would put up tents of different colours, which afforded a very pretty sight to those living on the hill in the city of Kedar. They are called the tents of Kedar in the Song of Songs.136 Four leagues east of the city of Chorazin is the city of Kedar, sited on a high mountain, which Josephus calls ‘the Camel’ (Camelam) because the mountain on which it stands is shaped like a camel, being longer at first like the neck and head of a camel, having a hump in the middle, and beginning to come down at the end like a tail.137 Note here that, as has been said above, all the land near the Jordan on its east bank is called the region of Trachonitis or the plains of Lebanon as far as Mount Hermon and Būsra‘ (Bosra). The west bank of the Jordan is called Galilee of the nations, Ituræa, Cabul (Kabul) or Decapolis. The Way of the Sea passes through   Kh. Qadīsh or Qadas, 18 km n of Ṣafad (Abel, Géographie, pp. 14, 416).   Burchard’s geography is confused here. Sueta was not a city but a region; known

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to the Franks as la terre de Suete, it corresponded with the basalt area se of the sea of Galilee that was known in Arabic as al-Sawād (the Black Country) (Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, pp. 532–3; Dussaud, Topographie, pp. 381–2). 134   Job 2.11. 135   This lay at Dayr Ayyub, nw of Dara‘ā and e of the sea of Galilee (see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 239–40). 136   Song of Solomon 1.5: a reference to the tribe of Kedar (see following note). 137   Josephus describes Gamala’s capture by Vespasian in ad 67 in Jewish War 4.1.1– 2, in Loeb 3, pp. 5–7, trans. Williamson, p. 223. The site is now identified as al-Salam in the northern Jawlān (TIR, p. 128). Burchard, however, like other scholars in more recent times (e.g. Avi-Yonah, Gazetteer, p. 58), may have been thinking of Jamla, some 20 km w of the lake and closer to the tomb of Job and its fair. The land of the tribe of Kedar, however, lay much further s, neighbouring that of the Nabatæans (Isaiah 21.16, 42.11; Abel, Géographie 1, p. 296).

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the middle of it, proceeding from Acre through the valley of the land of Asher, which is now called St George,138 having the city of Ṣafad (Saphet) on the left, and along the shore of the sea to Kedar, to the mountainous region, that is the region of Trachonitis, above which is the land of Aram. Of this a gloss on ‘There was a man in the land of [38] Uz, whose name was Job’139 relates, ‘Aram, the father of the Syrians, who founded Damascus and Syria, begat Uz, the founder of the district of Trachonitis. He held his principality in the land between Syria Cœlia and Palestine, which is called after him the land of Uz. Thus the man lived in the land of Uz or the Uzzite region.’ The tetrarch Philip held this region, as he also did Ituræa, which is on the near side of the Jordan region and extends as far west as the mountains of the people of Sidon, Tyre and Acre. These separate it from Phœnicia in this third division as much as they do in the preceding second division. It is bounded on the north by Lebanon, on the east by the Jordan, on the south by the sea of Galilee and on the west by the mountains of Phœnicia.140 Here begins the Fourth Division 5. The fourth division begins from Acre and extends due east, passing near the castle of Ṣafad and leaving it on the left. From there it passes to the shore of the sea of Galilee before the city that is called Capernaum, also passing in front of the place where the Lord called Matthew from the custom house.141 His house and the place where he sat are seen there today on the royal highway. From there it goes up to Mount Hermon beyond the Jordan’s stream. The following cities are in this division: The first, five leagues from Acre, is the village142 that is called St George (Sangeor),143 where the same saint is believed to have been born. It is located between the mountains in a very rich, fertile and delightful valley, whose pleasantness extends as far as the sea of Galilee. This valley was part of the lot of Asher and reached as far as the environs of Ṣafad, about ten leagues. Because of its loveliness, this could literally be said of it in Genesis 49: ‘Out of Asher his bread

  Wādī al-Shāghūr, Biq‘at Bet Kerem.   Job 1.1 (RSV). 140   Philip received these territories as well as Auranitis, Batanea and Gaulanitis on 138 139

the death of his father, Herod the Great, in ad 4 and held them until his own death in ad 34 (Abel, Géographie 1, p. 158). 141   Matthew 9.9; Mark 2.14; Luke 5.27. 142   casale. 143   Al-Ba‘ina (St Jorge de la Baene) in the Wādī al-Shāghūr, or Biq‘at Bet Kerem: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 80–92.

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shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties’,144 a saying that has been proved correct in the lot of this tribe. About four leagues south from there, but deviating a little to the east, is the village of Asher (villa Naason) of the tribe of Naphtali, located in a valley, about which one reads in Tobit.145 [30] Three leagues south of there is Dothan (Dothaym),146 where Joseph found his brothers.147 It is located below Mount Bethulia,148 one league from it, and is a very pleasant town, abounding in vines, olives and figs and rich in pastures. In that place there is still shown in a field the cistern into which Joseph was put. I also saw it there, beside the road that comes from Gilead (Galaad) and meets in Bethsaida (Bethsayda)149 with the road that leads from Syria into Egypt. Going up from Dothan beside Mount Bethulia and thence through the plain of Esdrælon it continues below and to the left of Mount Tabor through the plain of Megiddo (Magedo). It then ascends Mount Ephraim, comes to Ramathaimzophim (Ramathaym Sophim)150 and leads through Gaza into Egypt. By this road came the Ishmaelites who bought Joseph.151   Genesis 40.20 (AV).   Tobit 1.1 refers to ‘Thisbe, which is to the south of Kedesh Naphtali in Galilee

144 145

above Asher’(RSV). The Vulgate renders ‘above Asher’ as supra Naason, apparently as a result of a misreading of the Greek words ‘υπεράνω ’Ασώρ. William of Tyre also mentions Naason and appears to identify it as the tell of Hazor, which was indeed situated in the rift valley below Kedesh Naphtali, for he tells us that in 1179 Baldwin IV led his army from Ṣafad to Tibnīn, passing ‘through the very ancient town of Naason’ (21.27 (28), ed. Huygens, p. 1000, trans. Babcock and Krey 2, p. 441). It is unclear whether or not Burchard also identified Naason with Hazor, since he elsewhere calls Hazor Asor and the tell lies ne rather than se of al-Ba‘ina. It is possible, however, that there is a piece of text missing and that Naason lay se of some other place, for the next sentence implies that it was indeed considered to be in the upper Jordan Valley, n of the sea of Galilee. Nevertheless, a Florentine map of c.1300, no doubt influenced by Burchard, shows Naason in the tribal area of Zebulun, se of Ad sanctum georgium (Röhricht, ‘Karten und Pläne, i’, no. 1). 146   The biblical site was Tall Duthān, sw of Janīn (Abel, Géographie 2, p. 308), but Burchard seems to locate it in the plain of Ginnesar on the nw side of the sea of Galilee. 147   Genesis 37.17. 148   Bethulia also lay somewhere s of Janīn, perhaps at al-Shaykh Shibal (Abel, Géographie 2, p. 283). Burchard appears to identify it with the Horns of Ḥaṭṭīn (see below). 149   Al-Tall and al-‘Araj on the n shore of the sea of Galilee, e of the Jordan (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 279–80; TIR, p. 85). Burchard mistakenly places it further w, at or near Khān al-Minya. Muslim tradition, however, places the cistern at Khān Jubb Yūsuf, on the Damascus–Cairo road just n of the sea of Galilee. 150   Also known as Ramah or Ramatha, this was the birthplace of Joseph of Arimathea. Although correctly identified by some twelfth-century writers with Rantis, e of Lydda, by Burchard’s time it was more usually identified with Ramla (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 428–9; Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 185, 199). 151   Genesis 37.12–36.

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It is read in the fourth book of Kings152 of that town (Dothan) that the Syrians blockaded Elisha in it and he led them from there into the middle of Samaria, which is about a day’s journey from there. [40] Note, however, that Dothan is not only a town but also the district named after that town, which has adjoined it from antiquity. Located in level country, with low mountains on either side, it is watered by springs and is thus full of pasture and fit for supporting flocks and herds. Two leagues east of Naason and about three leagues north of Dothan, sited in a very strong position, is the city of Naphtali from which Tobit came.153 For it has to the west a very high mountain, which is well-nigh inaccessible except by a small space from the east. I think this city was called Iotapata154 at the time of its overthrow, according to Josephus.155 In it Josephus was besieged by the Romans and captured, as he himself testifies. Now it is called Syrin;156 and it is little more than a league from Ṣafad. Two leagues from Naphtali, on the corner of the sea of Galilee, where it begins to curve from the north to the south, is located Bethsaida, the city of Andrew, Peter and Philip. Now it has scarcely six houses, beside the road that leads from Syria to Egypt.157 In antiquity it had an aqueduct leading from the river that Josephus calls the Little Jordan, which enters the sea of Galilee midway between it and Capernaum. The remains of it are still apparent. Two leagues south from there is Magdala (Magdalum), the castle (castrum) of Mary Magdalene, whose house I have seen and entered there even now.158 It is sited on the shore of the sea, distant from Bethulia [41] about three leagues to the south-east. On its west and south sides it has a large plain full of pasture. Note that this division does not have any more towns on this side of the sea of Galilee, but on its other shore there are many cities and castles belonging to this division in the land of the Gerasenes, which is directly opposite.159   2 Kings 6.11–20.   Tobit came from Thisbe, s of Kedesh Naphtali (Tobit 1.1). 154   A Jewish fortress besieged by Vespasian in ad 67 and now identified as Khirbat 152 153

Shifāt (Abel, Géographie 2, p. 366; TIR, p. 154). 155   Jewish War 3.7.3–8.9, in Loeb 2, pp. 619–91, trans. Williamson, pp. 191–212. 156   Probably Khirbat Sirin, about 8 km s of Ṣafad. 157   Burchard appears to place Bethsaida erroneously at or near Khān al-Minya (see above). 158   Al-Majdal (Hebr. Migdal), where around the eighth to tenth centuries a church was being identified as the house of Mary Magdalene. The house was mentioned by Abbot Daniel in 1106–1108, and shortly after Burchard’s visit Riccoldo of Monte Croce [15] found the church had been converted into a stable (see Pringle, Churches 2, p. 28 and 4, p. 271) 159   Both Mark 5.1 and Luke 8.26 refer to the land e of the sea of Galilee as the ‘country of the Gerasenes’, though in both cases some manuscripts have ‘Gergesenes’ or ‘Gadarenes’. Matthew 8.28, on the other hand, has ‘Gadarenes’, with ‘Gergesenes’ and ‘Gerasenes’ appearing in other manuscripts. Gerasa (Jarash) was a city of the Decapolis

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In this territory there are many cities, such as Gerasa, Gadara (Gadera), Pella,160 Sueta,161 from which came Bildad the Shuhite (Baldach Suithes),162 Teman (Theman),163 from which came Eliphaz the Themanite,164 and many others. The city of Gerasa is located on the shore of the sea of Galilee, below Mount Seir (Seyr), roughly opposite Tiberias but a little to the north. It belonged to the half-tribe of Manasseh, which received its lot beyond the Jordan.165 Note that the land beyond the sea of Galilee is extremely mountainous, as it seems to me, although I have not entered it. It belonged in part to the kingdom of King Bashan. Another part of it is called Mount Seir, because Esau lived there, as I shall relate forthwith. In addition, it was elsewhere called Mount Senir (Sanyr), because that was located in it. Likewise it was called Mount Hermon, because that was also there.166 Thus the land was called by various names after different places and mountains. All of it, however, fell into the share of the half-tribe of Manasseh, but he never possessed it, because the sons of Esau have been living in parts of it down to the present day. They are commonly known as Saracens, because they are no different to them in customs or language, except perhaps in the way they dress and cut their hair. It should be known nonetheless that there is another Mount Seir or Edom facing the wilderness of the Red Sea, of which it is told in Genesis 14 how Chedorlaomer situated far from the sea of Galilee, while Gergesa (Kursi) stood directly on it, facing Tiberias. Gadara (‘Umm Qays) lay some 10 km se of the lake. 160   Fiḥl. 161   Not a city but the region of Sawād (see above). 162   Job 2.11. 163   A city in Edom, or the region itself (Obadiah 9; Amos 1.12; Jeremiah 49.7; cf. Genesis 36.11, 15). The name Θαιμάν (Theman) persisted in the fourth century ad, when it was the site of a Roman fort near Petra (Eusebius, Onomasticon, p. 96; Jerome, Liber locorum, p. 97); but thereafter it disappeared, possibly being eclipsed by Saltus Hieraticus, the name of the imperial estate administered from it. It is very possibly al-Shawbak, where Baldwin I built the castle of Montreal in 1115 (Abel, Géographie 1, p. 284 and 2, pp. 479–80; Avi-Yonah, Gazetteer, p. 101). But this would not have been known to Burchard, who, if he had a particular site in mind, was more likely thinking of a similar sounding place such as Ma‘an. 164   Like Bildad the Shuhite, one of Job’s three comforters (Job 2.11, 42.7–9) 165   Burchard, following Mark 5.1 and Luke 8.26, seems to have confused Gergesa, which stood beside the sea, with Gerasa, which lay elsewhere (see note above). This confusion is also evident on a Florentine map of c.1300 (Röhricht, ‘Karten und Pläne, i’, no. 1), which shows Gorsa (Chorsia or Gergesa, today Kursi: Avi-Yonah, Gazetteer, p. 49) standing n of Gadera (Gadara) beside the sea. Another element of confusion is introduced by the reference to the half-tribe of Manasseh. This recalls Joshua 13.8–13, in which Geshur and the land of the Geshurites are described as unconquered territory lying in the half-tribe of Manasseh e of the Jordan (cf. Deuteronomy 3.14, 2 Samuel 15.8, 1 Chronicles 2.23). 166   Cf. Deuteronomy 3.8–9.

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and the other kings with him smote the Horites who live on Mount Seir.167 It was not actually called Mount Seir at the time, because Esau, who was called Seir and after whom the mountain is named, had not yet been born. Similarly in Deuteronomy 2: ‘You will pass through the territory of your brothers, the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, and they will be afraid of you.’168 This was first said to the children of Israel when they were coming out of Egypt and were in Kadesh-[42] barnea and about to come to Mount Seir, which is next to Kadesh-barnea where they then were. But it is certain that the children of Israel never approached the borders of the Mount Seir that is above the sea of Galilee when they came out of Egypt, because that Mount Seir adjoins Damascus, which they never reached. The other Mount Seir of which one reads adjoins El-paran (Pharan),169 around which the children of Israel circled for a long time, forbidden by the Lord to enter it. Of that Mount Seir it is also said in Deuteronomy 2[.12]: ‘The Horites lived in Mount Seir in former times.’ On the Mount Seir that is beside the sea of Galilee and Mount Gilead, Esau was living at the time when Jacob returned from Mesopotamia to Syria. For it is said in Genesis 36[.6] that Esau, who was dwelling with his father, without any doubt in Beer-sheba, taking up all that he had, departed to another country. Of this there is no doubt. And he was separated from his brother. From there he met Jacob, who was returning from Mesopotamia, beside the ford of the Jabbok,170 which adjoins that land on the south. It is said in Genesis 32[.31] that when Jacob had crossed Penuel (Phanuel),171 ‘the sun rose upon him.’ And further on, ‘Lifting up his eyes he saw Esau approaching.’172 That place, that is to say Penuel, is shown today by the same name not far from Succoth (Sochoth)173 in the eastern region beyond the Jordan, to which it is read that Jacob came immediately afterwards.174 The same place is at the foot of the Mount Seir that lies beside the sea of Galilee, since the Mount Seir on which the Horites once lived and where the children of Esau now live in their place, is many days’ journey from that place. Esau could not have come immediately to it to see his brother, because it is far beyond the Dead Sea, some five days distant. These differences between the children of Esau and their dwelling places seem to me to have come about because Esau had many wives.   Genesis 14.1–6; cf. Deuteronomy 2.12.   Deuteronomy 2.4. 169   Genesis 14.6. El-paran is now identified as Elath, on the edge of the Paran desert 167 168

(Aharoni, Land of the Bible, pp. 55, 63 n.31, 140, 142, 434). 170   Nahr al-Zarqā. 171   Identified as Tall al-Dhahab al-Sharqiyya on the Nahr al-Zarqā in Transjordan (Abel, Géographie 2, p. 406; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 440). 172   Cf. Genesis 33.1. 173   Identified as Tall Aḥṣāṣ, 1.3 km west of Tall Dayr ‘Allā, where the Wadi Zarqā debouches into the Jordan Valley (Abel, Géographie 2, p. 470; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 442). 174   Genesis 33.17.

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Thus the children that he had by [Mahalath], the daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth,175 lived on Mount Seir that is beside the desert of Paran, in the territory in which his father-in-law Ishmael lived. Genesis 21[.20–21] says of Ishmael that he became an expert in archery and that he lived in the wilderness of Paran, where one reads that he and his descendants continued to live. Esau, however, took other wives apart from these ones, which he had before, among whom was one Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah, daughter of Zibeon the Hivite.176 This Hivite was a son of Canaan and no doubt lived [43] in the territory of Scythopolis (Bethshean) in Galilee, near the mountains of Gilboa not far from the sea of Galilee. This place is indeed near the Mount Seir in which Esau was living at the time when Jacob was returning from the land of Mesopotamia. Thus he could easily have met his brother there, which the text seems tacitly to imply. For it is said in Genesis 32[.1–2] that, when Jacob left Laban and was proceeding on the journey that he had begun, he met the angels of God and said, ‘This is God’s camp.’ And he called the name of the place Mahanaim (Mahanaym), that is, ‘camp’ (which place is today below Mount Gilead in the tribe of Gad);177 and from that place he sent his brother messengers, who also returned to him there.178 One reads further on that he selected a gift for his brother from his flocks and sent it by the hand of the messengers.179 It is said there: ‘So the present preceded him and he lodged that night in the camp (that is, in Mahanaim), and when he arose the next day he crossed the ford of the Jabbok (which is shown there even today) and behold! A man wrestled with him’ and so on.180 And below: ‘And [Jacob] called the name of the place Peniel (Phanuel).’181 This place is today above the Jabbok brook, similarly in the tribe of Gad. ‘The sun rose on him as he was passing Penuel.’182 And there follows: ‘Lifting up his eyes he saw Esau coming’, etc.183 Behold the places mentioned, where Esau came to him: they are all near Mount Seir, which overlooks the sea of Galilee. There is yet a third Mount Seir in the territory of Ashdod (Azotus) and Ascalon, which was allotted to the tribe of Judah in the distribution of the land, but I do not recall having read how it came to be so called. The inhabitants of that place, however, were called Idumæans, in the same way that other descendants of   Genesis 28.9.   According to the Samaritan, Greek and Syriac Old Testaments, Anah was the son

175 176

of Zibeon (Genesis 36.2 and 14). 177   While the Vulgate has castra (camp), the Hebrew bible has ‘army’. Mahanaim means ‘two armies’. It is tentatively identified today as Tall al-Dhahab al-Gharbi (Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 439; cf. Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 373–4). 178   Genesis 32.3–6. 179   Genesis 32.13–16. 180   Cf. Genesis 32.21–4. 181   Genesis 32.30. Peniel means, ‘He who strives with God.’ 182   Genesis 32.31. 183   Genesis 33.1.

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Esau were called Idumæans after Edom. Whence Antipater and his son Herod of Ascalon were called Idumæans.184 Let what has been said suffice concerning this subject. That mountain ends in the lot of the tribe of Gad in Mount Gilead (Galaad), facing the place where the River Jordan enters the sea of Galilee, not far from Mount Gilboa (Gelboa) opposite the city of Beth-shean (Bethsan). Thereafter the eastern bank of the Jordan is the territory of two-and-a-half tribes as far as the plains of Moab below Mount Abarim185 in Shittim (Sethim)186 opposite Jericho. Proceeding further south along the bank of the same River Jordan, the land of Moab extends as far as Petra of the Desert, which is now called Karak (Krach). Afterwards there comes part of the land of Ammon for the length of the Dead Sea; and it encircles its southern shore as far as Mount Seir, which is joined to the desert of Paran near Kadesh-barnea, having to one side the Sinai desert and the Red Sea. Here begins the Second Division of the Eastern Quarter 6. In the second division of the eastern quarter proceeding first of all south-east from Acre, four leagues from Acre is Cana of Galilee, where the Lord turned water into wine. There is shown there today the place where the six jars stood and the dining room in which the tables were.187 Now these places, like almost all the others in which the Lord performed anything, are below ground and one goes down to them in a crypt by many steps. Such is the place of the Annunciation, the place of the Nativity, this Cana of Galilee and many other places, which are shown below ground. The only reason that I can find for this is that, as a result of the frequent destruction of the churches in which those places lay, ruins have piled up above the ground and in this way, after they have been levelled in some way or other, different buildings have been constructed above them. Christians having the devotion to visit those places and wishing to approach the very sites where the events happened have therefore had to clear away the rubbish from those places and make steps in order to reach them. For this reason almost all those places appear as if in crypts. To the north of Cana of Galilee there is a high rounded mountain, on whose slope it is sited. Below it to the south it has a level area and a very beautiful plain, which Josephus calls 184   Antipater was the father of Herod the Great and, according to Julius of Ascalon (Epistola ad Aristidem 4, in PG 10, col. 59; cf. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 1.6.2–3, 1.7.11–12, in Loeb 1, pp. 51, 61–2) and Epiphanius (Adversus LXXX Haereses 1.1.20, in PG 41, cols. 269–72), the son of Herod of Ascalon. 185   Abel, Géographie 1, pp. 378–9. 186   ‘Valley of acacias’: cf. Joel 4.18; Abel, Géographie 1, p. 400. The ‘plains of Moab’ referred to here were evidently in the Jordan valley. 187   John 2.1–11. Identified in Burchard’s day as Khirbat Qana (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 412–14; Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 162–4).

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Carmelion,188 which extends as far as Sepphoris (Sephora) and is fertile beyond measure and most delightful. About two leagues south of Cana of Galilee on the road that leads from Sepphoris to Tiberias is a town called Rūma (Ruma), in which the prophet Jonah is said to have been buried.189 This town is below the mountain that comes from Nazareth and encloses the already-mentioned valley of Carmelion on the south side. About a league-and-a-half east from Rūma is a large town, which was formerly, so it seems, called Abel-mehola (Abelmeula).190 One reads in Judith that Holofernes [45] came to it when he was going against Bethulia;191 and this he must have done, because there could be no other road to it on account of the difficulty of those places. It is believed that the prophet Elijah was born in that town, as is related in the third book of Kings.192 It is in the district that is called Dothan,193 being half a league west of that town. There are in it many marble columns and great ruins, all of which show it to have been a glorious city. And it occupies a high strong position. A good league from Abel-mehola is Mount Bethulia,194 where Judith killed Holofernes. This mountain can be seen from almost all Galilee, exceedingly beautiful and fortified. There are still many buildings on it and many ruins. At the end of the mountain there is still constructed a castle for the defence of the mountain.195 There to this day are traces of the camp of Holofernes in the plain   The plain of al-Baṭṭawf. The reference to Josephus is obscure.   Rūma, or Romī, was also visited by Jewish travellers in the thirteenth century (see

188 189

Prawer, History of the Jews, pp. 181, 232, 244, 247). However, medieval Jewish tradition placed Jonah’s tomb at al-Mash-had, near Kafr Kanna (Prawer, History of the Jews, pp. 175, 211; Bagatti, Antichi villaggi cristiani di Galilea, pp. 37–41). Before the twelfth century, as today, the latter had also been identified as Cana of Galilee (Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 285–6). The Christian relocation of Cana to Khirbat Qana in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries may explain why Burchard also places Jonah’s tomb near there. 190   Abel-mehola (Tall Abū Sūs?) lay in the Jordan valley s of Beth-shean (Baysān) (Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 429; cf. Abel, Géographie 2, p. 234). Burchard is perhaps describing Khirbat Irbid (Arbela) (Conder and Kitchener, Survey of Western Palestine 1, pp. 366–7, 396–400; TIR, pp. 66–7). 191   No such place is mentioned, unless perhaps Burchard has confused it with Balamon (Khirbat Bal‘ama), near Dothan and Bethulia (Judith 8.3). 192   1 Kings 19.16. 193   As noted above, Burchard appears to place Dothan in the plain of Ginnesar. 194   Not a mountain but a city, probably to be located at Shaykh Shibal, s of Janīn (Abel, Géographie 2, p. 283). As with Dothan, Burchard has displaced it far to the n. His description suggests that he may have identified it as the Horns of Ḥaṭṭīn, which has the remains of a Bronze Age fort and an Iron Age city on its summit (Gal, ‘Galilee’, pp. 450– 51). 195   Perhaps the Mamluk cave-castle of Qal‘at Ibn Ma‘an, located ne of Ḥaṭṭīn in the s cliff face of the Wādī al-Hamām, overlooking the main road from Tiberias to Damascus;

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near Dothan and the valley in which Judith washed herself and which she went around when returning to Bethulia. This I investigated as carefully as I could, for I stayed in Dothan one night.196 A good two leagues south-east from Bethulia, on the sea of Galilee, is the renowned Galilean city of Tiberias, after which the sea of Galilee is sometimes found to be named the Sea of Tiberias. In antiquity the city was called Chinnereth (Cenereth), and the sea was called Chinnereth after it.197 Later it was restored by Herod, tetrarch of Galilee, and named Tiberias in honour of Tiberius Cæsar. It is very long and is laid out lengthwise beside the sea shore. At its southern end there are medicinal baths and many ruins;198 many large palms grow there and there are vineyards, olive groves and very fertile land. Here note that at this city (Tiberias, that is) ends the region that is called the Decapolis. For Lord James of Vitry, patriarch of Jerusalem and legate of the see of Rome,199 says in his book, which he wrote about the conquest of this land [46]: ‘The boundaries or extremities of the region of the Decapolis are the sea [of Galilee] to the east and Great Sidon to the west.’200 This is its width. ‘In length it extends from the city of Tiberias and the whole northern shore of the sea of Galilee as far as Damascus.’201 It is called the Decapolis after the ten principal cities located within it. These are: Tiberias, Ṣafad (Sephet), Kedesh of Naphtali (Cedes Neptalim), Hazor (Asor), Cæsarea Philippi, Capernaum (Capharnaum),202 Iotapata, Bethsaida (Bethsayda), Chorazin (Corrozaym) and Beth-shean (Bethsan), which is also called Scythopolis. But there are many others in it besides these.203 it is attributed to Baybars by Creswell (Muslim Architecture of Egypt 2, pp. 152, 171, figs. 83–4, 98) and Petersen (‘Two Medieval Castles’, pp. 385–90, figs. 2–10). 196   Evidently a village in the plain of Ginnesar. 197   Chinnereth lay at Tall al-‘Urayma on the nw side of the lake: see Abel, Géographie 1, pp. 494–5 and 2, pp. 299, 483–4; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 433. 198   See Hirschfeld, Guide; Hirschfeld et al., ‘Tiberias’, in NEAEHL 4, pp. 1464–73; Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 351–3; Stepansky, ‘Das kreuzfahrerzeitliche Tiberias’. 199   James of Vitry was consecrated bishop of Acre on 31 July 1216 but returned to the West in 1225, resigning his see three years later. By 1 July 1229 he had been appointed cardinal-bishop of Tusculum (Frascati). He died on 1 May 1240. At no time was he patriarch of Jerusalem or papal legate in the East. Burchard may perhaps have conflated him with the patriarch Ralph of Merencourt and papal legate Pelagius, with both of whom James participated in the Fifth Crusade against Damietta between June 1218 and September 1221 (Huygens, Lettres, p. 1; Hamilton, Latin Church, pp. 253–7). 200   Cf. Historia Orientalis 47, ed. Donnadieu, p. 214. 201   The establishment of the league of ten cities known as the Decapolis was part of the political reorganization of Syria carried out by Pompey in 63 bc. Membership of the league fluctuated and its extent was not quite as described by James of Vitry (see Jones, Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces, pp. 260–61, 281). 202   A gloss adds: ‘which Josephus called Julia’, though this should actually refer to Bethsaida (cf. Jewish Antiquities, 18.2.1, in Loeb 9, p. 25). 203   In fact of these only Scythopolis ever belonged to the Decapolis.

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Note here, however, that this land has nevertheless been called by various names to this day. For, as has been said above, is it sometimes called Ituræa, sometimes Trachonitis, sometimes the plains of Lebanon, sometimes the land of Rehob (Roob), sometimes Cabul (Kabul), sometimes Galilee of the tribes, sometimes Upper Galilee; and it is still the same region, albeit called by different names. It is not more than a day-and-a-half’s journey in length and breadth; nor does it seem to me that its length exceeds its breadth, unless perhaps by a little. However, after the territory of Sidon and the mountains between us and the Saracens, who are called Bacharite and inhabit the Dog’s Pass, as far as Beirut the region of Ituræa extends strictly speaking in the valley that is called Baqā‘a (Bakar); and because it extends in length to the foot of Lebanon it is called the forest of Lebanon (saltus Libani). Returning six leagues to the west from Tiberias and two leagues to the south of Cana of Galilee is Sepphoris (Sephora, Saffūriyya), a town with a very fine castle above it.204 Here it is said that Joachim, the father of the Virgin Mary, was born. It is in the tribe of Asher near the valley of Carmelion.205 Two leagues south of Sepphoris and a little to the east is Nazareth, that blessed city of Galilee, in which, after the angelic salutation had been made to her by the Holy Spirit, the ‘branch from the root of Jesse’206 conceived the fruit of her womb, the blessed [47] Jesus Christ. It is also seven leagues from Acre. There remains in it today the place in which the Angel Gabriel brought to the blessed Virgin the salutary message, saying, ‘Hail, you that are full of grace! The Lord be with you! Blessed are you among women!’207 I have said many masses in that place, indeed on the day itself, that is to say, on the feast of the Holy Annunciation, when the Word was made Flesh. Blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for ever and ever! There are three altars in the chapel and it is cut in stone from the rock as are the places of the Nativity, Passion and Resurrection; and a great part of the city of Nazareth was cut from the rock, as may be seen to this day. In it there is still the synagogue, albeit converted into a church, in which when Jesus was teaching He was handed the book of Isaiah and read, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me, etc.’208 Moreover, at the end of the city in the church of St Gabriel is a spring, which is held in veneration by the inhabitants and from

  Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 209–18; id., Secular Buildings, p. 92; Kedar, ‘Civitas and Castellum’, pp. 206, 210, fig. 9. 205   Al-Baṭṭawf. 206   Isaiah 11.1. 207   Luke 1.28. By this time the church itself had been demolished, but the cave of the Annunciation was evidently still accessible: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 116–40; Bagatti and Alliata, Scavi di Nazaret 2, pp. 54–70. 208   Isaiah 61.1. On the synagogue-church, see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 145–7; Bagatti and Alliata, Scavi di Nazaret 2, pp.165–7. 204

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which, so it is said, the Boy Jesus often drew water when serving His beloved mother.209 Outside the city, some four bowshots to the south, is the place that is called the Lord’s Leap,210 where they wished to cast Jesus, but He passed from their hands and suddenly, as is shown there, He was found a bowshot away on the side of the mountain opposite. There are to be seen there the outlines of His body and clothes impressed in the rock. From that mountain may be seen the mountains of Tabor, Little Hermon and Hermon, the towns of En-dor (Endor, ‘Indūr), Nain (Naym) and Jezreel (Iesrahel) and practically the whole width of the great plain of Esdrælon. Two leagues east of Nazareth is Mount Tabor, on which the Lord was transfigured.211 Today there are shown there the ruins of the three tabernacles or enclosures that were built according to Peter’s wish. In the same place there are besides great ruins of halls,212 towers and monastic buildings,213 in which there now lurk lions and other animals; and the royal214 hunting parks are there. The mountain has a difficult ascent and is very high and suitable for building a castle on.215 At its foot on the south facing the town of En-dor, in the road that leads from Syria to Egypt, is the place where Melchizedek is said to have met Abraham when he was returning from the slaughter of the four kings from the region of Damascus.216 At its foot on the west side facing Nazareth there is built a chapel in which when He was coming down the mountain the Lord said to His disciples, [48] ‘Tell no one the vision, etc.’217 At its foot on the east there descends the Kishon brook (torrens Cison), in which Barak fought against Sisera and defeated him and put him to flight.218 The Kishon brook, collected from the rainwaters of Mount Tabor and [Little Mount] Hermon, runs down towards the sea of Galilee and enters it near the castle of Belvoir (Beueir), which belonged to the Hospital of St John.219   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 140–44; Bagatti and Alliata, Scavi di Nazaret 2, pp. 154–

209

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    212   213   214   215  

Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 45–8. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 63–85. Or ‘palaces’ (palaciorum). regularium edificiorum. i.e. of the Mamluk sultan. The Ayyubid castle on its summit was constructed in 1212–15 and demolished by al-Mu‘aẓẓam ‘Īsā in 1218 (see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 66–7; Battista and Bagatti, Fortezza). 216   Cf. Genesis 14.14–20. 217   Matthew 17.9. On the chapel, see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 192–4. 218   Judges 4.6–22. 219   On the identity of the Kishon, see discussion in Pringle, ‘Spring of the Cresson’, pp. 237–8. On Belvoir Castle, see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 120–22; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 32–3. 210

211

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One league south-east of Mount Tabor is the town of En-dor (Endor, ‘Indūr), sited on Little Mount Hermon (Hermonium modicum). This Hermon is not in itself a mountain, but is like a rise in the ground coming from Mount Hermon towards Mount Tabor and joining itself to it. On it is located the town of En-dor, of which it is said in the Psalm, ‘they were destroyed in En-dor.’220 In this town lived the woman possessing a familiar spirit, who at the instance of Saul conjured up Samuel, as is told in the First Book of Kings.221 He is buried in Ramathaimzophim,222 about two days’ journey from that place. Two leagues from Nazareth and more than a league south of Mount Tabor is Little Mount Hermon (mons Hermon minor), on whose northern flank is the city of Nain (Naym), before whose gate the Lord raised the widow’s son.223 This mountain extends in length about four leagues towards the sea of Galilee and ends not far from the place where the River Jordan flows out of the sea of Galilee. Here begins the Third Division of the Eastern Quarter 7. In the third division of the eastern quarter, which proceeds southward, the first thing to be encountered after Acre is the first part of Mount Carmel, four leagues from Acre. There is the place in which Elijah the Prophet killed the priests of Baal at the Kishon brook, as is told in the Third Book of Kings.224 The river enters the sea a short distance from the same place, one league from the city of Ḥayfā (Caypha), but about three from the city of Acre. Note that this Kishon brook, although in truth it appears and is referred to as one, nevertheless is taken as two because it flows in two directions. For one part of it flows east to the sea of Galilee, while the other runs westwards to the Great Sea. This difference of flow comes about because Mount Tabor and Mount Hermon, being not far from each other, extend to each other a rise in the ground, so that they seem almost continuous at their respective bases. The rise is greater from the side of [49] Mount Hermon and is called Little Mount Hermon (Hermonium); it has been spoken of above and on it is located the town of En-dor. This rise prevents the rainwaters that fall on either mountain from running down all in the same direction; one part therefore runs down to the east and enters the sea of Galilee not far from the city of Beth-shean (Bethsan, Baysān). At this Kishon brook Barak fought with Sisera, as is told in Book Five of Judges.225 The other 220   Psalm 83.9–10: ‘Do to them as thou didst to Midian, as to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, who were destroyed at En-dor’ (RSV). 221   1 Samuel 28.7–25. 222   Or Ramah (1 Samuel 25.1; cf. 1.1), which Burchard identified with Ramla. 223   Luke 7.11–17. 224   1 Kings 18.40. 225   Judges 4.12–5.31.

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part runs down westward to the Great Sea. At that Kishon brook Elijah killed the priests of Baal, as is told in the Third Book of Kings.226 Moreover in that part, which flows to the west, are collected many waters from Mount Ephraim and from places near Samaria and from the whole plain of Esdrælon and from Mount Cain (Cayn monte) and Megiddo. Three leagues south of the place where the priests of Baal were killed is the castle of Mount Cain, which is called Caymon (Qaymūn).227 It is at the extreme end of Mount Carmel, where Lamech killed Cain with an arrow, as is told in Genesis, book five: ‘I have killed a man for wounding me.’228 Three leagues west of Mount Cain is Megiddo (Magedo), which is now called Zububa (Suburbe).229 There is said to have died Ahaziah, king of Judah, whom Jehu, king of Israel, had wounded near Jezreel (Iesrahel)230 in the ascent of Gur (Gaber), when he killed Joram, king of Israel, with an arrow and had him thrown into the field of Naboth the Jezreelite.231 In the same Megiddo Josiah, king of Judah, was killed by Pharaoh [Neco], king of Egypt, when he was setting out to the River Euphrates.232 Note that the plains of Megiddo, Esdrælon and Galilee are one and the same; but all these alternative names have passed out of use and it is now commonly called the plain of Faba after a certain castle called Faba (al-Fūla),233 which lies three bowshots from the city of Aphek (Afech).234 In truth, however, it is the plain of Galilee, which is enclosed on the east by the sea of Galilee [50] and the Jordan, on the south by Mount Ephraim and Samaria, on the west partly by Mount Ephraim and partly by Mount Carmel, and on the north by the mountains of Phœnicia and Lebanon. The plain appears to have a length of about ten leagues and a width of six or more. In certain parts it is very fertile in corn, wine and oil and abounds in all the good things of the world, so that it seems to me that I have not seen a better   1 Kings 18.40.   Jokneam, identified as Tall Qaymūn, from which the false association with ‘Cain’s

226 227

Mount’ is derived (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 365–6). Excavated Frankish remains include a church, castle and towers (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 159–61; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 76–7; Ben-Tor, Avissar and Portugali, Yoqne‘am 1; Avissar, Tel Yoqne‘am). 228   Genesis 4.23. But the man killed by Lamech was not Cain. 229   Identified as Tall al-Mutasallim, some 4 km nw of Zububa (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 382–4). 230   He was wounded at the ascent of Gur, near Ible-am, having fled from Jezreel. 231   2 Kings 9.16–27. 232   2 Kings 23.29. 233   Faba, like the French La Fève, is simply a translation of the Arabic al-Fūl meaning ‘the beans’. On the castle see Kedar and Pringle, ‘La Fève’; Pringle, Churches 1, p. 207; id., Secular Buildings, p. 49. 234   Probably identified by Burchard with ‘Afūla, 1.5 km to the w, though it cannot be identified with any of the places called Aphek in the Bible: cf. Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 246–7.

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land, if only Christians were able to cultivate it without being prevented by our faults and sins. Two leagues and more to the east of Mount Cain is the village of al-Mazra‘a (casale Mesrha),235 on the Kishon brook a league from the foot of Mount Hermon. One league south of al-Mazra‘a is the castle called Faba, to the west side of which, on the right-hand side of the road leading to Jezreel, three bowshots from the road, are shown the ruins of the city of Aphek,236 where the Syrians fought against Ahab, king of Israel, when they said: ‘Their gods are gods of the hills; let us fight with them in the valleys.’237 One league to the east of Aphek, to the left of the road leading to Jezreel, on the southern flank of Mount Hermon is shown the city of Shunem (Sunam),238 where Elisha frequently used to go when travelling from Carmel to Gilgal or the Jordan. For that was the more level road for going to Jericho, where he used to stay with the sons of the prophets, travelling from Carmel through Shunem to Beth-shean and thence through the plain of the Jordan as far as Gilgal. Thus it is told in the Fourth Book of Kings how when he wanted to go to the Jordan he had to pass through Shunem and for this reason he frequented it.239 From the selfsame city on the death of her son a woman came to him on Mount Carmel, which is four leagues distant from that place; and Elisha brought her son back to life.240 There the Philistines pitched camp when Saul came to Gilboa. From that city of Shunem came Abishag the Shunammite, who warmed the old king David, sleeping on his bosom.241 Two leagues east of Shunem, but a little to the south, is the city of Beth-shean (Bethsan), between Mount Gilboa and the Jordan and half a league from the Jordan; on its wall the Philistines hung the corpses of Saul and his sons, killed on Mount Gilboa.242 At one time it was called Scythopolis, as Josephus tells us,243 but now everyone calls it Beth-shean. It is a very delightful place. [51] Above it towards the west is Mount Gilboa, which extends westwards for two leagues, as far as Jezreel (Iesrahel). Two leagues west of Beth-shean rises a great spring, two leagues above Bethshean. In the first book of Kings this is called the spring of Jezreel, where the

235   Also referred to as Mesara, it was granted to the abbey of Mount Tabor by Tancred in 1101 (CGOH 2, pp. 897–8, ‘Chartes du Mont Tabor’, no. 1; RRH, p. 6, no. 36). 236   Probably ‘Afūla (see above), though the following biblical reference is to Fīq in the Jawlān: see Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 246–7. 237   1 Kings 20.23. 238   Sūlam. 239   2 Kings 4.8. 240   2 Kings 4.18–37. 241   1 Kings 1.3–4. 242   1 Samuel 31.8–10. 243   Jewish Antiquities, passim.

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Philistines pitched camp when they were on Gilboa, between the same spring and Beth-shean.244 A short distance from that spring, about as far as a two bowshots, is the city of Jezreel. It is sited in a somewhat elevated position and was once one of the royal cities in Israel; but today it has scarcely thirty houses. Nowadays it is called Zir‘īn (Zaraein) and is sited at the foot of Mount Gilboa on the west side.245 In front of the entrance there is still shown the field of Naboth the Jezreelite.246 It is two short leagues from the city of Shunem (Sunam), which is north of it on the south side of Mount Hermon. Those two mountains, that is to say Mount Hermon and Mount Gilboa, are so placed that Mount Gilboa is to the south and Mount Hermon to the north, with a distance of two short leagues between them. They extend lengthwise from east to west and both end in the east at the Jordan, being two leagues or more in length. In the plain between them there have been many great battles. For there Gideon fought against Midian, Saul against the Philistines, and Ahab against the Syrians. In modern times the Tartars also fought in the same place with the Saracens.247 [Regarding this Mount Hermon, however, note that there is also another mountain of the same name above Trachonitis near Mount Senir (Sanyr), which is much larger and higher than this one; and in many places it is that one of which the scriptures speak, not this one.]248 In the plain between those mountains begins the valley that is called ‘illustrious’ on account of its pleasantness and fertility. It stretches from there along the whole descent of the Jordan to the Dead Sea. Before the Lord overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah this was the Illustrious Valley that was watered ‘like paradise’ and ‘like Egypt’ as is told in Genesis 13[.10].249 Jezreel commands a fine distant view over the whole of Galilee as far as Mount Carmel, the mountains of Phœnicia, Mount Tabor, Mount Gilead, Transjordan and the whole of Mount Ephraim as far as Carmel. [52] The way from Mount Gilead to Jezreel runs by a level road along the south side of Mount Gilboa from the Jordan through Ænon and Salim, where John was baptizing.250 By this road came Jehu from Ramoth-gilead (Ramatha Galaad)   1 Samuel 29.1.   The surviving ruined medieval buildings in Jezreel include a vaulted building and

244 245

a small church: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 276–9 and 4, p. 268–71; id. Secular Buildings, p. 56. 246   1 Kings 21.1–19; 2 Kings 9.25. 247   Burchard is here referring to the defeat of the Mongols of Kitbuqa at the hands of the Mamluks under Sultan Qutuz and Rukn al-Dīn Baybars at ‘Ayn Jālūt in the Jezreel Valley on 3 September 1260. 248   This passage represents a textual gloss. 249   Genesis 13.10, however, refers to the valley south of the Dead Sea. 250   John 3.23.

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when the watchman said, ‘I see a company.’251 It is not true, as some people say, that neither dew nor rain falls on the mountains of Gilboa, for when I was there on St Martin’s day (11 November) it rained on me so much that I was soaked to the skin; and the valley was filled with water from the same rain. It is true, however, that in some places the mountains are rocky, dry and sterile, like the other mountains of Israel. Four leagues south of Jezreel is Janīn (Ginnin), a walled town but fallen down, sited at the foot of Mount Ephraim. At this town Samaria begins and Galilee ends. It is roughly seven leagues to the east from Janīn to the Jordan. Those parts adjoin on the south the land of Tappuah (Taphue), which has very high mountains.252 Four leagues south of Janīn is the city of Sebaste, which was formerly called Samaria, when it was the capital of the kingdom of the ten tribes that was called Israel. Now [53] on account of sinfulness it has not a single house but it has two churches, built indeed in honour of St John the Baptist.253 The Saracens, however, have made a mosque for themselves out of one of them, which was the principal one and the cathedral, and more particularly out of the tomb of the same St John the Baptist, which was made of marble like the Lord’s Sepulchre. In it the saint had been buried between Elisha and Obadiah. That church is located on the side of the mountain, on the way down. The Saracens honour St John greatly, after Christ and the Blessed Virgin, and think highly of him. They say that Christ is truly the Word of God, but they deny that He is God. They say that the Blessed Virgin conceived from the Holy Spirit, gave birth as a virgin and remained a virgin. They say that John was a great and very holy prophet. They say that Muḥammad was the messenger of God and that he was sent by God to them alone. This I have read in the Qur‘ān, which is their book of the law. The other church is on the brow of the hill, where the royal palace was. It is occupied by Greek monks, Christians, who kindly received and fed me. In that church the same Greeks show the place where they say that John was imprisoned and beheaded by Herod. This claim I declare to be worthless, because the chronicles, Josephus,254 the legends of the saints, the master in the histories255 and the Ecclesiastical History all agree in saying that he was beheaded in Machærus (Macherunta),256 which is today called Haylon. It lies beyond the Jordan and I have seen it myself.257 Moreover the Herod who beheaded   2 Kings 9.16–17.   Tappuah (Shaykh Abū Zarad) lay south of Nāblus, on the border between Ephraim

251 252

and Manasseh (Joshua 17.7–8; cf. Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 442). 253   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 283–301. 254   Jewish Antiquities 18.5.2, in Loeb 9, 81–5, trans. Whiston, p. 534. 255   Petrus Comestor, Historia Scholastica 73, in PL 198, col. 1574. 256   Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 1.11.6, in Loeb, p. 81. 257   Machærus is identified as al-Mukawar, some 18 km sw of Madaba. Burchard’s Haylon may perhaps have been ‘Ajlūn, whose Ayyubid hill-top castle may also be seen from w of the Jordan.

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John was tetrarch of Galilee and the region beyond the river, which is the land of Gilead or of the two tribes, and had no authority in Samaria, because that was in the charge of Pilate, like Jerusalem and Judæa; thus he could neither have imprisoned John nor beheaded him there, because he had no jurisdiction there. After he had been beheaded in Machærus, however, as has been said, his body was interred by his disciples in Samaria between the prophets already mentioned, while his head was buried in Jerusalem. I have never seen such ruins in the Holy Land as those in Samaria, though I have seen many great ones. The city was not laid out as the master in the histories seems to think in commenting on the text, ‘If the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people who follow me.’258 He seems to imagine that the city wall and mountain top were equal in height and that buildings were constructed over them. This was not the case; on the contrary, the city wall was at the foot of the mountain, strongly fortified with very strong towers, and the mountain was inside it, rising gradually upwards and encircled by buildings, just as a bunch is filled with grapes and, when upright, rises gradually to a point. The royal palace was up on the mountain itself and was beautiful beyond measure. There are still to be seen there an exceedingly large number of marble columns, which [54] supported the halls and galleries. Round about the mountain, below the royal palace and below the residences of the nobles, in the place where there was the common street or market where things were sold, there are still to be found almost all the way round the mountain entire standing marble columns, which supported the vaults over the streets, for the city streets were vaulted according to the custom of the Holy Land.259 In brief I declare that no more can be said of that city, which has now come to such misery that in truth it is a kitchen garden, such as Ahab, its king, wanted to make of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, because it was near his house. In truth, now by the fair judgement of God not only the vineyard but also the hall of the king itself has been changed into a kitchen garden. The location of this city was very beautiful; for the view from it stretched as far as the sea at Joppe (Jaffa), to Antipatris (Ra’s al-‘Ayn) and Cæsarea of Palestine, as well as over all the mountains of Ephraim as far as Ramathaim-zophim and to Carmel by the sea near Acre. It abounds in springs, gardens, olive-groves and the good things that an honest man requires. Four leagues to the east of Samaria is the city of Tirzah (Thersa)260 on a high mountain. In it the kings of Israel reigned for some time before the construction of Samaria. It was in the lot of Manasseh. 258   1 Kings 20.10. The gloss is Petrus Comestor, Historia Scholastica 27, in PL 198, col. 1382. 259   The colonnaded street, which may still be seen, appears to have dated from the Herodian period, the columns originally supporting timber roofs over the pavements flanking the street (Hamilton, Guide to the Historical Site of Sebastieh, pp. 51–2). 260   Identified by Aharoni as Khirbat Tall al-Fār‘ah (Land of the Bible, p. 442), despite Abel’s earlier scepticism (Géographie, p. 485). Burchard may possibly have had in mind Tayāsīr, or Ta’āsīr (al-Muqaddasī (c.985), in Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, p.

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Six leagues east of Tirzah on the road that leads to the Jordan is the land of Tappuah (Taphue), which among other mountains has one very high one. This was similarly in the lot of Manasseh and it extends as far as the plains of the Jordan against Machærus.261 Two leagues south from Samaria beside the road that leads to Shechem (Sichem), on a high mountain to the right is Mount Bethel, on which Jereboam, son of Nebat, placed one of the golden calves by which he caused Israel to sin.262 The Saracens corruptly call that place Bothil, not knowing how to say Bethel.263 Half a league from there to the left above the road there is another mountain higher than the first, which is called Dan, overlooking the city of Shechem. Some people say that in it the other golden calf was placed; but others say that it was in the city of Dan, which is now called Bāniyās (Belinas) or Cæsarea Philippi. This is rather what Jerome seems to intend.264 One may choose as one likes; it is certain, however, that that mountain is called Dan.265 Between those two mountains is located the city of Shechem, which today is called Nāblus (Neapolis). It is very pleasant and full of delights but is not fortified, nor could it be fortified in any way; indeed there is no other option [55] if the enemy should approach one gate than for the inhabitants to flee through the other, if they be fewer in numbers. For the city is sited in the middle of a valley between very high mountains, such that anyone could hurl a stone into it by hand. About two bowshots from its south gate is Jacob’s Well (fons Iacob), on the road that leads to Jerusalem. There is the Lord’s seat above the well, [where] He asked the Samaritan woman for a drink.266 Above that well to the right is a high mountain with two crests, one of which is called Mount Gerizim and the other Mount Ebal. On Mount Gerizim the altar of 540), which is located some 8 km ne of Tall al-Fār‘ah (cf. Conder and Kitchener, Survey 2, p. 228). 261   ‘The land of Tappuah belonged to Manasseh, but the town of Tappuah on the boundary of Manasseh belonged to the sons of Ephraim’ (Joshua 17.7–8). Burchard’s location is mistaken, however, for the site is now identified at Shaykh Abū Zarad, s of Nāblus (Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 442; Abel, Géographie, pp. 475–6). 262   1 Kings 12.28–9. 263   It seems that Burchard is referring to somewhere other than Baytīn, ne of al-Bīra, the normal location for Bethel. Perhaps he had in mind Khirbat Bayt Bazzīn, whose position corresponds with the location that he gives. In 1123 Beithbezim had belonged to Baldwin of Ramla and in 1265 it was one of the villages granted by Baybars to his ‘amīrs (Abel, ‘Liste des donations de Baîbars’, pp. 41, 43). 264   Liber locorum, ed. Klostermann, p. 77; Comment. in Amos 8.13–14, in PL 25, col. 1084. 265   Burchard is presumably referring to Mount Ebal. 266   John 4.5–42. Burchard’s text has possibly been corrupted here to ubi sedes Domini; super puteum potum petivit a Samaritana from ubi sedens Dominus …; it may thus originally have read ‘where, seated above the well, the Lord asked the Samaritan woman for a drink.’ On the church see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 258–64 and 4, pp. 267–9.

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Joshua was constructed as was written in Deuteronomy and they stood blessing and cursing, and from Mount Ebal they responded, as was ordained in Deuteronomy 28[.4–14]. On Mount Gerizim is still shown a very ancient sanctuary, the dwelling place of Olympian Jupiter, which Sanballat, commander of the region beyond the Jordan, built in the likeness of the Temple of the people of Jerusalem for his sonin-law Manasseh, who wanted to be chief priest.267 That temple remained there until the destruction wrought by the Romans and its traces and ruins are still to be seen.268 It is this mountain and this temple that the woman of Samaria is thought to have been referring to and pointing out when she said to the Lord, ‘Our fathers worshipped on this mountain.’269 To the left of this well is a very large though deserted town, which I believe was ancient Shechem (Sichem), because there are very great ruins of marble halls and wonderful columns.270 It lies two bowshots from the well and the dwelling of Jacob and is located in a very pleasant position, although lacking water. Nowhere else have I seen so rich and fruitful a place. It is two bowshots distant from the city that is called Nāblus (Neapolis); and I think that this Nāblus was the town of Thebez (Thebes).271 [56] This well lies beside the farm that Jacob gave to Joseph, his son, excluding his brothers.272 It is a long, fertile and exceedingly delightful valley, and equally I know of no great valley like it in delightfulness. In Shechem are buried the bones of Joseph, brought back from Egypt.273 Four leagues south of Shechem beside the road as one goes to Jerusalem on the right-hand side is the village of Lebona (Lebna, al-Lubbān), which is very beautiful.274 There is another city called Libnah (Lebna) in the tribe of Judah;275 but this one belonged to the tribe of Ephraim.

  Cf. 2 Maccabees 6.1; Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 11.7.2, 11.8.2–4, in Loeb 6, pp. 461–73, trans. Whiston, pp. 322–4. 268   On the extensive remains, see Magen, ‘Gerizim’. 269   John 4.20. 270   This was not Shechem, which lay closer to Nāblus (Neapolis), which replaced it, but Sychar (‘Askar), where Jacob’s well was located (John 4.5; Abel, Géographie 2, p. 472–3; TIR, p. 238). 271   Abimelech died during the siege of Thebez, after being hit on the head by a millstone hurled by a woman defending the tower (Judges 9.50–54; 2 Samuel 11.21). Eusebius, followed by Jerome, identified it as Ṭūbas, 16 km ne of Nāblus (Onomasticon, p. 100, lines 11–14; cf. Abel, Géographie 2, p. 477), though Aharoni sees it as a corruption of Tirzah, or Tall al-Far‘ah (Land of the Bible, p. 265). 272   Cf. Genesis 37.12–14. 273   Cf. Genesis 50.25–6. 274   Abel, Géographie 2, p. 369; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 439. 275   Perhaps Tall Burnāṭ (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 369–70; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 439). 267

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Five leagues south of Lebona is the fairly large town of Michmash (Machmas), which marked the southern boundary of the tribe of Ephraim. Now it is called al-Bīra (Bira). In those days it belonged to the Knights of the Temple. Near its southern side is the boundary between the tribes of Ephraim and Benjamin. 276 One league south of Michmas is Gibeah of Saul (Gabaa Saulis), where the wife of the Levite who came from Bethlehem was oppressed; and for that almost all the tribe of Benjamin was destroyed.277 There was born Saul, son of Kish, the first king of Israel.278 One league south of Gibe‘ah is the town of Ramah (Rama, al-Rām) situated on a mount, to the left for those going to Jerusalem and not far from the road. From this is believed to have come the saying of Jeremiah, ‘A voice was heard in Ramah.’279 Two miles south of Ramah is the glorious city of Jerusalem, of which for the moment I shall write nothing, wishing to return through Shechem and first of all recall the cities of the corner of Mount Ephraim and resume where I broke off. Note, however, that there are many cities in the Holy Land that are called Rama: one near Tekoa (Tecua, Tuqū‘) on the road between it and Hebron;280 another in the tribe of Naphtali;281 [57] a third is that not far from the castle of Ṣafad;282 a fourth is in Shiloh (Silo), which is similarly called Rama.283 Rama means ‘high’, and indeed all these towns are sited on high hills.   Michmash or Michmas is identified today as Mukhmās, 6.5 km ese of al-Bīra (Abel, Géographie 2, p. 386; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 439). In the twelfth century alBīra belonged to the canons of the Holy Sepulchre. If it ever belonged to the Templars, that can only have been in 1243–44, when they briefly re-established themselves in Jerusalem (Prawer, Histoire 2, pp. 306–10; Pringle, Churches 1, p. 161; id., ‘Magna Mahumeria’, p. 149). 277   Judges 19–20. 278   Gibeah of Benjamin, later also known as Gibeah of Saul (1 Samuel 10.10, 10.25, 11.4), is generally identified as Tall al-Fūl, between al-Rām and Jerusalem (Abel, Géographie 2, p. 334; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 435). The site described by Burchard, however, appears to be Jaba‘, or Geba‘ of Benjamin, between al-Bīra and al-Rām (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 238–9; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 435). 279   Jeremiah 31.15. 280   Presumably Rāmat al-Khalīl, the site of the tombs of the Patriarchs, though it is closer to Hebron than to Tekoa. 281   Identified by Abel (Géographie 2, p. 427), and possibly Burchard, with al-Rāma, Khirbat al-‘Anāqīr (but see following note). 282   Possibly Khirbat Zaytūn al-Rāma (Kh. Jūl), which is closer to Ṣafad than is alRāma (Khirbat al-‘Anāqīr), but is itself identified by Aharoni as Ramah of Naphtali (Land of the Bible, p. 28, 283 n.196, 441). 283   Shiloh is identified as Saylūn, between Nāblus and al-Bīra. Burchard, however, was probably thinking of Nabi Ṣamwīl, which in the Middle Ages was identified both as Ramah (or Ramathaim-zophim), the burial place of Samuel, and as Shiloh (see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 85–7). 276

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Proceeding therefore south from Shechem towards the Jordan, first of all at four leagues is Janoah (Emon), a very good city, situated in a pleasant place and abounding in all good wordly things. It was in the lot of Ephraim.284 Four leagues east of Janoah, on the descent of Mount Ephraim in the plains two leagues from the Jordan is the village of Faṣayil (Phesech),285 where the Cherith book (torrens Carith) comes down from the mountain. There Elijah lived, when the ravens brought him food morning and evening.286 One league from Faṣayil, to the left towards the land of Tappuah (Taphua),287 is the castle of Dok (Doch), in which Ptolemy, son of Abubus, insidiously slew Simon Maccabeus.288 From that place are very clearly to be seen the land of Gilead (Galaad) and that of the two-and-a-half tribes, the land of Heshbon (Esebon), the mountains of Moab, and Mounts Abarim, Pisgah (Phasga) and Nebo. From here one goes down into the plain of the Jordan; and the region is flat as far as Jericho and beyond it along the whole descent of the Jordan down to the Salt Sea. Mounts Abarim, Peor (Phegor)289 and Pisgah are directly facing that place beyond the Jordan. It should also be known that from the source of the Jordan below Mount Lebanon to the desert of Paran (Pharan), for around a hundred miles and more, the Jordan has broad fertile plains on either bank. Further on, these same plains are enclosed by high mountains on each side as far as the Red Sea. Five leagues almost due south but slightly to the east from Faṣayil is the place of Gilgal (Galgale), where the children of Israel encamped for a long time after crossing the Jordan; and there some of them were circumcised.290 Half a league from Gilgal in the direction of Jericho to the right-hand side of the road is a mount called Quarantine (Quarantena),291 where the Lord fasted forty days and nights; [58] and it is very high and difficult to climb. But He was tempted

  Joshua 17.16. Identified by Eusebius as Iano (Yānūn), 10 Roman miles e of Nāblus (Onomasticon, p. 108.19–21; TIR, p. 150; Abel, Géographie 2, p. 354; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 437). 285   Phasælis, founded by Herod and named after his brother, Phasael (TIR, pp. 202–3). 286   1 Kings 17.5–7. 287   Shaykh Abū Zarad, about 14 km s of Nāblus (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 475–6; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 442). 288   1 Maccabees 16.11–17. On the site, which occupies the summit of Jabal Qurunṭul (Mount of Temptation), see Abel, Géographie 2, p. 307; Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 252–8. 289   According to Eusebius, followed by Jerome, Beth-peor (Bethfogor) (Joshua 13.20) stood beside Mount Peor (Montem Fogor) beyond the Jordan facing Jericho (Onomasticon, p. 48, lines 3–5). It is now identified as Khirbat al-Shaykh Jāyil (Abel, Géographie 2, p. 278; Avi-Yonah, Gazetteer, p. 41). 290   Joshua 4.19–24, 5.1–10; Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 336–7; Augustinović, Gericho e dintorni, pp. 147–54; TIR, p. 128. 291   Jabal Qurunṭul. 284

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on another mountain three leagues from that one, up in the wilderness on the south side of Bethel and Ai.292 About two bowshots below Quarantine there rises and gushes forth Elisha’s Spring, whose waters Elisha cured because they were bitter and unfruitful.293 This stream runs past Gilgal on the south side and powers large mills; afterwards, dividing into many streams, it waters sugar-canes, gardens and orchards as far as Jericho and beyond, and flows into the Jordan. Beside Gilgal, half a league to the south, is the valley of Achor, below the mountain, where Achan was stoned for stealing that which had been cursed.294 One league east of Gilgal lies Jericho. Once famous, it now has scarcely eight houses. There are the remains of a squalid township and all traces of the holy places in it have been completely destroyed. Two leagues from Jericho towards the Jordan is a chapel built in honour of St John the Baptist, where it is believed that the Lord was baptized.295 Some people think that that took place near Salim,296 but this is contradicted by the rite of the church. The things that happened in Jericho are known well enough and I shall therefore not write about them. Two leagues from Jericho near the Dead Sea is Bethagla, where the children of Israel mourned their dead father Jacob, when they brought him from Egypt.297 It is one league from the Jordan and Greek monks live there.298 Three leagues from Jericho, that is, one league from the chapel of St John beside the Jordan, is the Dead Sea, which is also called the Lake of Asphalt, that is, of bitumen, or the Salt Sea. It divides Arabia from Judæa. On its eastern shore is the land of Moab, Ammon and Mount Seir, which have been spoken of above; and it extends as far as Kadesh-barnea and the desert of Paran (Pharan). Around the middle of it on the eastern shore is shown Montreal (Mons real), which in ancient times was called Petra of the Desert and is now called al-Karak (Krach). It is strongly fortified. Baldwin, [59] king of Jerusalem, built it to extend the kingdom of Jerusalem, but now the sultan holds it and stores therein the treasury of all Egypt and Arabia.299   Cf. Matthew 4.1–11.   2 Kings 2.19–22. 294   Achan, son of Carmi, son of Zerah, had saved for himself several objects from the 292 293

destruction of Jericho (Joshua 7.1–26). 295   Qasr al-Yahūd: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 241–4. 296   John 3.23. 297   Eusebius identifies Bethagla with the threshing floor of Atad (Genesis 50.10; Onomasticon, p. 8, lines 17–20; cf. TIR, p. 79). 298   In the thirteenth century these monks occupied the monastery of Our Lady of Kalamon (Dayr Hajla) (Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 197–202). 299   Baldwin I founded the castle of Montreal (al-Shawbak) in 1115. However, the castle to which Burchard is referring here is al-Karak, also known as al-Karak al-Shawbak

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Two days’ journey south-east of al-Karak is Areopolis, now called Petra, the metropolis of all Second Arabia, which has been spoken of above. At one time it was called Ar and was located on the Arnon brook, on the border of the Moabites, Ammonites and Amorites.300 On the same shore is the place where Balaam was led into the mountains of Moab to curse the children of Israel.301 Five leagues south-west of Jericho is the town of Zoar (Segor), below the mountain of En-gedi. Between it and the Dead Sea is the pillar of salt into which Lot’s wife was turned according to Genesis.302 I tried hard to see it, but the Saracens told me that the place was not safe on account of wild animals, snakes and serpents and above all because of the Bedouin living in those parts, who are extremely fierce and evil. These considerations held me back from proceeding further. I learnt afterwards, however, that it was not so. The Dead Sea is six leagues wide from east to west and its length from north to south, so the Saracens told me, is five days’ journey. It is always smoking303 and dark, like the furnace of hell. Much has been written and said by various people about this sea and I shall pass over it as being known to many. Nonetheless, this should be known, since what I saw with my own eyes and many others with me I dare to state freely, namely, that the whole of that valley, which used to be called lustrous304 and rightly so, from the end of the sea that is in the desert of Paran as far as half a day’s journey beyond Jericho, is rendered unprofitable by the fumes from the sea, such that it puts forth neither grass nor shoots of any kind anywhere throughout its whole width, which is five or in places six leagues, except near the city of Jericho, where the sugar-canes, gardens and orchards are watered by Elisha’s Spring. This is certainly a dreadful judgement of God, who for so many centuries [60] has so punished the sins of the people of Sodom, that the land itself has been paying the price for thousands of years! The mountains above it to left and right are dry and barren, or else a dwelling place of barbarians, as far as the fumes are able to reach, blown by the wind. (le Crac de Montreal), to which the caput of the lordship of Montreal, or Transjordan, was transferred in 1142–43 (Deschamps, Châteaux 2, pp. 36–7, 46; id., ‘Les deux Cracs’; Mayer, Kreuzfahrerherreschaft Montréal, pp. 115–16). The sultan of Egypt at the time when Burchard was writing was the Mamluk, al-Manṣūr Sayf al-Dīn Qalā’ūn. 300   Here Burchard is confused, since Petra and Areopolis were quite different places. In the sixth century, however, the metropolitan see of Petra (Wādī Mūsa) was transferred to Areopolis (biblical Rabbath Moab, or Ar Moab), which is identified as al-Rabba, just n of al-Karak (Abel, Géographie 1, p. 280 and 2, pp. 201, 248, 424–5; Notitia, ed. Tobler and Molinier, p. 340; Avi-Yonah, Gazetteer, p. 90). A similar confusion is also found in William of Tyre (Chronicon, 15.21, ed. Huygens, pp. 703–4) and John of Ibelin (Livre §226, ed. Edbury, p. 591). 301   Numbers 22–4. 302   Genesis 19.26. 303   fumans for sinuans in Laurent’s text. 304   convallis illustris is the Vulgate’s translation of ‘Moreh’ (Genesis 12.6).

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Some people say that the Jordan does not mingle its waters with that sea, but that it is absorbed by the land before it reaches it; but the Saracens assured me that it both enters and leaves the sea, but is absorbed by the land shortly after leaving it. From time to time the sea overflows as a result of the melting of the snows of Lebanon and other mountains, the flooding of the Jordan and the streams of the Jabbok,305 Arnon (Hermon)306 and Zered (Zared),307 and rain falling on Galilee, Mount Gilead, the land of Moab and Ammon and Seir, from all of which the waters flow down the Jordan to that sea. There is also found in it bitumen, which is collected from its bottom; and when the wind blows it sticks together and is carried and thrown against the shore in great quantity. It is strong and medicinal, can only be dissolved with menstrual blood, and is called Jews’ glue. Accordingly it is called the Lake of Judæa or Lake of Asphalt – that is, of bitumen. It is said in Genesis 14, that the valley of Siddim (vallis silvestris), which is now the Salt Sea, contained many wells of bitumen;308 and today there are many on its shore. There is always a pyramid erected next to each pit, which I have seen with my own eyes. Let this be enough said concerning that sea. Three leagues from the place of Gilgal, which has been spoken of above, and the same distance from Elisha’s Spring, towards the north in the mountains to the north of Quarantine is the city of Ai (Hay), which Joshua stormed, killing its king, as is related in Joshua 8[.1–29].309 About a league north of Ai and a little to the west is the city of Bethel,310 which was formerly called Luz, in the tribe of Benjamin, where Jacob travelling east when fleeing from the face of Esau his brother fell asleep with a stone placed under his head and saw a ladder rising up from the earth with its top touching heaven, and so forth as is related;311 and there he set up the stone as a pillar and called the name of that place Bethel. Those who say that this took place in Jerusalem are mistaken,312 for at that time Melchisedek reigned in Jerusalem and it was a noble city, so that it would not have been necessary for Jacob to have slept there in a field, least of all on Mount Moriah, which was then and is today next to the city.     307   308  

Nahr al-Zarqā (Abel, Géographie 1, pp. 174–6, 276, 310, 485–6). Wādī al-Mūjib (Abel, Géographie 1, pp. 177–8, 487–8 and 2, pp. 189, 217). Probably Wādī al-Ḥasa (Abel, Géographie 1, pp. 279, 310, 489 and 2, pp. 216–17). Genesis 14.3 and 10. The Vulgate’s translation of the Salt Valley as vallis Silvestris (wild, rustic or wooded valley) is also adopted by William of Tyre 8.1, 22.15 (14), ed. Huygens, pp. 381, 1027; cf. Abel, Géographie 1, pp. 407–8. 309   Identified as Khirbat al-Tall, east of Bethel (Baytīn) (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 239–40; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 430). 310   Baytīn (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 270–71; Churches 1, pp. 104–5 and 4, pp. 256–7). 311   Genesis 28.10–22. 312   In the twelfth century Jacob’s dream was also associated with the Lord’s Temple, or Dome of the Rock, on Mount Moriah, though some pilgrims, like John of Würzburg (c.1165), were duly sceptical (ed. Huygens, pp. 90–91). 305

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Besides, evidence of this event is shown today in Bethel: both the stone set up as a pillar and the tomb of Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, below in the valley. Some say, however, that Jerusalem was called Bethel, foolishly clinging on to these verses: Solima, Luz, Bethel, Jerusalem, Jebus and Ælia, The holy city of Jerusalem was called and Salem too.

I should be happy to know from these people from which place in the Old or New Testament they draw the evidence that Jerusalem was called Luz or Bethel, unless perhaps they mean to call the Temple Bethel, that is, the ‘House of God’. [61] Moreover, on the text of Genesis, ‘Abraham returned by the road that came to Bethel’,313 the gloss of Jerome, who saw the place, says, ‘Bethel is a city at the twelfth milestone from Jerusalem, lying in the tribe of Benjamin, to the right as one goes towards Neapolis (Nāblus).’314 Neapolis is Shechem, near Luz, which is in the tribe of Ephraim, and the nearby boundary between Benjamin and Ephraim passes through the middle of it. A league north of Bethel, towards Ramah, which is also called Shiloh (Silo),315 is the palm tree of Deborah (the wife of Lappidoth), who judged Israel and sent Barak to fight against Sisera on Mount Tabor.316 Two leagues from Bethel and one from Jerusalem, not far from Ramah of Benjamin,317 is Anathoth, a small village of priests, in which the Prophet Jeremiah was born.318 Near Anathoth, to the south-east, begins the wilderness that lies between Jerusalem and Jericho. It is now called the wilderness of the Quarantine and it extends beyond Gilgal as far as the wilderness against Tekoa (Tecua) and En-gedi. Beside the Dead Sea, on its western shore, one league from Zoar (Segor), is the ascent to Mount En-gedi, in which we learn that at one time David lay in hiding when Saul was pursuing him.319 On and around this mountain was a certain garden of balsam, but, at the time of Herod the Great, Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, transferred it to Babylon in Egypt out of hatred of Herod and by the favour of Antony. This I also saw when I was coming to the sultan in Egypt.320 He had me taken to it and I took a great quantity   Cf. Genesis 13.3.   Cf. Liber locorum, ed. Klostermann, p. 41, lines 17–19, indicating Baytīn. 315   Here Burchard is referring to Saylūn (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 462–3; Aharoni, 313 314

Land of the Bible, p. 442), rather than Nabi Ṣamwīl. 316   Judges 4.4–6. 317   Al-Rām (Abel, Géographie 2, p. 427; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 441). 318   Jeremiah 1.1. Identified as Ra’s al-Kharrūba, near ‘Anātā (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 243–4; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 430). 319   1 Samuel 23.29, 24.1–22. 320   Either al-Ẓāhir Rukn al-Dīn Baybars I (1260–77) or al-Manṣūr Sayf al-Dīn Qalā’ūn (1280–90), depending on the date of Burchard’s visit.

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of balsam wood and bathed in the well from which it is watered. The gardeners told me that from midday on Saturday until Monday oxen are quite unwilling to draw water from it, were they even to be beaten to pieces. The garden is two bowshots in length and a stone’s throw or more in width. The garden of balsam in Egypt is tended only by Christians, and it is watered from a spring in which it is said that the blessed Virgin Mary often bathed the Child Jesus. There are still, however, shoots of fine vines in En-gedi, but the Saracens do not cultivate them and the Christians, who might cultivate them, do not live there. Below En-gedi beside the Dead Sea are very beautiful trees, but their fruit when picked is found to be filled inside with dust and ashes. [62] The mountains of En-gedi are very high and remarkably formed. They are rent by crevices and valleys in such a way that I have not seen the like for striking terror into onlookers. Four leagues west of Jericho on the road that leads to Jerusalem, to the left of [Mount] Quarantine is the castle of [Ma‘ale] Adumim (Adommim),321 where the man who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among thieves. In modern times this has happened to many people in the same place, and the locality has taken its name from the frequent shedding of blood. Indeed, it is horrible to see and very dangerous, unless one goes with an escort. Two leagues west of Adumim is Bahurim (Bachurim), of the tribe of Benjamin, from which came Shimei, son of Gera, who cursed David when he fled in the face of Absalom, as is told in 2 Kings.322 It is a moderately fair castle and stands on a high hill.323 In the valley below to the east, on the royal highway from Adumim, is the stone that is called Beon324 of the children of Ruben; it is the size of a bread oven and appears to be marble. Two bowshots west of Bahurim on a sloping site is Bethany, the village (castellum) of Martha and Mary. Less than a stone’s throw before its entrance, near a cistern in a field, is shown the place where first Martha and afterwards Mary, called by her, met the Lord when He was coming to Bethany. In Bethany there is still shown the house of Simon the Leper, in which the Lord Jesus reclined with him at table. There is also the house of Martha, in which He was often received. This has now been made into a church in honour of both women. There is also, not far from the church, the tomb of Lazarus, from which he was raised. In that place there is a very fitting and beautiful marble chapel and   Ma‘ale Adumim, or Tal‘at al-Damm, the ‘Ascent of Blood’, a former Templar castle and road station: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 345–6; id., Secular Buildings, p. 78–9; id. ‘Templar Castles on the Road to the Jordan’, pp. 153–62. 322   2 Samuel 16.5–8. 323   Possibly Khirbat al-Muraṣṣaṣ, the ruined fortified Byzantine monastery of Martyrius: see Magen, ‘Martyrius Monastery’. 324   Numbers 32.3. 321

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the monument itself covered in marble, into which I also descended. The Saracens honour greatly that tomb on account of the miracle of restoring life performed there by the Lord.325 As one leaves Bethany one does not at first see Jerusalem because the Mount of Olives is in the way; but first one goes up a rise in the ground and then one sees part of the beloved city and Mount Sion. O God, how many devout tears have been shed in that place by those seeing there the exultation of the whole earth, the city of the Great King! O what joy it would be to see the place of Your glory, good Jesus, when one comes to see with such jubilation the place of Your dishonour and confusion! But let us put all this aside and come to Jerusalem as quickly as possible. So one goes down the mountain and again the beloved city is hidden from sight. Moreover, on the east side of the Mount of Olives near Bethphage, a very small village that one passes in a valley a stone’s-throw to the left below the Mount of Offence, one goes up along the southern side of the Mount of Olives and circles around it. One comes to the place where the Lord mounted the ass and immediately the city shines forth with the Temple, the church of the Holy Sepulchre and the other holy places. And so one comes to the way down from the Mount of Olives, where, with crowds preceding and following Him crying, ‘Hosannah to the Son of David!’ and rejoicing at His blessed coming, He saw the city and [63] wept bitterly over it. Let us therefore proceed and cross the Kidron brook between the place of His prayer in agony and the place of His arrest in Gethsemane, and let us follow – if by whatever means we are permitted to come to Golgotha – where His feet stood fixed to the Cross while flowing with blood. Let us die there with Christ, that with Him we may likewise rise again! Jerusalem 8. Jerusalem, city of God Most High, of which glorious things have been spoken and are said every day, is sited in mountainous terrain. Mountains enclose it; but it has round about it land that is fertile and good, save on the east side towards the Jordan. It is thirty-six leagues from Acre, which is to the north, sixteen from Sebaste or Samaria, thirteen from Shechem, and thirty-seven from Nazareth. All these cities are to the north. It is thirteen leagues from Joppe (Jaffa), which is roughly west though a little to the north. It is seven leagues from Jericho, which it to the east. It is two leagues from Bethlehem, eight from Tekoa and eight from Hebron. These cities are to the south. It stands in two senses on the side of a hill, that is to say on the south and west sides of it. On the south it stands beside Mount Sion, or rather part of it stands on that mount and part on its slope. Its length runs down from Mount Sion, extending 325   The two churches had formed part of the Benedictine nunnery established by King Fulk and Queen Melisende in 1137–8: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 122–37.

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towards the north. To the west it has Mount Gihon (Gion) and its width extends from it eastwards to the Kidron brook or valley of Jehoshaphat, which is the same thing. The city is of a goodly size, as will be related below, and is not, as some people claim, located in a different position to what it was at the time of the Lord’s Passion. Those who take that line argue that, since the Lord suffered outside the gate and now that place is within the city walls, the city is therefore located in a different place. They do not know what they are saying and pretend to understand things that they have not seen. The position of this city is and always has been the same, for while the Lord’s Temple remains within the city walls it would be foolish or altogether impossible for the city to be moved to a different location on account of the fortification enclosing the place on all sides, since it would not be possible to have such a defence anywhere else. The fact of the matter, however, is that it has expanded in breadth, though not in length, and the whole of the ancient city together with Mount Sion remains inside the walls and is inhabited; but at this time there are very few inhabitants for a city of such size, because its inhabitants are almost continually fearful. As far as I have been able, however, I have traced its ancient layout. [64] Indeed, in antiquity, as today, Mount Sion overlooked part of the city and was sufficiently spacious to appear able in itself to constitute a fairly large city. This mount begins at the Gate of the Waters or of the spring of Siloam to the east and forms a semicircle turning to the south and then to the west, where the Tower of David stood. Throughout all this circle there was steep rock and arches made in a similar fashion to those of the semicircle called Millo (Mello), at whose filling up between Mount Sion and the lower city one reads that the kings of Judah laboured greatly.326 The Tower of David was built to the west on a hill somewhat higher than the rock scarp; and the chasm which came from the south side of Mount Sion, following it on the west side, immediately curved round from west to east where it met the rock of the Tower of David, encircling the tower. The tower was therefore built on a rock in the angle of that chasm. The valley or chasm that encircled it divided into two deep valleys, one of which ran to the north and the other to the east. These two valleys made another angle opposite the angle in which the Tower of David stood; and that was the angle of the lower city, as will be explained below. Consequently that valley which ran down from the Tower of David proceeded along the north side of Mount Sion as far as Mount Moriah, on which the Temple stood, separating Mount Sion from Mount Moriah and all the lower city; and the chasm continued down even further as far as the Kidron brook, through the place where the Gate of the Waters is now, between Mount Sion and the Palace of Solomon,327 which was built on the southern side of Mount Moriah. Thus in antiquity this chasm encircled Mount Sion on every side. This was the city of   1 Kings 11.27; cf. 2 Samuel 5.9; 2 Chron. 32.5.   Al-Aqsa mosque.

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David. In truth, this chasm is now completely filled in; but its trace may still be discerned to some extent. [65] The second chasm, or valley, which diverged from it below the Tower of David, as has been related above, proceeded to the north and formed the ditch of the city on the west side along the whole length of the city as far as its northern tip. All the way along it was overlooked on the inside by a rock, which Josephus calls Acra, on which the city wall was built. This enclosed the city on the west side as far as the Gate of Ephraim,328 where it curved again to the east as far as the Gate of the Corner, which was built at the corner of the city – that is, the north-east corner. There the wall turned again from north through east to south, passing outside the court of the Temple and enclosing it, the king’s house and the Gate of the Spring or of the Waters, which adjoined Mount Sion on the east. That was the circuit of the city. The rock on which, as has been said before, the city wall was built on the western side was very high and especially so at the corner where the western part of the wall joined the northern part. That place was much higher and there was built there a tower, which was called the Cloudy Tower, and a very strong castle whose ruins are still there.329 From it are to be seen Arabia, the Jordan, the Dead Sea and many other places. Some people would have it said, however, that the Cloudy Tower was next to the Temple, something that the shape and slope of the place does not allow. From this rock on the western side, which as has been said was extremely high, the width of the city sloped gradually downwards to the eastern wall, which stood above the Kidron brook. There the city was and is still today lower, with the result that the city’s refuse flows out there through the Dung Gate into the Kidron brook. Beyond the oft-mentioned chasm or valley on the western side, to the left as one goes out of the Old or Judgement Gate,330 the Lord was transfixed; and long after His Passion the chasm was filled in and another wall was led around from the Tower of David to the Gate of Ephraim, which is now called St Stephen’s Gate. You see, therefore, that from the south Mount Sion and from the west the rock that was part of Mount Gihon, which extends to a great height on the west, both overlooked the town; and below these two mounts to the east and north the whole city lay as if on the sloping side of a hill. Mount Moriah, on which the Lord’s Temple and king’s palace were built, [66] was somewhat higher than the city, as is evident from the site of the Temple and   Equivalent to the medieval St Stephen’s Gate, or modern Damascus Gate.   Burchard is here describing the remains of Tancred’s or Goliath’s Tower (Qal‘at

328 329

Jālūt) at the nw corner of the medieval city. The name, turris nebulosa, however, meaning ‘dark’ or ‘cloudy tower’, recalls the Tower of Psephinus, which Josephus placed at the nw corner of the outer Third Wall at the time of the Roman siege in ad 70 (Jewish War 5.2.2, 5.3.5, 5.4.2–3, in Loeb 3, pp. 217, 239, 243, 247, trans. Williamson, pp. 280, 286, 288; Bahat and Rubinstein, Illustrated Atlas, p. 34–53). 330   The present Seventh Station of the Via Dolorosa: see below.

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its courts according to what Josephus says; and each is described in his histories.331 These places are now altogether levelled and almost lower than the whole city; for the mount was pulled down by the Romans and thrown into the Kidron brook along with all the ruins of the Temple and its courts, as may plainly be seen today. The Temple court is square, being over a bowshot in length and breadth. The Temple that is now built in it almost touches the city wall, which the true and ancient Temple did not, for there were four outer courts in between; but now it is separated from the wall and the Kidron brook by no more than a hundred feet. Not far from the Temple court towards the north, that is to say less than a stone’s throw away, is the Gate of the Valley, so called because through it one goes down into the valley of Jehoshaphat. It also used to be called the Sheep Gate, because through it were brought in the sheep for sacrifice in the Temple. Adjoining it was a tower which some people used to think was the Cloudy Tower or Tower of Hananel; but it was in reality the Tower of Phasael and its traces are still to be seen.332 On entering the Gate of the Valley or Sheep Gate one immediately finds on the left beside the Temple court the Sheep-Pool in which the Temple servants used to wash the victims, and thus they presented them to the priests to be offered in the Temple. It may still be seen to have had five porticos in which, according to John, the sick used to lie and wait for the disturbance of the water.333 On the right-hand side of the thoroughfare as one enters the same gate, in St Anne’s church, is shown another large pool, which is called the Inner Pool.334 Hezekiah made it in this manner: He blocked the upper spring of the waters of Gihon and diverted its waters down to the west of the Tower of David through the valley just described, cutting through the rock with iron, as is told in Ecclesiasticus,335 and bringing the waters through the middle of the city into that pool, so that during a siege the populace might have water to drink and the Assyrians would not be   Jewish War 5.5.1–7, in Loeb 3, pp. 255–75, trans. Williamson, pp. 343–54; Jewish Antiquities 8.3.2–9, 15.11.1–7, in Loeb 5, pp. 605–25 and 8, pp. 185–207, trans. Whiston, pp. 220–23, 461–4. 332   The Phasael Tower was one of three towers built by Herod at the north-west corner of the city, where the Citadel now stands (Bahat and Rubinstein, Illustrated Atlas, pp. 14, 41, 47, 58). 333   John 5.2–9. The identification of the pool of Bethesda with Birkat Isrā’īl beside the Temple precinct gained currency towards the end of the twelfth century, though other medieval sources identify it more correctly with the pool beside St Anne’s, which Burchard goes on to describe next. 334   In the twelfth century this was identified as the Sheep-Pool and associated with a chapel, but by Burchard’s time the Sheep-Pool was more commonly associated with Birkat Isrā’īl: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 389–97. 335   Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 48.17; cf. 2 Kings 20.20; 2 Chron. 32.30. In fact Hezekiah’s tunnel took water from the Gihon spring, further down the Kidron Valley, to the Pool of Siloam inside the city (Bahat and Rubinstein, Illustrated Atlas, pp. 24–33). 331

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able to stop them. [67] The spring of the waters of Gihon, which is not far from the Fuller’s Field, led to the Upper Pool, which is above the bathing pool of Siloam. Ahaz began this, but did not finish it. Isaiah spoke of this pool and of this spring thus: ‘Go forth … to the end of the conduit of the Upper Pool on the way to the Fuller’s Field.’336 For this pool is and is called upper in relation to the bathing pool of Siloam, because the bathing pool of Siloam receives its water both from that pool and from the spring of Siloam, being lower than them.337 Note the distinction between these pools and their names. The first and principal pool in Jerusalem was the Sheep-Pool, with five porticos. Solomon made this for the service of the Temple. This has been spoken of above. The second was near it to the north, in the church of St Anne, and was called the Inner Pool. Hezekiah made this one and it has just been described. The third is the bathing pool of Siloam, which was below the Mount of Olives and Mount Sion, near Akeldama, and it took its water from the spring of Siloam. This was also made by Hezekiah. The fourth was the Upper Pool, which has been described. This was also made by Hezekiah. And if you find it stated anywhere that this fourth pool was inside the city, that is not true – indeed, it is altogether impossible. I know that the text and gloss of ‘the burden of the valley of vision’338 state that the Upper Pool was inside the city and took its water from the spring of Siloam; but that cannot possibly be so, since the city is more than four hundred cubits higher than the spring of Siloam and water cannot flow upwards for such a great height. The truth is that it has its water from the spring of Siloam and from the lower Gihon spring, because it lies outside the city below these springs not far from the bathing pool of Siloam. I have not seen other pools, nor have I read of there being any or having been any in antiquity in Jerusalem, unless perhaps one would wish to count among the pools the bronze sea that lay in front of the Temple.339 In modern times, however, some pools340 have been made to supply bath-houses in the city not far from the house of the patriarch and the Hospital of St John, but of these there is no mention in scripture.341   Isaiah 7.3.   The Upper Pool and conduit near to the Fuller’s Field (cf. 2 Kings 18.17) was

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apparently formed under Hezekiah by damming the valley of Bethesda outside the walls and north of the Temple in the place where the upper Sheep-Pool was later constructed (Bahat and Rubinstein, Illustrated Atlas, pp. 25, 28, 33). 338   Isaiah 22. 339   2 Kings 25.13. 340   Burchard uses here the word bercilia, the Latinized form of the Arabic burāk (singular birka), meaning pools. 341   Burchard is here probably referring to the Pool of the Patriarch, n of the Citadel, which supplied water to the Patriarch’s Baths (Ḥammam al-Baṭrak) beside the Hospital of St John (Pringle, Churches 3, p. 126). This, known today as Hezekiah’s Pool, is probably that referred to by Josephus as the Almond or Tower Pool at the time of the Roman siege in ad 70 (Jewish War 5.11.4, in Loeb 3, p. 347, trans. Williamson, p. 316; Bahat and Rubinstein, Illustrated Atlas, p. 48).

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The valley of Jehoshaphat enclosed the city, running down on the east below the Mount of Olives. Although this valley is fairly deep, it is much filled up; for, as Josephus relates, the Romans, attacking from that side of the city, cut down olives and other trees, made piles of them and filled it in.342 Moreover, afterwards, when the city had been captured and Mount Moriah levelled, to prevent the place being fortified once again Ælius Hadrian had all the ruins of the courts and of the Temple thrown into the Kidron brook and the city sprinkled with [68] salt. All these things are evident to anyone who is there. Indeed, the tomb of the glorious Virgin, which is in the valley of Jehoshaphat, not in its deepest part but at the foot of the Mount of Olives, although it was only slightly above the valley floor or on its surface at the time of the occupation of Jerusalem before the overthrow, is now far below the ground, to the extent that the church itself, despite being very high and vaulted, is now quite underground and completely covered; and the valley above is quite flat such that a road for travellers passes over the church. On the surface of the ground, however, a building in the form of a small chapel has been made; and when you enter it and go down many steps below ground into the church itself, you come to the tomb of the glorious Virgin. I believe there are sixty steps. The tomb is in the centre of the choir against the altar and is of marble and wonderfully decorated. I was in that church and saw the tomb. The church, however, is very damp inside, because the Kidron brook is below it, covered by the previously mentioned fillings in, and when there is a flood of rain water, the stream, which still runs in its ancient course below the backfillings, bursts out and fills the church so much that it often flows up over all the steps and out through the door of the chapel placed above. In the cemetery of this church not far from its door, water is drawn by the local people from a well in front of the Gate of the Valley or Sheep Gate, which is called the Dragon’s Well in the book of Nehemiah.343 The church of the Blessed Virgin is lit internally by east windows placed facing the Mount of Olives, where, on account of the lie of the land, daylight can easily enter.344 To the east, not far from the door to the chapel that leads down to the church, that is to say fifty feet away, is the door of another church called Gethsemane,345 where there was the garden that the Lord entered with His disciples. It is on the side of the mountain, attached to a certain hollow rock that hangs from the mountain, below which rock the disciples were sitting when the Lord said to them: ‘Sit here while I go over there to pray.’346 The place where they sat is still shown. There also is shown the place where He was seized by the crowds when Judas betrayed Him with a kiss. The impression of His skull is to be seen above in the hanging rock and the marks of the crown of His head and [69] of His hair. It is said that He   Josephus, Jewish War 6.2.7 (149–56), in Loeb 3, pp. 418–21, trans. Williamson,

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p. 336.

    345   346   343 344

Or more correctly, Well of the Jackal (cf. Nehemiah 2.13). For details of the church, see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 287–306. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 98–103. Matthew 26.37.

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made this impression when holding on to the rock when He was being taken by the crowds. Note that it is impossible to remove from that rock even a speck of dust, so to speak; and, although I laboured hard with iron implements in order to be able to carry a piece away with me, the aforementioned impressions are still plainly to be seen, as if the rock itself were made of dough. A stone’s throw south from Gethsemane is the place where having moved away from them He prayed, ‘and His sweat became like drops of blood falling down on to the ground.’347 There also is a similar stone, having similar impressions of His knees and hands.348 Between this place and Gethsemane, in front of the church of the Blessed Virgin runs the road that goes up the Mount of Olives and on to Bethany and the Jordan. More than a stone’s throw south from the place where the Lord prayed, facing the Temple at the foot of the Mount of Olives and in the valley of Jehoshaphat is the king’s tomb,349 having a very fine pyramid placed above it. Below Mount Sion over against the royal palace of Solomon on the western side of the valley of Jehoshaphat is the spring of Siloam, from which water flows through an aqueduct into the Upper Pool and into the bathing pool of Siloam when the spring there overflows with water; for it does not flow continuously, but intermittently. Both these pools are at the foot of Mount Sion, between it and Akeldama. Water also comes to these pools from the lower Gihon spring, which rises below the Fuller’s Field near the place where Rabshakeh stood and upbraided the Lord.350 Near those pools a stone’s throw beyond the valley in its southern part is the Field of Akeldama, where lies the burial place for strangers, bought for the thirty pieces of silver with which Judas sold the Lord. In that field there are many costly tombs.351 The Kidron brook runs down to the east, below the pools and the Field of Akeldama, its waters being gathered higher up and drawn into it from more elevated areas, such as Ramah, Anathoth and the tomb of Queen Adiobene.352 Far below the tomb of the Blessed Virgin [70] the sound of it can be heard running down to that place. Moreover, the waters flowing out of the pools join it and thus   Luke 22.44.   It seems that no trace was any longer visible of the former church of the Agony:

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see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 358–65. 349   i.e. the supposed tomb of King Jehoshaphat. 350   Isaiah 36.2. 351   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 222–8. 352   Ramah and Anathoth are in fact too far n for their waters to drain into the Kidron. The tomb of Queen Helena of Adiabene (died c. ad 65), which is mentioned by Josephus (Jewish Antiquities 20.4.3, in Loeb 9, pp. 437–9, trans. Whiston, p. 589; Jewish War 5.4.2, in Loeb 3, pp. 243–5, trans Williamson, p. 287), lies beside the Nāblus Road just n of St George’s Anglican cathedral.

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they all run down the Hinnom Valley (Gehennon), which is also called the place of Topheth.353 In this valley is the stone of Zoheleth (Serpent’s stone) and also the spring of Rogel (En-rogel), where Adonijah made a feast when he tried to become king.354 There also was buried Isaiah, who was cut up with a saw near the spring of Siloam;355 this place is more than a bowshot away from it. All these places are most pleasant, with orchards and gardens full of delights, and the Kidron brook waters them. Above this place is the Mount of Offence. In this valley there is a grove, where they used to pass their children through the fire and worship idols.356 Let this be enough for what is said about the places around the city. Note, then, that there are many holy places in the city that arouse one to devotion, so many that a day is not enough to visit all of them. The church of the Holy Sepulchre, however, holds the first place among them all.357 This church is round and measures seventy-three feet in diameter between the columns, leaving aside the apses, which measure thirty feet around from the outside wall of the church. Above the Lord’s Sepulchre, which is in the centre of the church, there is a round opening, so that the whole crypt of the Sepulchre stands beneath the open sky. The church of Golgotha adjoins this one. It is oblong and joined to the choir of the Holy Sepulchre, though somewhat lower. However, they are both below one roof. The cave in which the Lord’s tomb is located is eight feet long and similarly eight feet wide. On the outside it is completely covered in marble, but on the inside it consists of bare rock, as it was at the time of the burial. The door to this cave is entered from the east, and is very low and small. The tomb of the Holy Sepulchre is to the right as one enters, adjoining the north wall. It is of greycoloured marble and about three palms in height above the level of the pavement. It is eight feet long, as is the interior of the same crypt or cave, and is enclosed on every side. Inside, no light can be had from outside, because there is no window to let the light in; but nine lamps hang over the Lord’s tomb, giving light to the interior. There is also another [71] cave in front of this one, of the same length and width, both inside and outside. When you are on the outside, these two caves appear to be one, but when you have entered you will see that they are separated from one another in the middle. One first enters the one, and then the other, which is the tomb. It was into the outer one that the women entered when they said, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us?’ and so on.358 This stone was rolled against the door to the inner cave; and today a large part of it lies in front of the door to the inner cave, against which it was rolled, in the middle of it. But another part of   Jeremiah 7.31–2.   1 Kings 1.9. 355   The origin of this legend is uncertain, though Hebrews 11.37 refers to certain 353 354

prophets being sawn in half. 356   Cf. Ezekiel 20.31. 357   See Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 6–72. 358   Mark 16.1–3.

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it has been removed to Mount Sion to serve as a stone supporting an altar. I also saw that piece there.359 Mount Calvary, on which the Lord was crucified, is 120 feet from the place of the Sepulchre. One goes up eighteen feet from the level of the church’s pavement to the place where the cross was fixed into the rock. The crack in the selfsame rock in which the cross was set is as wide as my head. It runs down the length of the rock from the place of the Crucifixion to the pavement, eighteen feet below, and the colour of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ may be seen today in the same crack in the rock. That split was below His left hand. Near the place where His left hand was, a richly ornamented marble altar has also been built. I have said the mass of the Passion and read the Passion according to John during mass in the very place of Christ’s Passion. The floor of this chapel is paved completely in marble and the walls are covered in marble and decorated in mosaic work of the purest gold. Twenty-four feet east of Calvary is an altar, below which is part of the column at which the Lord was scourged. It has been brought here from the house of Pilate and is covered by the altar stone in such a way that it may be touched, seen and kissed by the faithful. It is a piece of blackish porphyritic stone, containing natural red spots, which the common people believe to be colourings of Christ’s blood. Another part of the column is said to have been taken to Constantinople. Ten feet east of the altar of the column one goes down forty-eight steps to the place where the cross was found by Helena. There is a chapel there and two altars far below ground. That place in which the cross was unearthed seems to me to have been one of the town ditches, in which the crosses were placed after the bodies had been taken down and over which the rubbish of the city was piled, until Helena cleansed the place and the cross was found. For the place of the Passion was close to the city and there was a garden in it. The place in which the Blessed Virgin stood with the other women beside the cross was not below the arm of the cross on the north side but before the face of her Son roughly to the west. For the place where she stood before the face of her Son hanging on the cross is shown below the mount and rock [72] into which the cross was fixed; and it is held in veneration by the faithful. I have often seen that place. Moreover, when Christ was hanging on the cross, He turned His face to the west, not to the east, as some people would have it. This is clear because that great chasm which has been spoken about above, which served as the town ditch on the western side, lay behind the cross, and the cross was thrown into it and afterwards was found in it, as has been said before. There are many altars in that church and they are appropriately adorned. In front of the west door of the church, on the outside, is the place where Mary the Egyptian prayed before an image of the Blessed Virgin and received consolation through the Blessed Virgin’s response, when she was drawn back from entering the church by divine providence.   In the church of St Saviour, or the House of Caiaphas.

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Proceeding from there towards the Tower of David and Mount Sion there is the place where St James was beheaded by Herod Agrippa.360 Then, as you go on to Mount Sion you will find the House of Caiaphas, in which the Jews mocked Christ, and the place in which they kept Him until the following day, which place is called the Lord’s Prison.361 A stone’s throw south from there is the place where the Blessed Virgin Mary withdrew and resided for as long as she lived after the Lord’s Ascension.362 Near this place is the great upper room (cenaculum) in which the Lord dined with His disciples, washed their feet, gave His body and blood, and appeared many times after His Resurrection, and where Matthias was chosen by lots, the Holy Spirit was given and many glorious works were fulfilled. Note that the city of Jerusalem is located in a very high position. From it are to be seen the whole of Arabia, Mount Abarim, Mount Nebo and Mount Pisgah, and the plains of the Jordan, Jericho, and the Dead Sea as far as Petra of the Desert.363 I have never seen a city or a place that had a fairer view. From every side one goes up to it, because it is sited in the highest place in that region except Shiloh (Silo),364 which is two leagues from it. As far as the size of the Holy City is concerned, it should be known that, according to Josephus, the city excluding Mount Sion had a circumference of 33 stadia. Including that mount, however, the outer wall – that is, to say the third wall – had according to Josephus 90 towers, each tower placed 200 cubits from the next: in other words, there were 300 feet, making 60 paces, between each pair of towers. When 60 paces are multiplied by 90 towers, it emerges that the perimeter of the city was 5,400 paces; and since 125 paces make one stadium, if 5,400 paces are divided by 125, the result is 40 stadia, [73] which make five miles. This was the circuit of the city at the time of the destruction carried out by the Romans, as Josephus relates.365 But afterwards the Christians enlarged the city to include the site of the Lord’s Sepulchre. The venerable Lord and Father James of Vitry, patriarch of Jerusalem,366 writes in the book that he composed concerning the conquest of the Holy Land: ‘This oft-mentioned and often-to-be-mentioned city is sited in all respects on a high mountain and is enclosed on all sides by a strong wall; it is neither constricted by excessive smallness, nor displeasing to anyone by its size. From wall to wall it measures a good four bowshots and also has on the west a fortress made of squared stones indissolubly bound together with cement and lead, which serves on one side as   The Armenian cathedral of St James: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 168–82.   The church of the Saviour: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 365–72. 362   The place of the Dormition of the Virgin and the Cenacle (or upper room) both 360 361

formed part of the church of St Mary of Mount Sion, which by this time was largely demolished: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 261–87. 363   Al-Karak. 364   Here apparently identified as Nabi Ṣamwīl. 365   Jewish War 5.4. 2–3, in Loeb 3, pp. 243–7, trans. Williamson, p. 288. 366   James of Vitry was bishop of Acre (1216–28), not patriarch.

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the city wall and is called the Tower of David. This is the same tower that some people also call Antony’s;367 and to its south lies Mount Sion, on which David made a dwelling place for himself, in which he is also buried along with other kings. He called it the City of David. Mount Calvary, however, on which the Lord was crucified, was on the west side outside the walls of the city; but Ælius Hadrian restored the city that had been destroyed by Titus and Vespasian and enlarged to the extent that the place of the crucifixion and burial were enclosed within the circuit of walls, the whole site remaining as it was before.’ Thus far the words of Lord James.368 Let us now speak some more about its gates, the mountains round about it and its sites. The first gate, David’s Gate,369 was on the side of Mount Sion facing west, where the corner of the lower city stood before David’s Tower in the place where the two chasms diverged from one another, one running north and the other east. There a vault had been constructed on the other side of the valley facing the gate through which one went out of the city. To the right of this vault Judas hanged himself by a noose from a sycamore tree. That gate was called the Fish Gate, because through it ran the road from Joppe, Diospolis (Lydda) and the sea, from which fish used to be brought. On the other hand, it was also called the Gate of the Merchants, because through it ran the road to Bethlehem, Hebron, Gaza, Egypt and Ethiopia. It was called David’s Gate, because the Tower and City of David overlooked it. The next gate from this was in the same part of the wall, that is to say facing west, [74] but was placed some distance north of it and was called the Old Gate, because it had been there from the time of the Jebusites. It also used to be called the Gate of Judgement, because before it judgement was deliberated and outside it those judgements that had already been determined were committed to execution. Outside this gate the Lord was crucified, for the pavement or place of judgement is inside the city walls near to it. Traces of this gate may still be seen in the old city wall.370 In the new wall, which encloses the Lord’s Sepulchre, there is a corresponding gate called by the same name; and it leads to Shiloh, Beth-horon and Gibeon.371   The Antonia fortress should be placed more correctly on the nw side of the Temple

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368   Or a somewhat loose version of his words in Historia Orientalis 60, ed. Donnadieu, pp. 240–42. 369   The present Jaffa Gate, or Bāb al-Khalīl (Hebron Gate). 370   Inside the city in a position corresponding to the present-day Seventh Station of the Via Dolorosa: see Alliata and Kaswalder, ‘Settima stazione’, pp. 220–22. 371   i.e. Nabi Ṣamwīl, Bayt ‘Ur and al-Jīb. This gate in the medieval wall between David’s Gate and the Cloudy Tower (Tancred’s Tower) together with a corresponding one in the inner ‘old wall’ are shown on a fourteenth-century map of Jerusalem in Florence (Bibl. Laurenziana, plut. 76, 56, fol. 97r.: Röhricht, ‘Marino Sanudo’, pl. 8). It is doubtful whether

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The third gate is to the north of this one and is called the Ephraim Gate, because through it passed the road to Mount Ephraim. At this gate the new wall, which was made to enclose the Lord’s Sepulchre, met the old. It is now called St Stephen’s Gate,372 after Stephen who was stoned outside it. It leads to Shechem (Nāblus), Samaria and Galilee. The fourth gate is to the east of this one, at the corner of the city above the Kidron brook, and is called the Gate of the Corner.373 It is also called the Gate of Benjamin, because through it passed the road to Anathoth, Bethel, the wilderness and the other cities of Benjamin. The fifth gate was to the south of this one and was called the Gate of the Dunghill, or of Dung. It stood above the Kidron brook and in rainy weather the filth of the city would run down through it in a torrent. Through it likewise passed a road into the wilderness. But that gate was not much frequented, because the places standing opposite it were inhabited by barbarians.374 The sixth gate is likewise to the south above the Kidron brook and is called the Sheep Gate,375 because through it were brought in the sheep that were to be sacrificed in the Temple and because the sheep-pool was near it. It was also called the Gate of the Valley, because through it passed the road into the valley of Jehoshaphat. The tomb of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a stone’s throw from it. It was overlooked by the tower called Phasael that was built by King Herod.376 It was also called the Gate of the Dragon’s Spring, because the spring called that of the dragon was in front of it.377 By this road one goes to the Mount of Olives, Bethany and the Jordan. The seventh gate was similarly to the south of this one and was called the Golden Gate. It stood [75] likewise above the Kidron brook, but was in the court of the Temple, it being understood that this was not a gate of the city but of the Temple. Indeed, through it passed a road that came from the Mount of Olives by way of a short cut by a vault over the valley of Jehoshaphat.378 Inside it was the the gate in the medieval wall ever existed, unless Burchard is alluding to the postern of St Lazarus at the nw corner. In his day, however, the medieval walls were no longer standing. 372   Today Damascus Gate, or Bāb al-Amūd (Gate of the Column). 373   In the twelfth century the postern of St Mary Magdalene, corresponding roughly to today’s Herod’s Gate. 374   As Burchard later surmises, the Dung Gate, known in the twelfth century as the Tanners’ Gate, should be in the s wall and identical to his eighth gate. The village of Silwān lay just outside it. 375   In the e wall, known in the twelfth century as the Jehoshaphat Gate and today as Bāb Sittī Maryam (Our Lady Mary’s Gate) or Gate of the Lion. 376   Named after Herod’s brother; however, it was not here but on the nw side of the Old Wall in the vicinity of the later citadel (Josephus, Jewish War 5.4.3, in Loeb 3, pp. 249–51, trans. Williamson, p. 289). 377   Birkat Sittī Maryam. 378   i.e. by a masonry bridge over the Kidron brook.

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gate of the Temple that was called Beautiful;379 and from it led the road to Bethany, Jericho and the Jordan. The eighth gate was similarly south of the one previously mentioned and was sited in the valley above the Kidron brook between Mount Sion and the Temple Mount. It was called the Gate of the Spring of Siloam or Gate of the Waters, because it led to the spring and bathing-pool of Siloam, the valley of Gehenna (Hinnom), Akeldama and the king’s garden. Judging by the situation of these places, I would prefer to think that this was the Dung Gate rather than the one mentioned above. Nor do I believe that there were any more gates in Jerusalem, because to judge by the city’s location there was no need for any gates around Mount Sion; and if a gate had been necessary, in no way could there have been one there because the lie of the land prevented it, being steep on every side. The mountains around Jerusalem were these: To the east of the city, overlooking it, was the Mount of Olives, which was larger and higher than the other mountains round about the city. On its summit has been built a church in the place where the Lord ascended into heaven.380 The place itself is in the centre of the church; and above there is an opening, so that the way by which He ascended in the air is unobstructed. In truth, the stone on which He stood when He ascended and which bears His footprints was placed there as a memorial. The stone is placed so as to obstruct the east door, but without mortar; and anyone can easily insert a hand and touch the footprints, but without seeing them. A chapel adjoins the south side of this church, in which cave is buried Pelagia, once a notorious harlot, on whom the Lord later bestowed the grace of repentance and left her as an example to sinners.381 It is said that no one remaining in mortal sin can pass between her tomb and the wall next to it, but I do not know the truth of the matter. I have seen many pass through there. On the same mountain less than a stone’s throw to the south is another church, which is called the House of Bread, where the Lord taught His disciples to pray; and there He wrote the Lord’s Prayer on a stone.382 The Mount of Offence lies next to the Mount of Olives, to the south, and is fairly high; but they are separated by an intervening valley. [76] It is called the Mount of Offence because Solomon set a temple of Moloch upon it, in provocation of the Lord.383 Below it to the south is also the place of Topheth or Gehenna (Hinnom). To the south-east of the city is located the field of Akeldama; and above it is a very high mountain, called by the same name, which occupies almost the entire southern part facing the city.   Acts 3.2.   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 72–88. The vaulting was evidently still standing in

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Burchard’s day, though the church had been made into a mosque. 381   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 342–6. 382   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 117–24. 383   1 Kings 11.7.

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To the west it is adjoined by the Fuller’s Field and a mountain the same height as the one just mentioned. Mount Gihon adjoins the Fuller’s Field on the west side of the city, in such a way that the road that runs out from David’s Gate passes between them. This Mount Gihon overlooks the city from the west, but it gradually falls away, so that where it faces the Old Gate it is not very high. For the rest, however, the land rises in height to the west and north as far as the tomb of Helena, which is located facing the Gate of Benjamin above the Kidron brook. Beyond the Kidron brook on the north side of the Mount of Olives four stadia from Jerusalem is another mountain, also very high, where Solomon constructed a temple to Chemosh, the idol of the Moabites.384 Afterwards, at the time of the Maccabees and Romans, a castle was built there, as a result of which the Jerusalemites were greatly troubled. Its remains are still there.385 These mountains are all close to the city walls, but not so close that one could attack the city from them with any kind of weapons or engines. May what has been said about the location of the city, its gates and the mountains surrounding it be enough. Let us return to the description of the remaining part of the land. 9. Two leagues from the north-west corner of Jerusalem is Mount Shiloh, which is now called St Samuel.386 As regards its location, it is certainly higher than all the other mountains in the Holy Land, for it overtops them all. It is more than a league from Gibeah of Saul (Gabaa Saulis).387 In this place the Ark of the Lord and the Tabernacle of the Covenant, which Moses had made in the desert, remained for a long time. A short league from there is Gibeon (Gabaon), a city of Benjamin.388 It is sited on the same mountain, wherefore it is said that the high place (of Gibeon) was there.389 The inhabitants of the city sent messengers to Joshua at Gilgal, fraudulently making peace with him as if they were inhabitants of a far-off country.390 [77]   1 Kings 11.7.   This was probably the Acra (high place, or citadel) built by the Seleucid king

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Antiochus III (223–187 bc), though according to Josephus (Jewish War 5.4.1, in Loeb 3, p. 241, trans. Williamson, p. 287; Jewish Antiquities 12.5.4, in Loeb 7, p. 129; trans. Whiston p. 344) that stood between the Lower City and the Temple Mount (Bahat and Rubinstein, Illustrated Atlas, pp. 39–40). The site described by Burchard, however, appears to be Karm al-Sayyad (Mount Galilee), on which medieval writers saw the remains of a church (Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 124–5). 386   Nabi Ṣamwīl: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 85–94. 387   Tall al-Fūl: see Abel, Géographie 2, p. 334; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 435. 388   Al-Jīb: see Abel, Géographie 2, p. 335–6; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 435. 389   On the identification of Nabi Ṣamwīl with the high place of Gibeon (1 Kings 3.4), see Abel, Géographie 2, p. 336. 390   Joshua 9.3–27.

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Four leagues west of Jerusalem is Emmaus, where the Lord appeared as a pilgrim when walking with two disciples and was recognized in the breaking of bread. This is today called Nicopolis.391 Three leagues west of Jerusalem below Mount Shiloh (Silo) is Lower Bethhoron (Bethoron inferior),392 mention of which is made in the books of Joshua and 1 Maccabees.393 Four-and-a-half leagues west of Jerusalem on the road to Diospolis or Lydda is Kiriath-jearim (Cariathiarim), which was one of the towns of the Gibeonites, in which the Ark of the Lord remained for twenty years after it was returned from the Philistines.394 Roughly west of Kiriath-jearim is Lachish (Lachis), also one of the towns of the Gibeonites, which Sennacherib besieged in the days of Hezekiah.395 Two leagues roughly south of Kiriath-jearim is the city of Beth-shemesh (Bethsames),396 which in distinction to the other, which is in Naphtali,397 is called Beth-shemesh of Judah, although in truth it was in the tribe of Dan. In a field of that city two cows from Ekron (Accaron) drew the Ark of the Lord back when the Beth-shemeshites were reaping wheat in the valley and seventy thousand of those common people died, because they had seen the Ark of the Lord uncovered.398 Ten leagues west of Jerusalem is Ramathaim-zophim (Ramathaym Sophim), which was partly [78] of the tribe of Benjamin and partly of the tribe of Ephraim, though located on Mount Ephraim; for thus that plain is called, even though it is not a mountain but a plain. It was called Arimathea (Arimathia) and from it came Joseph, a respected member of the council,399 who buried the Lord. The 391   Nicopolis was the classical name for ‘Amwas. In the twelfth century, Qaryat al-‘Inab (Abū Ghosh) came to be favoured over ‘Amwas as the location of the Emmaus of Luke 24.13–35. It is uncertain, however, whether Burchard is referring here to Qaryat al-‘Inab or to al-Qubayba, which also came to be identified as Emmaus from the later thirteenth century onwards by those travelling along the northerly route between Jaffa and Jerusalem through the Beth-horon pass (see Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 314–16, 420; Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 7–8 and 2, pp. 168–90). 392   Bayt ‘Ūr al-Taḥtā: see Abel, Géographie 2, p. 275; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 432. 393   Joshua 18.13; 1 Maccabees 7.39, 9.50. 394   1 Samuel 6.21, 7.1–2. Identified today as Tall al-Azhar, overlooking Qaryat al‘Inab (Abū Ghosh) from the w (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 419–21; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 438). 395   Identified today as Tall al-Duwayr, some 37 km sw of Qaryat al-‘Inab (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 367–8; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 439). Burchard was more likely thinking of a different site. 396   Identified today as Tall al-Rumayla, near ‘Ayn Shams (Abel, Géographie 2, p. 282; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 432). 397   Possibly Tall al-Ruwaysī (Aharoni, Land of the Bible, pp. 162, 220, 235–6, 432; cf. Abel, Géographie 2, p. 282). 398   1 Samuel 6.10–19. 399   Mark 16.43.

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Prophet Samuel was born there and was buried there. Today it is called Ramla (Ramula).400 Three leagues west of Ramla is the city of Joppe (Ioppe),401 where Jonah embarked on the ship, wanting to flee from the face of the Lord to Tarshish (Tharsis), that is to the isles of the sea.402 Below it is Jamnia, another port of Judæa, two leagues to the south. Judas Maccabeus took this port and set fire to it.403 Two leagues south of Jerusalem is Bethlehem, that city distinguished by the birth of the true David. It lies to the left of the road to Hebron, a bowshot from the road. First, however, comes the tomb of Rachel,404 beside the road on the right-hand side. Facing Bethlehem is the Tower of Eder, or of the flock, where Jacob is said to have remained for some time after the death of Rachel, pasturing his flock.405 There also the shepherds watching over their flocks by night at the time of Christ’s Nativity saw and heard the angels singing, ‘Glory in the highest’, announcing the birth of the Saviour.406 Bethlehem stands on a mountain, which is fairly high but narrow, extending from east to west. Its entrance is on the west, and next to the gate is the cistern from which David wanted to drink when he was in the stronghold.407 On the eastern edge of the city, beneath a rock that lay beside the city wall and seems, following the custom of that land, to have been a place used as a stable, containing a manger cut out of the rock, as is the custom for making mangers, the Sun of Righteousness, Jesus Christ, was born into this world of His virgin mother. He chose to be born and have His origin in such a place so as to show, by His birth, that He would take away the filth and darkness of the world.408 Near the rock already mentioned is another larger one, four feet from it, below which was the manger in which that sweet newborn Boy was laid, 400   The identification of Ramathaim, or Arimathea, with the village of Rantis was well known in the twelfth century, when relics of Joseph of Arimathea were found there and a Premonstratensian abbey was dedicated to him. Western writers from Fulcher of Chartres (1.25.12, ed. Hagenmeyer, p. 277) onwards, however, habitually confused it with Ramla, a Muslim city in the coastal plain, which had only been founded around ad 715 (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 428–9; Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 185, 199–200). 401   Jaffa. 402   Jonah 1.3. 403   Cf. 1 Maccabees 4.15; Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 12.7.4 (308–12), in Loeb 7, pp. 158–63, trans. Whiston, pp. 348–9. The port of Jamnia lay some 8 km nw of the city itself, which is identified as Yibnā (TIR, pp. 149–50; Abel, Géographie 2, p. 354). 404   Genesis 35.19–20. On the present monument, see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 176–8. 405   Genesis 35.21. 406   Luke 2.8–14. 407   The stronghold was the cave of Adullam, Bethlehem then being in the hands of the Philistines (2 Samuel 23.13–17). 408   On the cave and church of the Nativity, see Hamilton, Church of the Nativity; Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 137–56.

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wrapped in swaddling clothes, with the ox and ass looking on. It seems certain to me, however, that there was originally only one rock; but an opening has been made through the middle of the rock, by which one ascends from that chapel into the choir. To reach the place of the most sweet Nativity one goes down ten steps from the church into the chapel, for reasons which I have given above. On the inside, the chapel is completely covered with mosaic work, paved with marble and very sumptuously fashioned. Above the place where the Blessed Virgin gave birth mass can be said on a marble slab that is laid there. One also sees there part of the bare stone where Christ was born. Similarly, part of the manger in which [79] Christ lay has also been left uncovered. These places are kissed with great devotion by the faithful. I stayed one night in these two places, kissing now one, now the other. I have not seen or heard anyone say that he has seen so holy a church in all the world. For inside it, arranged in four rows, are marble columns, which are notable both for their number and for their amazing size. Moreover, above the columns and up to the roof-beams the nave of the church is finished in the most beautiful and excellent mosaic work, [which displays pictures of the whole of history from the creation of the world up to the coming of the Lord in judgement].409 The entire floor of the church is paved in marble of various colours, […] whose value according to the opinion of many cannot be estimated. Unbelievable things might be written about the fabric of this church. Indeed, the Saracens honour all the churches of the Blessed Virgin, but especially this one. I saw in that church a glorious miracle. The sultan,410 on seeing the decoration in the church and all the very costly slabs and columns, ordered all of it to be taken down and carried to Babylon,411 intending to build a palace for himself out of them. O miracle! When the workmen has arrived with their tools and the sultan was standing by with many others, out of the sound undamaged wall, which not even a pin could penetrate, a serpent of astonishing size emerged and gave a bite to the first slab that lay in its way. The slab split right across. The serpent went to the second, third, fourth and after that up to the thirtieth, and the same thing happened to them all. All were astonished; the sultan himself immediately abandoned his plan and the serpent vanished. Thus the church remained, and remains to this day, as it was before. Traces of the serpent’s body, however, may be seen even today on each slab that it passed by, like a scorching made by fire. Above all it seems miraculous how the serpent was able to pass through the wall, which was smooth and highly polished like glass.   The words in brackets have been moved to this position from the following sentence, where they appear to make little sense. 410   If Burchard had actually witnessed this attempted vandalization, the sultan concerned would presumably have been al-Manṣūr Sayf al-Dīn Qalā’ūn (1280–90). It is possible, however, that the story related to the 1260s and concerned Baybars I (see Pringle, Churches 1, p. 139). 411   Cairo. 409

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Outside the north door of the church is the area of the monks’ cloister. In it is the cell of St Jerome along with his bed and tomb and the domestic buildings of the cloister in which we read that St Jerome was head. On the south side of the choir is shown the place where most of the Innocents are said to have been killed and buried. A stone’s throw roughly east from the church is the church of St Paula and St Eustochium. There also are their tombs.412 Half a league west of Bethlehem is a town called Bezek,413 which abounds with the best wine, such that in that land one will not find better. The inhabitants of this town are all Christian. They tend these vines and those of the neighbouring villages down the valley of Rephaim (Raphaym) as far as the Eshcol brook (torrens botri),414 having a privilege from the sultan to remain there and cultivate them, and paying the sultan a large rent from them. Six leagues east of Bethlehem above the Dead Sea is Mount En-gedi, which has been spoken about above. [80] Three leagues south of En-gedi is the hill of Hachilah (Achila), which afterwards when Herod had built an impregnable castle upon it, was called Masada. In that place David is said to have hidden himself for a time while fleeing from Saul.415 Two leagues from Bethlehem in the direction of Hachilah is the city of Tekoa (Tecua), sited on a mountain. From it came the Prophet Amos,416 who is also buried there, whom Uzziah, king of Jerusalem, killed at night by piercing him through the temples.417 The wilderness of Tekoa adjoins this city. Between Tekoa and En-gedi is the Valley of Beracah (vallis benedictionis), where Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, fought against the Idumæans and the sons of Ammon and defeated them.418 A league from this place is a castle built by Herod the Great, which is called Herodium. It is built in a high place and there he is buried, as Josephus relates.419   On the church, see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 156–7. Jerome and Paula, accompanied by her daughter Eustochium, founded a mixed monastic establishment for men and women in Bethlehem a little after ad 385: see Hunt, Holy Land Pilgrimage, pp. 171–9. 413   Bezek (1 Samuel 11.8; Judges 1.4–5) appears to have been located at Khirbat Ibzīq, n of Nāblus (Abel, Géographie 2, p. 285; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 433). Burchard, however, seems to be referring here to Bayt Jāla (see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 93–5). 414   On the valley of Rephaim and Eshcol brook, see Abel, Géographie 1, pp. 402, 403–4. 415   1 Samuel 23.19, 26.1–3. The hill of Hachilah evidently lay in the district of Ziph, se of Hebron (cf. Aharoni, Land of the Bible, pp. 354–5), rather than at Masada. 416   Amos 1.1. 417   Tekoa is identified as Tuqu‘, where Amos’s tomb was shown from the fourth century onwards (Abel, Géographie 2, p. 478–9; Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 347–50). His violent death at the hands of Uzziah, however, is not attested in the Bible. 418   2 Chronicles 20.26. 419   Jewish War 1.13.8, 21.10, in Loeb 2, pp. 125, 199, trans. Williamson, pp. 77–8, 112. 412

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Five leagues south-east of Tekoa is the town of Ziph, beside the wilderness that is also called Ziph, where we read that David hid himself.420 To the south this adjoins the wilderness of Maon, in which is Mount Carmel, where Nabal the Carmelite lived, who sent away David’s messengers.421 To the south this adjoins the land of Amalek.422 Facing a tongue of the Dead Sea is Kadesh-barnea, from which Moses sent the twelve spies.423 Three leagues south of Bethlehem on the road leading to Hebron is the town of Beth-haccarem, sited in a high place.424 Adjoining it on the south is another town called Rama, extremely high up.425 Standing in it with many others on a high hill I saw the whole land of Arabia as far as [81] Mount Seir and all the places around the Dead Sea and David’s hiding places; also the Jordan as far as Shittim (Sethim) and Mount Abarim. To the west I saw the entire coast of the Great Sea from Joppe as far as Gaza, and from Beer-sheba426 to the wilderness of Shur; in addition, the whole land of the Philistines, from Ramathaim-zophim427 through Gath (Geth), Ekron (Accaron), Ashdod (Azotus), Jamnia (Yibnā) and Ascalon, with all the plains below Mount Judah. More than a league from Rama, to the right, near the king’s road that leads to Hebron, is Mamre, where Abraham lived for a long time. There at the oak of Mamre, when sitting in the door of his tent, he saw three men standing by, and so on, as is told in Genesis.428 That oak tree is shown today before the door of Abraham’s tent. In truth the old one withered away, but another has grown from its root.429 Half a league from the oak of Mamre beside the road to the right is Hebron (Ebron), that ancient city, formerly called Kiriath-arba, in which King David 420   1 Samuel 23.14–24, 26.1–2. Identified as Tall Zīf, some 6.5 km se of Hebron (Abel, Géographie 2, p. 490; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, pp. 354–5, 443). 421   1 Samuel 23.24–5; 25. 2–12. Maon is identified as Tall Mā‘īn, though the wilderness is mentioned as extending to the Arabah (Abel, Géographie 2, p. 377; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 439). Carmel was not a mountain but another settlement, today Khirbat al-Karmil, located near Tall Mā‘īn (Abel, Géographie 2, p. 296; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 433; Pringle, Secular Buildings, p. 61). 422   Abel, Géographie 1, pp. 270–73. 423   Numbers 32.8; Deuteronomy 1.19–25. 424   This has been identified in modern times as either Khirbat Ṣāliḥ (Ramat Rahel) or ‘Ayn Karim, near Jerusalem (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 273, 293–4; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 432). Burchard’s proposed identification is uncertain. 425   Probably Rāmat al-Khalīl, on the s flank of Jabal al-Rāma, 3 km n of Hebron: see Pringle, Churches 2, p. 202. 426   Probably Bayt Jibrīn. 427   Which Burchard understood to be Ramla. 428   Genesis 18. 429   This site may be identified today as Tall al-Rumayda: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 201–4.

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reigned seven years.430 It is located on a high strong mountain but is altogether destroyed. Its ruins are great and it seems to have been an impressive city. A bowshot south of that city is New Hebron, built in the place where there was the double cave in which were buried Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah. Around this double cave the Saracens have built a very strong fortification, in which there was a cathedral church,431 in whose walls I saw stones that were twenty-six, twenty-eight and thirty feet in size; and I have never seen so strong a place on dry level ground. I visited the tomb of the patriarchs in that place and remained in it for one night. A bowshot west of the double cave is the Field of Damascus, in which Adam was formed. The field in reality contains a red earth, which is easily moulded, like wax. I took a large quantity of it, as do other pilgrims and Christians who visit the place. The Saracens also transport the earth by camel to Egypt, Ethiopia, India and other places and sell it for very precious spices. However, the pit in that place seems quite small. For it is said that at the end of each year, no matter how large the excavation is, it is always miraculously refilled. I forgot to enquire into the truth of this matter; however, I would say this: that the pit was of moderate size when I was there, such that scarcely four men could sit in it, and it was no deeper than to my shoulders. It is said, however, that whoever carries that earth with him will not be attacked by wild animals. It is also said to protect a person from accidents. The valley facing Hebron is very pleasant and fertile. A bowshot south of that pit is the place where Cain killed Abel, his brother. [82] Likewise, two bowshots west of that pit, on a mountain to the side of Hebron, is a rock cave where Adam and Eve mourned Abel, their son, for a hundred years. Today there are in the cave both their beds and a spring rising inside it from which they drank. Two leagues south of Hebron is Debir. This is Kiriath-sepher, that is, the ‘city of the letters’, which Othoniel, the son of Kenaz and brother of Caleb the younger took; and Caleb gave him Achash, his daughter.432 Two leagues north of Hebron is the valley of Eshcol (Neheleschol), i.e. the ‘valley of the grape cluster’, from which the spies took a branch with its bunch of grapes, which two men carried on a pole.433 Half a league to the left of this valley runs down the stream in which Philip baptized the eunuch.434

  2 Samuel 2.11.   The twelfth-century cathedral church was built within the Herodian precinct

430 431

above the tombs: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 223–39. 432   Joshua 15.15–17. The site is identified as Khirbat Rabūd (Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 433; cf. Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 303–4, 421–2). 433   Numbers 13.23–4; cf. Abel, Géographie 1, pp. 403–4. 434   Acts 8.26–39.

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Four leagues from the valley of Eshcol in the direction of Jerusalem is the House of Zechariah (domus Zecharie), into which the Blessed Virgin entered and greeted Elizabeth. There also John the Baptist was born.435 Two leagues north from that place is Nob (Nobe), a city of priests, where David received from Ahimelech the priest the sword of Goliath of Gath.436 More than a league from Bethlehem on the road that leads to Tekoa is the tomb of St Chariton the abbot with his monks, who all departed this life when he did. At one time there was a great pilgrimage to the place.437 Here begins the First Division of the Southern Quarter 10. The first division of the southern quarter begins from Acre, like all the others. First, four leagues from Acre comes Ḥayfā (Cayphas), at the foot of Mount Carmel. Three leagues south of Ḥayfā is Pilgrims’ Castle (Castrum peregrinorum), belonging to the Templars, [83] the best defended of all the places ever held by the Christians. It is sited in the midst of the sea and is defended with walls, outworks, barbicans and towers so strong that the entire world ought not to be able to storm it.438 One league from Ḥayfā to the left of the road that leads from Pilgrims’ Castle on Mount Carmel is Elijah’s Cave and Elisha’s dwelling and the spring, where the sons of the prophets used to live on Carmel and where the brothers of Carmel live today; and I was with them there.439 Five leagues from Pilgrims’ Castle is Cæsarea, the capital of Palestine, which was the seat of an archbishop. It was first called Dor (Dora)440 and later Strato’s 435   Luke 1.39–40. The place was identified as ‘Ayn Karim, where two churches dedicated to St John existed in the twelfth century (Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 30–47). 436   1 Samuel 21.1–9. In the Middle Ages, thanks to Jerome (Epistula 108, ed. Tobler and Molinier, p. 31, trans. Wilkinson, p. 47), this was placed at Bayt Nūbā, though its real location was more probably on Mount Scopus, ne of Jerusalem (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 399–400; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 440). 437   Khirbat Khuraytūn, on the site of the monastery that Chariton established around ad 345. By the 1130s the saint’s body had been translated to a church in Jerusalem (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 221–4 and 3, 158–60) 438   The castle, also known as ‘Atlīt, was built from 1217–18 onwards and was abandoned after the fall of Acre in 1291 (Johns, Pilgrims’ Castle; Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 69–80; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 22–3). 439   The monastery associated with the Cave of Elijah, at the foot of Carmel towards the sea, was reoccupied by Orthodox hermits in the twelfth century; it is uncertain whether they were still there in Burchard’s time, though the Orthodox abbey of St Margaret, or Marina, on the terrace above, which Burchard does not mention, seems still to have been occupied (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 226–9, 244–8). The dwelling place of Elisha and the spring, however, lay on the sw side of Carmel in the Wādī al-Siyaḥ, where the Latin Carmelites established the abbey of St Mary of Carmel in the early thirteenth century (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 249–57). 440   Dor was the ancient name of Ṭanṭūra, not of Cæsarea (TIR, p. 113).

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Tower, but Herod the Great rebuilt it and called it Cæsarea.441 Of its buildings and defences Josephus wrote much.442 It is bounded on the west by the Great Sea and on the east by a deep freshwater marsh, in which there are a great number of crocodiles. There I would have fallen into very great danger, if the Lord in His mercy had not delivered me. Cæsarea has a strong position, but now it is completely destroyed.443 Philip and his daughters had a dwelling in it.444 There also Peter baptized the centurion Cornelius, who was its first bishop.445 Paul also argued there with great eloquence before King Agrippa and before Felix, the governor, against the spokesman Tertullus.446 Three leagues south of Cæsarea is a town called Arsūf (Assur). Formerly, however, it was called Antipatris after Antipater, the father of Herod the Great.447 It belonged to the brothers of the Hospital of St John, though they lost it; however, each year they pay the lord of Arsūf and his heirs 28,000 gold bezants.448 Four leagues east of Arsūf is Michmethath (Machmethath), now called Qāqūn (Chaco); it is sited in [84] the plain below Mount Ephraim, not far from Mount Sharon. In it the Saracens have placed a garrison of soldiers opposing Pilgrims’ Castle.449 Four leagues south of there is the town of Sharon (Sarona), which is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles.450 It is eight leagues from Arsūf to Joppe, which is located on the sea. It has been spoken of above. 441   It was the Roman capital of Judæa and then of Syria Palæstina and Palæstina I, as well as metropolitan see of Palestine (TIR, pp. 94–6). On its Byzantine and medieval remains, see Holum et al., King Herod’s Dream, pp. 155–235; Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 166–83; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 43–5. 442   Jewish Antiquities 15.9.6, in Loeb 8, p. 159, trans. Whiston, p. 457. 443   It was taken and destroyed by Baybars in 1265. 444   Acts 8.40, 21.8–9. 445   Acts 10.1–48. 446   Acts 24–6. 447   It was Apollonia. Antipatris lay inland at Ra’s al-‘Ayn (TIR, pp. 63, 65). 448   Arsūf fell to Baybars in April 1265. It had been sold to the Hospitallers by its lord, Balian of Ibelin, four years earlier for an annual payment of 4,000 bezants (CGOH 3, pp. 60–61, no. 3047; RRH, p. 343, no. 1313; cf. CGOH 3, pp. 1–2, no. 2972; RRH Ad, p. 85, no. 1313a), but this was remitted in 1269 (CGOH 3, pp. 192–3, no. 3326; RRH, p. 357, no. 1371). See also Roll and Arubas, ‘Le château d’Arsur’; Roll and Tal, Apollonia–Arsuf; Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 59–61; id., Secular Buildings, p. 20. 449   Qāqūn was taken and refortified by Baybars in 1265; it was unsuccessfully attacked by the Crusaders in November 1271 (see Pringle, Red Tower, pp. 58–71; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 83–4; id., Churches 2, pp. 164–5). Michmethath, however, lay near Shechem (Nāblus) (Joshua, 17.7) and is tentatively identified as Khirbat Makhna al-Fawqā (Aharoni, Land of the Bible, pp. 257, 439). 450   Acts 9.35. Sharon was not a town, but a wooded region of the coastal plain (TIR, pp. 114, 223).

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Four leagues from Joppe is Gath (Geth), which is located not far from the sea and was formerly one of the cities of the Philistines.451 Two leagues south of Gath is Beth-shemesh of Judah, which has been spoken of above. Two leagues south of Beth-shemesh on Mount Judah is seen Mount Modein (Modin),452 where the Maccabees were born. Their tombs are visible there today even from afar, for they can be seen from the sea because the place is highly situated. Four leagues south of Beth-shemesh not far from the sea is Ekron (Accaron), the second of the five cities of the Philistines. Now it is a modest village.453 Four leagues south of Ekron is Ashdod (Azotus), the third of the five cities of the Philistines. It is now likewise a small village.454 Two leagues from Joppe is Lydda, or Diospolis, which has been spoken of above. Two leagues east from there is Libnah (Lebna), which Joshua took and Sennacherib besieged.455 Three leagues from there on the road leading to Gibeon (Gabaa), is the town of Azekah (Azeca), with Makkedah (Maceda) next to it, both of which Joshua took after relieving the Gibeonites.456 There (Makkedah) the five kings hid themselves in a cave.457 Three leagues east of this, not far from Nob (Nobe)458 is Socoh of Judah (Sochoth Iude),459 near the valley of the

  Probably al-Burj (Qal‘at Ṭanṭūra): see Fischer, Isaac and Roll, Roman Roads in Judaea 2, pp. 142–3; Pringle, Churches 4, p. 266, cf. 1, p. 101. 452   Jabal Ṣūba, the site of the Hospitaller castle of Belmont, was considered to represent Modein in the twelfth century (Harper and Pringle, Belmont Castle, pp. 13–16; Pringle, Secular Buildings, p. 96), though it is also possible that Burchard had in mind Laṭrūn, where later travellers alternatively placed it (cf. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 5–6). Modein is more correctly identified with al-Midiyya, which lies further n. 453   modicum casale. Identified today as Khirbat al-Muqanna‘ (Tel Miqne) (Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 434), though the medieval identification was more probably ‘Āqīr, e of Yibnā (Jerome, Liber Locorum, p. 23, lines 6–12; cf. Abel, Géographie 2, p. 319). 454   ‘Isdūd: see Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 253–4; Pringle, Secular Buildings, pp. 116–17. 455   Joshua 10.29–30, 12.15; 2 Kings 19.8; Isaiah 37.8. Tentatively identified today as Tall Burnāt (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 369–70; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 439), far s of where Burchard places it. 456   Burchard seems to assume, on the basis of Joshua 10.10–11, that Azekah and Makkedah both lay on the road that went through the Beth-horon pass. They are both located further s, however: Azekah at Tall Zakariyya (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 85, 257; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 431) and Makkedah somewhere near Lachish (Aharoni, Land of the Bible, pp. 218, 219, 231, 278 n.73). 457   Joshua 10.16–27. 458   Probably identified by Burchard (incorrectly) as Bayt Nūbā. 459   Identified today as Khirbat Shuwayka, 16 km sw of Hebron (Jerome, Liber Locorum, p. 157, lines 18–20; Abel, Géographie 1, pp. 405 and 2, p. 467; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 442). 451

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Terebinth,460 where the boy David killed Goliath of Gath with a sling and a stone.461 From Nob it is three leagues to Emmaus, which today is called Nicopolis.462 One-and-a-half leagues from Emmaus one goes up the valley of Rephaim beside the House of Zechariah,463 which those going to Jerusalem leave on their right; and a league-and-a-half from the same house [85] is a strongly fortified castle, Beth-zur (Bethsura),464 standing on the side of a mountain facing Bezek (Bethsech)465 and Bethlehem. Six leagues south of Ashdod (de Azoto) is Ascalon, the fourth city of the Philistines. It is sited on the sea shore, has a semicircular shape, and is strongly fortified.466 Five leagues south of Ascalon is the city of Gaza, located on the sea shore. It is now commonly called Gazara. From Gaza it is four leagues to Beer-sheba (Bersabee), which is now called Giblin and marks the boundary of Judæa and the Promised Land on the south.467 These parts of the Promised Land, which fell to the lot of Judah, are followed by that great desert, which stretches as far as the river of Egypt. In it the children of Israel remained for a long time, moving from place to place. May this be enough said concerning that land and the places in it. The Length and Breadth of the Holy Land 11. Let me add some more about the length and breadth [of the Holy Land], now that I have been able to give them more careful consideration. It should be known, therefore, that in length the Holy Land begins in the north below Mount Lebanon, where Cæsarea Philippi is located, and extends south as far as Beer-sheba of Judah, which is to the south. The length and breadth that the   Valley of Elah, now identified as the Wādī al-Sanṭ (Abel, Géographie 1, p. 405).   1 Samuel 17. 462   To Burchard this was probably either al-Qubayba or Abū Ghosh (Qaryat al-‘Inab), 460 461

rather than ‘Amwas (Nicopolis). 463   ‘Ayn Karim, which suggests that Emmaus here refers to Abū Ghosh. 464   Identified today as Khirbat al-Ṭubayqa between Bethlehem and Hebron. Near it stand the remains of a Crusader tower, Burj al-Ṣūr or Bayt Ṣūr (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 85, 283; Pringle, Secular Buildings, pp. 41–2). This, however, seems rather too far s to be the castle referred to here. Possibly Burchard was thinking of Ṣūba (Belmont), which is closer to ‘Ayn Karim (Harper and Pringle, Belmont Castle; Pringle, Secular Buildings, p. 96). 465   Bayt Jāla (see above). 466   Pringle, Secular Buildings, p. 21; id., Churches 1, pp. 61–9; id., ‘King Richard I and the Walls of Ascalon’. 467   In common with other medieval writers, including William of Tyre 14.22 (ed. Huygens, pp. 659–61), Burchard here confuses Beer-sheba with Bayt Jibrīn (Bethgibelin).

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ten tribes inhabited is not very large, as far as I have been able to discover through examining it with my eyes and passing through it on foot. It seems to me to be as large as I shall describe it below. It is true that I did not go very far beyond Jordan and I did not go through the land of the two-and-a-half tribes; and for that reason I am not including that. Its length, which extends from the northern end of the sea of Galilee to the Arnon brook, where it ends, seems to me, however, to be roughly forty-seven leagues long. The length and breadth of the land of the ten tribes on this side of the Jordan is described by Josephus468 thus: The tribe of Judah obtained the upper region, which in length extends from Egypt to Jerusalem and is said to be twelve days’ journey. In breadth it extends from the Dead Sea to the Great Sea in the west, a distance of fifteen leagues. To the tribe of Simeon fell the part of the tribe of Judah that is next to Egypt on Mount Abarim. [86] The Benjaminites received the land from the Jordan to the Great Sea, fifteen leagues in length; and in breadth from Jerusalem to Bethel, four leagues. The tribe of Ephraim received the land from the River Jordan to Gadara, sixteen leagues in length; and in breadth as far as the great plain where Galilee begins, thirteen leagues. The half-tribe of Manasseh that is on this side of the Jordan received its lot from the River Jordan itself to the Great Sea, twelve leagues in length; and in breadth as far as Beth-shean (Bethsan), five leagues. The tribe of Issachar received Jordan and Carmel, eight leagues in length; and in breadth from Beth-shean to Mount Tabor (Itabyrion), five leagues. The tribe of Zebulun received Carmel near Mount Cain as far as Gennesareth, nine leagues in length; and in breadth from Mount Tabor through the valley of Carmelion,469 five leagues. The tribe of Asher received all the land from Carmel to Sidon, a distance of twenty leagues in length; and in breadth from the Great Sea to Naason 470 and Cabul,471 nine leagues. The tribe of Naphtali received the area to the east as far as Damascus and Galilee, ten leagues in length; and in breadth from the sea of Galilee to Lebanon, seven leagues. The tribe of Dan received the low-lying area beside the sea towards the setting sun; its boundaries were defined by Ashdod (Azoto) in the south and Dor in the north. This was its length; but I have not reckoned how many miles wide it was.

  Jewish Antiquities 5.1.22 (80–87), in Loeb 5, pp. 39–41, trans. Whiston, pp. 120–

468

21.

  Valley of al-Baṭṭawf.   Tobit 1.2. It is called Thisbe in the Greek Septuagint and English Authorized

469 470

Version.

  Today Kābūl.

471

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According to the description above, therefore, the whole of the Holy Land on this side of the Jordan appears nowhere to exceed a distance of forty leagues in width, that is, from the Jordan to the Great Sea or from east to west. In length, on the other hand, extending from north to south, it does not fully contain ninety leagues, as it seems to me. Behold! Here you have the whole country faithfully described according to its length and breadth and all its localities. This description, so it seems to me, is of no small use for historical books and the whole Bible, if it is understood, and for identifying and learning about each individual place. The Fruits and Animals of the Holy Land 12. It should be known that the whole of the Holy Land was in actual fact and is today the best of all lands, although some people, who have not inspected it carefully, say the opposite. It is very fertile in corn, which is tended and grown almost without labour. The soil brings forth many herbs. Fennel, sage, rue and roses grow everywhere in the fields of their own accord. Cotton472 grows on certain shrubs, which are as high as a man’s knee. [87] They are sown annually and have leaves like a vine’s, but smaller. On them grow pods in which is the cotton. It is collected around Michaelmas.473 Sugar-canes also grow there. They are similar to ordinary canes, but larger. Inside they are hollow, but filled with a certain porous substance, which is similar to that which is found in sticks of elder. That substance is very moist. The collected canes are cut in lengths of half a palm and crushed like this in a press. The juice squeezed out of them is cooked in copper cauldrons and when it has thickened it is collected in baskets woven from thin osiers. Soon afterwards it dries and hardens, and thus sugar is made. Before it hardens, however, a certain liquid trickles from it which is called honey of sugar; it is very delicious and is good for flavouring foods. The canes are also cut in lengths of a finger, in such a way, however, that each piece always has a knot in its centre, for there are many knots in one cane. In springtime the pieces are planted below ground in damp locations and from them grow new canes, two new canes growing from each piece, from either side of the knot. This is how they are planted. It should be known that in that land one does not find pears, apples, cherries or nuts as one does in lands overseas, or only very rarely. Some fruits are brought from Damascus; but they are quite soft and unable to last long because of overripening on the tree and the heat of the land. There are some fruits, however, that stay all year on the trees and people make use of them the year round. One often finds on the trees at one and the same time 472   The term that Burchard uses, lana succida (moist wool), is a classical one referring to wool that had been recently shorn from the sheep and was used in medicines. 473   29 September.

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blossom and half-ripe, ripe and over-ripe fruit, so that sometimes they have the four different kinds of fruit all together. These fruits are a kind of apple, which are called oranges,474 lemons and Adam’s apples,475 and from them the natives make sauces for chicken, fish and other foods; and they make the foods highly commendable. There are also apples called citrina, from which in Acre they make extremely good medicines.476 There are other fruits there that are called apples of paradise,477 a very wonderful fruit. They grow like a bunch of grapes, having many pods. Now and then the bunch itself is similar in size to a large basket, sometimes having sixty or more pods. The pods are oblong, sometimes six fingers long and as thick as a chicken’s egg. They have thick skins, like bean pods, but coloured a very delicate yellow. The skin is thrown away but the fruit is taken out and eaten; and its flavour is very sweet, like very fine butter mixed with honey-comb. The pods have no seeds in them, but can be eaten completely. The fruit takes barely a year to grow. The tree also lasts only a brief time, at most [88] two years, and immediately withers up; but when it begins to wither, another tree immediately starts to grow from its root, and grows like the one before. The leaves of this tree are as long as the height of one man and wide enough that with two leaves a man could cover his whole body. There are many vineyards in the Holy Land; and there would be more, except that the Saracens who are now in possession of the land do not drink wine, apart from some of them furtively. Therefore they do not cultivate vines, but destroy them, apart from a few perhaps, who live near Christians and grow them for profit in order to sell them to the Christians. The wine of the Holy Land is very good and fine, especially around Bethlehem in the valley of Rephaim and beyond, where the children of Israel carried a branch of grapes on a pole. Around Sidon and beyond it throughout the length of Lebanon good wine grows, and in Ṭarṭūs (Anterado) and Marqab (Margath) and along the whole of that sea coast as far as Cilicia, Cappadocia, Greece and Hungary. It is really wonderful what I saw in Ṭarṭūs; for there, so the natives told me, from one and the same vine three vintages are made in one year, in this way. In springtime, when the vine first sprouts, the vinedressers take note of the number of bunches of grapes forming that each vine and branch is accustomed to produce in the normal course of things and immediately cut off and throw away all the rest of the branch beyond the bunches themselves. This is done in March. In April another branch sprouts from the branch, with new bunches of grapes. When they see this they again cut off from the branch whatever is beyond those bunches. In May the stem produces a third branch with its bunches of grapes. Thus they have three series     476   477   474 475

naranges, from Arabic nāranj. Etrogs. Electuaries, i.e. medicine taken by mouth. Bananas.

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of grape bunches, which all grow the same way, except that those that sprouted in March are gathered in August, those that sprouted in April are gathered in September, and those that sprouted in May are gathered in October. In this way they have three wine harvests a year. Figs and pomegranates, honey, oil, and various kinds of legumes, such as melons and cucumbers, and many other fruits are abundant there. Wild boars, roe-deer, hares, partridges and quails are so numerous that it is a wonder to behold. There are a great number of lions, bears and various kinds of wild animals. Likewise, there is an infinite number of camels, dromedaries, stags and wild oxen. In short, there abound there all the good things of the earth and the land flows with milk and honey. But I would not say that its inhabitants are very steadfast; indeed the land contains the worst and ugliest of sinners, so that it is a wonder that it can put up with them. The Various Religions of the Holy Land 13. The Holy Land contains inhabitants from every nation under heaven and each lives according to its own rite; and to tell the truth, we Latins are worse than all the other inhabitants. The reason is this, as it seems to me: when anyone has been an evil-doer, such as a murderer, a bandit, a thief or an adulterer, he crosses the sea as a penance, or because he fears for his skin and thus does not dare stay in his own country. Thus, they come hither from different regions, such as Germany, Italy, France, England, Spain, Hungary and other parts of the world; but in truth they change their sky, not their inclination. For living there, after they have spent what they brought with them, they have to go in search of more, and thus once again ‘they return to their vomit’,478 committing evil deeds [89] far worse. They receive pilgrims of their own nation in their lodgings; and these people, if they do not know how to look after themselves, put their trust in them and lose their possessions and honour. They produce children who imitate the crimes of their fathers, making from bad parents worse children and from these even worse grandchildren, who trample upon the Holy Places with polluted feet. Thus it comes about that because of the sins of its inhabitants before God, the land itself with the place of sanctification comes into contempt. Apart from the Latins there are many other nations, such as the Saracens, who preach Muḥammad and observe his law. They say that our Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest of the prophets and acknowledge that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. They deny, however, that He suffered and died, but when they so wish they say that He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father, because they acknowledge Him to be the Son of God. They contend, however, that Muḥammad sits at the left hand. They are extremely unclean. They 478

  Cf. Proverbs 26.11; 2 Peter 2.22.

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have as many wives as they can feed; yet, notwithstanding this, they sin against nature, having lodgings for young men479 in each city. They are very hospitable, however, and courteous and obliging. Besides these there are the Syrians or Syri. The whole land is full of them. They are Christians, but do not keep faith with the Latins. They are clothed wretchedly, are thrifty and do not give alms. They live among the Saracens and, like most of them, work as servants. In dress they are like the Saracens, being only distinguished from them by a woollen girdle. The Greeks are also Christians, but schismatics, although the greater part of them returned to obedience to the church at the general council held under Lord Gregory X.480 Among the Greeks the prelates are always monks, men of great austerity and an admirable way of life. The Greeks are very devout and greatly revere and honour their prelates. I heard from their patriarch,481 who said in my presence: ‘We would willingly live in obedience to the Roman church and reverence it, but we are very surprised that we are made to take our place below the lesser-ranking prelates, such as archbishops and bishops. For certain archbishops and bishops want to force me, a patriarch, to kiss their feet and render them manual obedience,482 which I do not believe myself bound to do, although I would willingly do it for the Pope, but for him alone.’ There are also there Armenians, Georgians, Nestorians, Nubians, Jacobites, Chaldæans, Medes, Persians, Ethiopians, Egyptians and many other nations who are Christians. There is an infinite multitude of them. They each have their own patriarchs, to whom they owe obedience. Their prelates say that they would very willingly be subject to the Church of Rome. Of them the Nestorians, Jacobites and others are so called after certain heretics, who were once their leaders. There are in addition in the Holy Land Midianites, who are now called Bedouin, and Turkomans, who devote themselves solely to raising flocks and camels, which are exceedingly numerous. They do not have fixed dwelling places, but wheresoever they hear that there is pasture they move themselves, along with their tents. Although they are very warlike, they only use swords and lances in battle. They do not use arrows, saying that it is shameful beyond measure to steal a man’s life [90] with an arrow. They are courageous in battle, wearing only a red pelisse with a large loose-fitting shirt over it and covering their heads with no more than a piece of cloth. They fill the whole of Syria and more of them also live beyond the River Jordan, from Lebanon to the desert of Paran, because there there are mountains for goats and sheep and plains for cattle and camels. The sheep are large in those parts, especially the rams, and they have tails so big that one tail is enough to feed three or four men.     481   482   479 480

effebias, i.e. brothels rather than youth hostels. The fourth session of the Second Council of Lyons on 6 July 1274. Perhaps Gregory I, who died in 1298. A sign of allegiance given by taking or kissing another’s hand.

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Around the castle of ‘Arqa (Arachas) beyond Tripoli and as far as the castle of Crac (Krach) live Saracens who are called Vannini.483 Adjoining them are some Saracens who are called Assassins and live in the mountains beyond Ṭarṭūs (Anteradus) near the castle of Marqab (Margath). They have many castles and cities and fertile land. They are said to have 40,000 fighters. They have one leader, not by hereditary succession, but as a privilege of merit; he is called the Old Man of the Mountains, because of the maturity not of his body but of his mind. These people are said to have originated in Persia. I have passed through part of their country. They are obedient until death and kill anyone on the command of their superior; they say that thereby they are worthy of paradise, even if they are killed before they have carried out their orders.484 A few years ago they wanted to become subject to the church of Rome and accordingly sent an envoy to Acre. As he was returning home after the negotiation had been carried through to a conclusion, before entering his own territory he was killed by one of those who were supposed to be escorting him, to the detriment of the whole church, because the others, seeing the Christians to be untrustworthy, immediately withdrew from the undertaking.485 The land of these people is separated from the land of the Christians by some stones, on which the sign of a cross is carved on the side of the Christians and of a knife on that of the Assassins. Thus far no sultan has been able to subdue them,486 but they establish their own laws and customs and make use of them as they want. They strike fear into all surrounding nations because of their extreme ferocity. It should be noted as a matter of fact, although some who like to have an opinion about things that they have not seen declare the contrary, that the whole East beyond the sea as far as India and Ethiopia confesses and preaches the name of Christ, except only for the Saracens and some Turkomans who live in Cappadocia, so that I assert as certain, just as I myself have seen and have heard from others by whom it is known, that always in every place and kingdom, except for Egypt and Arabia where many Saracens and other followers of Muḥammad live, for every Saracen you will find thirty or more Christians. It is true, however, that all the Christians beyond the sea are Easterners; and although they are Christians,   Probably Alawites.   The Assassins (Ḥashīshiyyīn), as already remarked, were an Ismaili Shi‘ite sect,

483 484

subject to the lord of Alamut in Persia, who established themselves in the Jabal Anṣāriyya around the end of the eleventh century and early decades of the twelfth. On their Syrian castles, see: Burn, Monuments of Syria, pp. 151–3, 176–9; Jacquot, L’État des Alouites; Willey, Eagle’s Nest, pp. 216–45. 485   This episode occurred in 1173, during the reign of King Amalric, and was blamed by William of Tyre on the Templars, who were supposed to be escorting the Assassin envoys (Chronicon 20.29–30, ed. Huygens, pp. 953–5, trans. Babcock and Krey 2, pp. 390–4). 486   An interesting observation, as according to al-Maqrīzī they were paying tribute to Baybars from 1270, and in 1273 he seized their remaining Syrian castles (Ziada, ‘Mamluk Sultans’, p. 749).

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because they do not have much experience of arms, when they are attacked by Saracens, Tartars or others, whosoever they may be, they are subjected to them and buy peace and tranquility for tribute, and the Saracens and others who dominate them place their bailiffs and tax-collectors in those lands. So it comes about that that kingdom is said to belong to the Saracens, even though in reality they are all Christians except the bailiffs, tax-collectors and other members of their families, as I have seen with my own eyes in Cilicia and Lesser Armenia, which is subject to the rule of the Tartars. For I stayed with the king of Armenia and Cilicia for three weeks and there were with him a number of [91] Tartars.487 All the rest of his household, however, were Christians, numbering around two hundred. I saw them flocking to church to hear masses, kneel and pray devoutly. Besides, wherever I met them with my companion, they honoured us greatly by doffing their hats, bowing respectfully, greeting us and standing up in our presence. Many people are also afraid if it is mentioned that in the lands beyond the sea live Nestorians, Jacobites, Maronites, Georgians and others who take their names from heretics whom the church condemns; accordingly these people are thought to be heretics and to follow the errors of those from whom they are named. This is absolutely not the case (God forbid!). On the contrary, these people are simple and conduct themselves faithfully. I do not deny, however, that some among them may be fools, since even the Roman church is not lacking for fools. All the above nations and many others, which it would take too long to write about, have archbishops, bishops, abbots and other prelates, as we have, and call them by the same names, except the Nestorians, whose chief prelate is called Iaselich; among them he occupies the position of pope and I have learnt for certain that his jurisdiction extends much more widely in the East than the whole western church extends in the West. The other prelates of that nation, however, are called archbishops and bishops like ours.488 The chief prelate of the Armenians and Georgians489 is called the catholicus. I stayed with him for fourteen days and he had with him archbishops, bishops, 487   The Armenian alliance with the Mongols, by which the Armenian king became effectively a Mongol vassal, dated from 1253 (Runciman, History of the Crusades 3, pp. 294–9; Der Nersessian, ‘Kingdom of Cilician Armenia’, pp. 652–3; Edwards, Fortifications, p. 9). Burchard appears to have visited Cilicia either between 1269 and 1275 or – more likely – in 1283–84, before or after his time in Palestine (see introduction to the texts above). The Armenian king would therefore have been Levon II (1270–89) and the Mongol Il-Khanid ruler, whose vassal he was, Abaqa (1265–82), Aḥmad Tegüder (Takūdār) (1282– 84) or Arghun (1284–91). Following the defeat of the Mongols and their Armenian and Hospitaller allies by the Mamluk Sultan Qalā’ūn at Ḥimṣ in September 1281, however, Levon was obliged to enter a humiliating treaty agreement with the Mamluks in June 1285, involving the payment of an annual tribute of one million dirḥams (Runciman, History of the Crusades 3, pp. 390–92, Der Nersessian, ‘Kingdom’, p. 655; Edwards, Fortifications, p. 10). 488   On the Nestorians, see Baumer, Church of the East. 489  Not the Georgians, who were Orthodox, in communion with the Greek Orthodox Church.

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abbots and many other prelates. In his diet, clothing and way of life he was so exemplary that I have not seen the like in any person, whether religious or secular; and I say for certain that in my judgement all the clothes that he wore were in no way worth five shillings sterling. Yet he had very strong castles and large rents, and possessed [92] infinite riches. He wore a thick sheepskin pelisse, red in colour, utterly filthy dirty and with wide sleeves, and under it a grey-coloured tunic, very old and almost worn through. Above this he had a black scapula and a cheap rough black cloak. I have seen the king of Armenia and Cilicia sitting humbly and with great reverence with all his nobles before his feet, often with his eldest son,490 and with great devotion hear from him the word of God. He and all his prelates fasted through the whole of Lent on bread and water, as did the king and all his nobles, save on the feast of the Annunciation, when in my presence the catholicus gave himself leave to eat some fish and drink some wine. On that day I attended mass in the presence of the same catholicus and of the king and queen. They have a very devout rite. Their priests and bishops are robed like ours. In their masses they consecrate unleavened bread and chant the same epistles, gospels and prefaces, Sanctus, Pater Noster and Agnus Dei, using the same words as we do but in their own language and script; for they have their own language and alphabet. The catholicus himself and all the other prelates are monks; and throughout the whole East in whatever nation no one can become a prelate unless he is a monk. All monks are held in the greatest reverence and honour. Clerks and priests have no authority; among the laity, they count for nothing and have no duties other than to celebrate divine service. At all the canonical hours they give a signal by striking a plank or other piece of wood, because they have no bells. After the signal is given at night they go to matins, crying out to people through the streets to come to matins. After matins they do not sleep but sit in church and teach the people until dawn, when they say the first mass, or until around the hour of terce if it is a feast day. Otherwise they have no authority, except as much as the vardapets491 allow them. The priests are all married and no one is allowed to carry out the office unless he has a wife. From Monday until Friday inclusive they never celebrate mass, no matter how great a feast day there may be, but are free to spend time with their wives. On Saturday and Sunday, on the other hand, they say mass frequently and with solemnity. After his wife’s death a priest will remain continent and will not take another wife. If he commits fornication or adultery, he will lose his office and his church and with him no [93] dispensation can be made. If his wife commits adultery, the priest must either be continent or lose his church and office, while his wife loses her nose and the man with whom she lay will be castrated, even if he is also a married man. This was done in my presence. After a priest dies his wife will remain continent. If she marries again, she will be burned in the fire; but if she becomes a prostitute, she will suffer no harm. And there is a new statute among   The future Het‘um II.   Scholar priests or archimandrites: see Thomson, ‘Vardapet in the Early Armenian

490 491

Church’.

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them: a priest, like an Apostle, will take only a virgin as his wife. The priests of the Armenians and Georgians are distinguished from the common people by the white linen cloth that they wrap around their shoulders and neck. Thieves who commit petty thefts and other evil-doers who commit minor crimes are castrated, to prevent them from producing children who will imitate the crimes of their fathers. This, it seems to me, is one reason why there are so many harlots there: for there are many eunuchs, who are all servants of noble women. I believe that the queen of Armenia had more than forty eunuchs while I was in her house. No male goes in to see her without the express permission of the king; and he assigns a named eunuch to accompany the visitor. The same thing happens with all noble women, both widows and married. The kings and princes and all the nobles listen most gladly to the word of God. Thus every day at the hour of terce, vardapets or monks go to the court of the king or one of the princes and immediately the princes or lords themselves come to them with their children and leading men. Some book of scripture is set before them and is read in their presence in their own tongue, since they know no other language, and the text is expounded to them by the monks; and whenever the lay people are in doubt and ask questions, they are instructed by the monks according to the sayings of the saints. I questioned those monks as to which doctors they mostly follow, and they said that among the foremost are John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nazianzus and Cyril of Alexandria. The clerks and laity are very devout in church and do nothing there but pray or chant or whatever other things should rightly be done there. I never saw anyone in church laugh or behave laxly. With them the office of the mass is devoutly celebrated. The chalice is placed to the left of the altar in a place made for that purpose in the wall. At the offertory a deacon reverently raises it above his head with a precious silk cloth. With a subdeacon walking in front of it with a thurible and two acolytes with candles also walking behind, they circle the altar to its right. Then the bishop reverently takes it up and offers it just as our priests do. Two stand with lighted candles behind the priest during the canon of the mass, and near them two with thuribles, wearing albs. Two deacons stand beside the altar to left and right, devoutly praying with hands pressed together, their faces turned towards the Body of Christ, while chanting a sweet pious melody and responding antiphonally one to the other. Without doubt that is a very pious thing to see and hear. I saw many other highly commendable things in that land, both among the laity and among the clerics and monks, which in our land would scarcely be thought possible. I passed through the whole of that land as far as Cappadocia and Seleucia Maritima and from there sailed to Cyprus and wandered through the greater part of the region. From there I sailed to Syria and came to Tyre; and after a few days, sailing from there along the coast of Palestine or of the Philistines passed by Ḥayfā, Mount Carmel, Dor, Cæsarea of Palestine, Antipatris,492 Joppe, Yibnā   i.e. Arsūf, whose correct classical name was Apollonia.

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(Iamnia), Ekron (Accaron), Ashdod (Azotus), Ascalon, Gaza and the whole sand desert [94] as far as the mouth of the Nile. From there I came to Damietta, which in antiquity was called Memphis. This is the land of Jesse,493 in which the children of Israel once dwelt, serving Pharaoh in mortar and brick.494 In it Jeremiah was also later stoned. Blessed be the Lord and St Matthew! Amen.

  The ‘land of Goshen’ (Judith 1.9) is translated thus in the Vulgate.   Exodus 1.14 (in luto et latere).

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14

Philip of Savona ofm: Description of the Holy Land (1285–89) Here are the pilgrimages of Jerusalem and all the Holy Land 1 [l ‘Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God!’1] Those desiring to have knowledge of the pilgrimages of the glorious and holy city of Jerusalem and in fact of the whole of the Holy Land should first, so it seems to me, proceed to Nazareth, because it is appropriate that we take the start of our pilgrimage from the place where our redemption had its beginning. [29] At the fifteenth [l fourteenth] mile from Acre is the city of Nazareth, located at the entrance to Galilee from the east beside the mountains. It is the city of the Saviour, because in it He was conceived and raised. After she had become betrothed to Joseph, the Holy Virgin lived [there] and to her the Lord sent the Angel Gabriel announcing the first beginnings of our salvation. This is the holy city worthy of God’s love in which the Word was made Flesh and the Flower surpassing all perfumes germinated in the Virgin’s womb, for which reason it is deservedly called ‘the Flower’. In this above all other cities it enjoys a special privilege, because the Lord produced in it the beginning of our salvation; and in it moreover He to whom the Father makes subject

bl

  Psalm 87.3.   Luke 1.28.

1 2

mnstv For in Nazareth the ever glorious Virgin was saluted by the Archangel Gabriel when he said, ‘Hail to you, full of grace, the Lord is with you, etc.’2

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everything that is in earth and heaven deigned to be brought up and to be subject to His parents. In Nazareth there flows a little spring that is called Gabriel’s Spring, from which the Boy Jesus Christ used to draw water and to supply it thence to His mother and Himself. One mile south from Nazareth is the place called the Leap, [30] from which His relations, envious of His wisdom, wanted to throw the young Jesus, but He disappeared from them in an instant.3

There also is that small spring from which the Boy Jesus used to draw water for His mother;

At the fourth mile from Nazareth on the road that leads to Acre is the city of Sepphoris (Saphoris), from which came Anne, the mother of Mary the mother of Christ. Between it and Nazareth is a copious and clear spring, issuing abundant waters, which is called the spring of Sepphoris (fons Sephornius).

Four miles from Nazareth is the city of Sepphoris (Saphoris), in which Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary, was born.

At the sixth mile from Nazareth and the second from Sepphoris towards the east is Cana of Galilee, from which came Simon the Canaanite, Philip and Nathaniel.4 In it the Boy Jesus, reclining with His mother at the marriage feast, changed water into wine.5

A league-and-a-half from Sepphoris is Cana of Galilee, where Our Lord turned water into wine and from which came Simon the Canaanite and Nathaniel.

there also is the little mountain, that [30] is called the Leap, from which the Jews wished to throw Jesus.

On the road that leads from Acre to Nazareth is the castle of Shafa ‘Amr (Saphran castrum), in which James

  Luke 4.29–30.   Nathaniel was from Cana (John 21.2), but Philip was from Bethsaida. Simon the

3 4

Zealot is called the Cananaean (Cananaeus) in Matthew 10.4 and Mark 3.18, but this epithet is derived from the Hebrew word qana, which also means ‘zealous’. 5   John 2.1–11.

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and John, the sons of Zebedee, are said to have been born. [31] At the sixth mile east from Nazareth is Mount Tabor, which is high and very difficult to climb. On it, in the presence of Peter, James and John and with Moses and Elijah at hand, the Lord was transfigured and showed them the glory of His forthcoming Resurrection. [l And there a voice came from heaven saying to them, ‘This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.’6] On account of their reverence and respect for the place, the Christians built a church (monasterium) there.7 [b This mountain is in the region of Galilee and has at its foot the Kishon brook.] On the way down the mountain Abraham, returning from the battle with Amalek, was encountered by Lord Melchizedek (who is also Shem, the son of Noah), priest and king of Salem, who offered him bread and wine, prefiguring the altar of Christ under grace.8

[31] Four miles from Nazareth is Mount Tabor, where in the presence of His disciples, that is to say Peter, James and John, while Moses and Elijah appeared to Him, the Lord was transfigured; and there a voice came from heaven: ‘This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.’

At the second mile from Tabor to the south near En-dor is Nain, a city of Galilee, which is a large village at the fourth mile south from the same mountain. At its city gate Jesus restored to life the son of the widowed woman.9

Near there at the second mile is located the city of Nain (Nayn), in which Our Lord raised the widowed woman’s son.

[32] bl At the sixth mile from Nain is the city of Chinnereth (Cenarech), which is also called Tiberias after Tiberias Cæsar. It is located on the sea of Galilee and overflows with an abundance of corn, wine, [l oil] and   Matthew 17.5; cf. Mark 9.7; Luke 9.35.   It was destroyed by Baybars in April 1263: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 63–80. 8   Genesis 14.13–24. See Churches 2, pp. 83–5. This last sentence is copied verbatim 6 7

from John of Würzburg (CCCM 139, pp. 81–2). l: ‘which prefigures the body and blood of Christ on the altar.’ 9   Luke 7.11–17.

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fish. Jesus used to frequent this place in His youth, whence it happened that, when the Boy Jesus was living there with one of his relations, a disturbed man who was possessed seized a burning firebrand and threw it after the boy Jesus hoping to hit Him, but the firebrand became stuck in the ground and grew into an immense tree, which produces blossom and fruit to the present day.10 Near this city [l on the sea shore] are baths, which continually issue scalding hot water. b One mile from Tiberias is the town of Magdala, after which Mary Magdalene was named. l At the seventh mile from Tiberias to the south is Dothan (Dothaim), where the brothers of Joseph sold him to the Ishmaelites. At the fourth mile, seventh from Tiberias, is the city of Bethulia, from which came Judith who killed Holofernes. bl The sea of Galilee is a lake formed in the territory of Galilee from the flowing together of the purest waters and is very suitable for various kinds of fish. It is delightful to behold and pleasant to drink from. And because it is very extensive both in length and in breadth, following the custom of the Hebrews and Egyptians who call any large collection of waters a sea whether they are sweet or salty, the lake is known as a sea. [l It is called the sea of Tiberias, moreover, because] it lies next to the city of Tiberias (Thyberiadi), which is commonly called Tabariyya (Thabaria); and beside it is sited the city of Peter and Andrew, which the Lord made famous by His own presence, that is to say, Bethsaida. It is sometimes called the Lake of Gennesaret, which is to be interpreted as ‘breezeproducing’,11 because it frequently draws a strong wind from the valleys of the surrounding mountains. When this happens, the perturbation in the lake and the mounting [33] storm of the swelling waves sometimes causes boats to be submerged. On that sea the Lord walked with dry feet and said to Peter, who wanted to come to Him and was sinking, ‘O man of little faith, etc.’12 And on another occasion when the disciples were in danger He restored calm to the sea. At the left-hand end of the sea, in the bay of Gennesaret, is the place producing the breeze, which is still felt by those present there today. The sea of Galilee has its beginning between Bethsaida and Capernaum. [At the sixth mile]13 from Bethsaida is Chorazin (Corosaim),14 in which will be born the Antichrist, the seducer of the world. Of these two cities Jesus said, ‘Woe to you Chorazin! Woe 10   This legend is found in an Arabic apocryphal gospel and in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was current in both Muslim and Christian sources: see Pringle, Churches 2, p. 364 11   auram generans. 12   Matthew 14.31. 13   Missing words supplied from John of Würzburg, CCCM 139, p. 105. 14   Incorrectly identified in this period as Kursi (Chorsia, Gergesa) (TIR, pp. 103–4).

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to you Bethsaida!’15 At the fifth mile from Chorazin is Kedar (Cedar), a very fine city of which it is said, ‘[I have lived] with the inhabitants of Kedar.’16 Capernaum, the city of the centurion, is situated at the righthand end of the sea. In this city Jesus performed many miracles. At the second mile from Capernaum on the way down from the mountain is the place in which the Lord preached to the crowds and instructed His Apostles, teaching them, and in which He cured a leper. One mile from that descent is the place where the Lord fed 5,000 people from five loaves and two fish, whence the place is called the Table, that is, the place of refreshment.17 Below it is the place where Christ appeared to the disciples after His Resurrection, eating with them a portion of grilled fish [b and a honeycomb]. From Nazareth by a direct road is [l one goes along an uneven road for ten leagues to] Sabastiyya (Sebastia), which was once called Samaria, in which the body of St John the Baptist was buried between the prophets Obadiah and Elisha,18 having been translated from the town of Machærus (Macheronta), which is beyond the Jordan, where he was beheaded. Four miles from Sebaste is the city of Nāblus (Neapolis), formerly called Shechem (Sichem) after Shechem, the son of Hamor,19 [l or Sychar (Sichar) as is read in the gospel.20] In it were buried the bones of Joseph, son of Jacob, [34] brought from Egypt. There also is [l Jacob’s] well, above which Jesus sat, tired from the journey, and asked for a drink from the Samaritan woman.21 There also are two hills or mountains, that is to say, Dan and Bethel, on which Jereboam, king of Israel, placed the golden calves and ordered them to be worshipped, saying, ‘Behold your gods, O Israel, who led you out of Egypt.’22 From Nāblus south to Jerusalem there are twenty [b almost twenty-four] miles. When you arrive at Jerusalem you must go in through Stephen’s Gate and thus enter the holy city.   Cf. Matthew 11.20–24; Luke 10.13.   Cf. Psalms 120.5. Kedar was one of the tribes of Idumæa (Abel, Géographie, p.

15 16

296). Medieval writers incorrectly applied it to Gamala, though it is also possible that John of Würzburg’s source confused the name with Gadara (Arabic Jadar). 17   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 334–9. 18   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 283–97. 19   Genesis 33.18–20, 34.1–26. 20   John 4.5. Sychar (‘Askar) and Shechem, however, were not one and the same. Jacob’s Well was located at the former and the tomb of Joseph at the latter (Abel, Géographie, pp. 472–3). 21   Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 258–64. 22   1 Kings 12.25–33. Dan and Bethel were at the northern and southern extremities of the northern kingdom, nowhere near Shechem. Jereboam’s reconstruction of Shechem, however, immediately precedes the account of the golden calves in the biblical text, hence the confusion.

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2.  This is the order of the pilgrimages in Jerusalem bl Jerusalem is the (holy) city of holy cities, the holy lady of the tribes, the prince of the provinces, – by special prerogative it is called the city of the Great King23 and is roughly at the centre of the world; it is placed at the centre of the earth so that all people may flock to it – the possession of the patriarchs, the disciple of the prophets, [l the teacher of the Apostles, the dwelling place of our salvation,] the property of the Lord, the mother of the faith just as Rome [35] is mother of the faithful, chosen and sanctified, the city in which the Lord’s feet stood, honoured by angels, and frequented by every nation that is under heaven. It is established on a projecting mountain, steep on both sides, located in the area that is called Judah and Palestine, flowing with milk and honey and abounding in corn, wine, oil and all material goods. But it completely lacks rivers and has no springs apart from one called Siloam, which runs through the middle of the valley of Jehoshaphat below Mount Sion and provides abundant waters from time to time. Very often, however, only a modest quantity of water or virtually none is to be found. Inside and outside the city, however, there are many rainwater cisterns, which are sufficient to provide drinking water to both people and animals and for other necessary purposes. Jerusalem has many different names resulting from various events and according to different languages and nations. It was first called Jebus (Iebet) and afterwards Salem, from which two names was formed the third, Jerusalem. [l It is also called Solima and Jerosolima,] Luza and Bethel. Lastly it was called Ælia (Helia) after Ælius, the Roman quaestor who rebuilt it in the position in which it now stands after the destruction caused by Titus and Vespasian.24 The city of Jerusalem, in which the Lord displayed bodily the work of our salvation, just as it surpasses all other places and cities by the privilege of its holiness and by the excellence of its worthiness, so it also draws to itself many religious people, attracted as if by the scent of ripe fields that the Lord has blessed. To the south of Jerusalem is Mount Sion, in which David lived in the citadel of Sion, having expelled the Jebusites; and he called it the City of David. To the east it has the Mount of Olives.

  Psalms 48.2; Matthew 5.35.   The city was refounded as a Roman colony, Colonia Ælia Capitolina, by the

23 24

emperor Ælius Hadrian after the suppression of the Second Jewish Revolt in ad 135. The legate of Judæa at the time was Tineius Rufus (Vincent and Abel, Jérusalem nouvelle, pp. 1, 884).

Philip of Savona bl [It also has] Mount Calvary, on which the Lord was crucified, where the blood flowing greatly from His side split the rock below the mount in the part that is called Golgotha, where was found the head of Adam, the first man; and the place of the Lord’s Sepulchre, [36] which is near to that place below Mount Calvary.

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mnstv When one first enters one should go to the church of the Sepulchre, in which there are these pilgrimages and chapels: the Sepulchre of our Lord Jesus Christ and Mount Calvary, on which our Lord was crucified, where the blood issuing from His side split the rock. Below Mount Calvary is Golgotha, where was found the head of Adam the first man.

bl Up to the time of the emperor Ælius Hadrian those places were outside the city. Indeed the Lord died and was buried outside the gate of the city. The aforementioned Ælius Hadrian repaired the city that had been destroyed by Titus and Vespasian, constructing water channels by which it would be cleansed in time of rain. And he enlarged the city so much that he enclosed the place of the Lord’s sepulchre within the ambit of the walls. Afterwards out of reverence for the Lord’s sepulchre the Christians built in that place with skilful workmanship the glorious church of the Lord’s Resurrection, with a fitting crown and rounded form, though with an open hole at the top.25 This church not undeservedly occupies the prime position among the holy and venerable places. In that place the precious body of the Lord lay honourably entombed with spices until the third day. On the third day He arose, as He said [that He would] in the Easter gospel, where it is said, ‘He has risen [as He said], He is not here.’26 The deacon who reads the gospel indicates the Lord’s sepulchre with his finger. [37] Near Mount Calvary is the place where the glorious Mary, with the other women, was weeping and lamenting Our Lord hanging on the cross. Near there is the place where Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus washed Christ when they took Him down from the cross. There is also there [bl in the middle of the choir] another place, which is called the centre of the world, where Christ placed his finger saying, ‘This is the centre of the world.’ Near there is the place where Christ, rising from the dead, appeared to Mary Magdalene, when she thought that He was the gardener and said, ‘Sir, if you have taken Him away, tell me where you have laid Him.’27 In that place, before the ædicule28 of the tomb, an altar has been made in honour of His appearance. Then one goes to the place where there is the column to which Jesus was bound and flogged, which is below a certain altar. There is also another place in the left-hand part of the church in which there is a

    27   28   25 26

On the medieval church, see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 6–72. Matthew 28.6; cf. Mark 16.6. John 20.15. ante cellam.

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small thin column to which [38] Jesus is said to have been tied and flogged. Then one goes to the door through which Mary the Egyptian was unable to enter the Lord’s sepulchre when the other Christians were going in until she promised to submit to repentence; there she also heard the voice saying to her, ‘If you cross the Jordan you will be saved.’ Then one goes to the Lord’s prison, where the Jews put Him until the cross had been set up. mnstv Beside the ædicule of the tomb is a column on which is an image of the blessed martyr Pantaleon, at which it is said that there was this miracle. It happened at one time that a very evil Saracen entered the church of the Sepulchre and looking all around saw the image on the column. He vandalized and gouged out the eyes of the image, and immediately his own eyes fell to the ground. The above are the pilgrimages and chapels of our Lord’s Sepulchre. 3.  This is the order of the pilgrimage of Mount Sion Afterwards one must go to Mount Sion. On the way one will find the church of St James the Great, the son of Zebedee, which belongs to the Armenians.29 There is the place where was formerly placed the head of the same [39] James, which was carried by the hands of angels from Joppe (Yoppen), where he was beheaded, according to what some people say. Others, however, say that he was beheaded in Jerusalem, where the church itself stands, which is my preferred belief. On Mount Sion one finds the church of the Saviour,30 which was formerly the house of Caiaphas the chief of the priests, in which our Lord was flogged the whole night long; and there is part of the column to which it is said that He was tied and beaten. In the same place Peter also denied Christ three times before the cock crowed and there, sitting in the courtyard with the servants, he was warming himself [ls before the coals] because it was cold. There also was the prison where the Jews put Jesus and kept Him until the next morning; and when it was morning they sent Him bound to Pilate. There is also there on the altar a large stone, which is said to have been the stone that was first placed over the tomb of our Lord. Some say that the Khwarizmians, when they took Jerusalem, broke it and scattered the pieces, believing that they would find hidden treasures in the tomb.31 One then goes to a cell in which the Blessed Virgin Mary lived for fourteen years after the Lord’s Ascension to heaven.32 And near there is another   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 168–82.   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 365–72, 31   These events would have occurred in 1244. In the twelfth century the stone that 29

30

had been rolled away from the mouth of Christ’s tomb was preserved in the vestibule of the ædicule enclosing it (see Pringle, Churches 3, p. 24). 32   This and the following sites were associated with the by now mostly destroyed church of St Mary of Mount Sion: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 261–87.

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cell in which the Blessed Virgin Mary departed from this world. And there is also there the church of St John the Evangelist which was, [40] so it is said, the first church in this world. In it the same St John the Evangelist celebrated mass in the presence of the Virgin Mary for as long as she lived in this world. And there is still there a red stone that was used as an altar and was transported from Mount Sinai by the hands of angels at the request of the blessed Apostle Thomas on his return from India. And there is another chapel on Mount Sion in which is the place where the Lord dined with His disciples and there He gave them communion, saying, ‘Take and eat. [l This is my body. Do this in remembrance of me.]’33 And there is another place there where our Lord after He had risen from dinner washed the feet of His disciples. bl And there beside the choir is the place in which after the Ascension of our Lord the Apostles remained waiting for the promise of the Holy Spirit until the day of Pentecost with fasts and prayers. On the day of Pentecost, they received its powers in that place in the form of fire together with the knowledge of all languages. When moreover an unexpected sound was made from heaven above that place, there came together a multitude of Jews to whom St Peter expounded the prophecy [41] of Joel and converted many to the Lord.34 Through all these remarkable things, this place holds the greatest worthiness of privilege, surpassing the other holy places.

mnstv There also is the place where the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles in tongues of fire and all were filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking of the mighty works of God.

[41] There is also another place where the Apostles elected blessed Matthias as an Apostle in place of the traitor Judas.35

lmnstv

There is also a place there where the Apostles elected seven deacons, that is to say Stephen, Philip, Nicanor, Prochorus and another three of their companions to preach the word of God.36 Near there is another place where the Apostles elected     35   36   33 34

Matthew 16.16; Mark 14.22. Luke 22.19. Acts 2. Acts 1.23–6. The others being Timon, Parmenas and Nicolaus of Antioch (Acts 6.5).

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blessed James the Less as bishop of Jerusalem; and he was the first bishop in Jerusalem. [bl He passed over to God in Jerusalem by being martyred with a fuller’s club.] And there is another chapel below in which our Lord appeared to His disciples when the doors were closed and stood in the midst of them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ And He said to Thomas, ‘Place your finger here and put your hand into my side and do not be faithless, but believing.’37 And there is also there the stone vessel that is called the basin, in which the Lord put the water when He washed His disciples’ feet. And near by is the tomb of David, king and prophet, and that of Solomon, his son, in which tombs [41] were placed all the kings of Jerusalem. Not far from there there is also the tomb of blessed Stephen the protomartyr, where his body was placed after his invention;38 but it now enjoys the same sarcophagus in Rome with St Laurence.39 The above are the chapels of Mount Sion. 4.  The chapels between Mount Sion and the Mount of Olives On the way down from Mount Sion is the place where the Apostles carrying our Lady for burial in the valley of Jehoshaphat put down the bier. On hearing of this, the Jews who were living in the nearby village40 ran to the place in order to seize the body of the blessed Virgin and burn it. Then a priest of the Jews, more impudent and audacious than the rest, laid hold of her bier and his hands immediately withered. He then asked blessed Peter to restore his hands and to pray for him. And Peter said to him, ‘If you believe that this was the mother of Christ and wish to be baptized, you will [l immediately] be restored to health.’ And he believed and immediately [43] was restored to his former state of health.41 There is there the church that is commonly called the Cock-crow (Gallicantus), in which there is a deep cave where Peter wept bitterly, repenting because he had denied Christ.42 Then one goes to the field that was purchased with the thirty pieces of silver for which our Lord was sold; it was called in Hebrew Akeldama (Acheldemach), that is, the ‘Field of Blood’. Then one goes to the spring of Siloam, which is below   John 20.19–29; cf. Luke 24.36–40.   Stephen’s body was found in Caphar Gamala in 415 and was translated to Mount

37 38

Sion by Bishop John of Jerusalem, before being moved to the new church of St Stephen in 439 (see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 261, 372). 39   In the church of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura. 40   vicus, in this case Siloam, or Silwān. 41   This story, involving the Jew called Jephonias, is found in the earliest written traditions relating to the Virgin Mary’s Dormition dating from the fifth century onwards: see Shoemaker, Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition, pp. 35–8, 366–8; Elliott, The Apocryphal Jesus, pp. 43–4. 42   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 346–9.

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Mount Sion, where the Lord gave sight to the man who was blind from birth. There also the prophet Isaiah was cut in two with a wooden saw by Manasseh, king of Jerusalem; and he lies buried in the same place under the oak of Rogel.43 5.  [The Mount of Olives] bl A mile east of Jerusalem is Mount Olivet, a fertile mountain, a mountain of olive trees, a mountain holy and worthy of every esteem. On this holy and most worthy mountain the Lord was sitting facing the Temple when the disciples asked Him for signs of His coming at the judgement and of the ending of the world. On this mountain He often went out with His disciples to pray, especially when His Passion was approaching. There is shown the place [44] where Our Lord ascended gloriously to heaven in the sight of the disciples and the stone that was below His feet, in which the outline of His foot remained and may still be seen today.44

mnstv [44] After this one must go to Mount Olivet

and there is shown the place where the Lord ascended into heaven and the stone which He put below His feet when He ascended into heaven in which the form of His foot remains even today.

There is also there another place in which blessed Pelagia of Antioch did penance and was buried.45 There remains there her tomb, which no one can pass or circle around unless they have first been fully confessed. It is said that there blessed Mary the Egyptian was buried up until the time when the Latins took the Holy Land; they then carried her body overseas, because today it is said to be in France in a castle called Blois (Blesis).46 On the Mount of Olives is the church in which the Lord taught the Apostles to pray, saying, ‘Pray like this [l and say], “Our Father etc.”’47 Near there is the stone upon which Jesus stood and preached to the crowds, and from which He showed them the city of Jerusalem and wept over it, saying, ‘Would that you knew, [45] for the days are coming when your enemies   The nature of Isaiah’s death is not recorded in the Bible, though Hebrews 11.37 refers to unnamed prophets being sawn in half.. 44   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 72–88. 45   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 342–6. 46   Philip is the first to associate St Mary the Egyptian with this site, though in a number of fourteenth-century pilgrim accounts her memory has completely ousted that of St Pelagia. 47   Luke 11.1; cf. Mathew 6.9; cf. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 117–24. 43

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will cast up a bank around you and throw you to the ground.’48 And this was fulfilled under the Roman emperors Titus and Vespasian. bl On the slope of the Mount of Olives and Bethany is Bethphage, which at one time was the ‘house of the mouth’,49 a village of priests, where Our Lord sent two disciples, Peter and Philip, for the ass and the colt, saying, ‘Go into the village [b and you will immediately find an ass tied up and a colt with her.’50 They went and brought them back to Him and made Him mount. And He was led on the ass from that place as far as Jerusalem with hymns and praises and was worthily received by the Hebrew boys with palm branches.]

mnstv Between the Mount of Olives and Bethany is Bethphage, that is the ‘house of the mouth’, where the Lord mounted the ass on Palm Sunday.

b Bethany, the village of Mary and Martha and of Lazarus their brother is beyond the Mount of Olives. There is the house of Simon the Leper in which the Lord ate with the Apostles, where also Mary Magdalene hearing that the Lord was reclining there came and standing behind began to bathe the Lord’s feet with tears and wipe them with her hair.51 There she also deserved to hear those sweet and glorious words, ‘Your sins are forgiven you. Go in peace.’52 Opposite that place is the cave in which blessed Lazarus was buried and where the Lord raised him from the dead. There is now a church there.53 Likewise, two ballista-shots outside the village is the house of Martha, where there is a church; and in the house the Lord ate with His disciples when Martha said to Him, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister’, etc.54 Two stone’s throws from

48   Cf. Luke 19.41–4. In this passage Jesus is normally understood to be predicting, amongst other things, the destruction of the Temple. 49   Or ‘cheek’ or ‘mouthful’, domus Bucce. The Aramaic derivation more likely meant ‘house of unripe figs’ (Abel, Géographie 2, p. 279). 50   Matthew 21.2; Mark 11.2; Luke 19.30. 51   Matthew 26.6–13; Mark 14.3–9; Luke 7.36–8: John 11.2, 12.3. 52   These words were not spoken to Mary of Bethany, nor to Mary Magdalene. This is probably an allusion to the adulteress whom Jesus met in the Temple and whom medieval exegesis sometimes equated with Mary Magdalene: but His words to her were also different. 53   On the two churches, which had formed part of the Benedictine abbey, see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 122–37. 54   Luke 10.40. The church was probably a ruined sixth-century Byzantine church at al-Junayna: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 282–3

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there is the stone on which the Lord leant. There Mary and Martha ran up to Him weeping and saying, ‘Lord, is You had been here our brother would not have died.’55 Then whoever wants may go to the River Jordan. From Bethphage one goes to the valley of Jehoshaphat

b

Then one goes to the valley of Jehoshaphat

lmnstv

and to the farm56 [46] of Gethsemane, which are at the foot of the Mount of Olives, where the Lord will judge the living and the dead. And there is the place where Our Lord was arrested by the Jews and where Judas Iscariot kissed Him, saying, ‘Hail, Rabbi!’57 Near by is the place where the Lord withdrew a stone’s throw from His disciples and prayed to the Father, saying, ‘Father if it be possible, may this cup pass from me.’58 There is the place where there appeared to Him an angel [l from heaven] comforting Him; and it is the place where His sweat became like drops of blood running to the ground. There also is the stone that the Lord grasped when He prayed out of sorrow for His passion, where the impression of His fingers remains. There is also another place in the natural rock where Our Lord was arrested, in which there is the shape or impression of His fingers, which occurred when after taking Peter and the two sons of Zebedee He began to be sorrowful and dejected, saying, ‘Sorrowful is my soul even unto death.’59 In the valley of Jehoshaphat is the tomb of the Virgin Mary.60 It is called the valley of Jehoshaphat after a king of Jerusalem, whose name was Jehoshaphat, because he was buried there; and his tomb is still to be seen there. And next to it is the tomb [47] of St James the Less, who was the first bishop of Jerusalem; the Christians buried him there when he was thrown from the Temple by the Jews.61 6 One then comes to the Golden Gate, through which Jesus entered on Palm Sunday when He was received seated on an ass and a colt.62     57   58   59   55

John 11.21. villa: Matthew 26.36; cf. Mark 14.32 (praedium); John 18.1 (hortus). Matthew 26.49; Mark 14.45. Matthew 26.39; Mark 14.36. Matthew 26.37–8; Mark 14.33–4. On these sites, see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 98– 103, 358–65. 60   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 287–306. 61   See Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 185–9. 62   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 103–9. 56

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A ballista-shot from there is the Lord’s Temple,63 in which there are four entrances and twelve doors. The holy Temple of the Lord, which was built by Solomon on Mount Moria on the threshing floor of Ornan (Araunah) the Jebusite,64 is on no account to be omitted from among the holy and venerable places. bl

mnstv A ballista-shot from there is the Lord’s Temple on Mount Moria,

bl Although the Temple was first destroyed by the Babylonians and afterwards by the Romans, it was fittingly and magnificently remade with a rounded form by the faithful and by religious men, and was again restored with marvellous and skilful workmanship in the same place over the rock. In this place on the rock, which exists in the same place even now, is said to have stood and appeared to David the destroying angel, who killed many thousands of people on account of the sin of numbering the people of Israel that was carried out on David’s orders.65 For this reason the Saracens to this day call the Lord’s Temple ‘the Rock’ and hold it in such great veneration that not one of them dares to defile it with any dirt, a practice that they also observe in other holy places; but from the time of Solomon up to the present, people have come from remote and faraway regions to adore it. Moreover, whenever the Saracens possess the holy city, they place an image of Muḥammad in the Temple66 and do not permit any Christian to enter. Within the same rock it is believed by some people [48] that the ark of the Lord has been enclosed to the present day, because Josiah, king of Israel, foreseeing the imminent destruction of the city ordered it to be enclosed in the sanctuary of the Temple and hid it there. One finds in the second book of the Maccabees that, when the captivity was imminent, the Prophet Jeremiah went out on to the mountain that Moses ascended67 and on which he saw God’s inheritance and [hid] in a cave that he found there the tabernacle, the ark and the altar of incense; and, closing the door, he said that the place should be unknown until God should gather together the congregation of His people and show His

    65   66  

The Dome of the Rock: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 397–417. 2 Chron. 3.1; cf. 2 Samuel 24.16–25; 1 Chron. 21.15–28. 2 Samuel 24.1–17; 1 Chron. 21.1–16. A common misapprehension of medieval Western Christians, as in Islam images of the Prophet Muḥammad are expressly forbidden. 67   Mount Sinai, or Horeb. 63 64

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mercy, and that the Lord would then disclose all these things and the majesty of the Lord would appear.68 In this holy and venerable place, when Solomon had completed the work and was offering sacrifices, a cloud filled the house and the glory of the Lord appeared and fire descended from heaven and consumed the holocausts and victims and the majesty of the Lord filled the house of the Lord; and all the children of Israel watched the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord upon the house. And while Solomon, kneeling and stretching his hands towards heaven, was praying that the prayers of whoever entered the Temple to seek a blessing would be received by the Lord, the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘I have heard your prayer, which you have made before me. I have sanctified this house, which you have built to me. My eyes will also be open and my ears attentive to the prayer of him who prays in that place. [b For I have chosen and sanctified that place to myself.’]69 b In this place, as one reads in the second book of the Maccabees, when Heliodorus had been sent by King Antiochus to take away by force the holy place and the money deposited in it, there appeared a horse adorned with the finest coverings and having a frightening rider. The rider, however, was seen to have arms of gold. The horse struck out at Heliodorus violently with its front hoofs. Two youths appeared, suitably strong, of the greatest renown and beautifully [49] attired. They stood to either side of him and beat him from both sides, continuously chastising him with many blows.70 bl Until the time when she was betrothed to Joseph, the Virgin Mary is said to have served in this Temple with the other virgins preparing the curtains of the Temple and the priestly vestments, learning more of the holy writings, and devoting herself wisely and humbly to the fasts, vigils, prayers and the study of the holy scriptures. Moreover, when in the years of her youth she was taken by her parents to the Temple so that they might present her to the Lord, it is said that she climbed each step by which one goes up to the Temple by herself and without any difficulty, which appeared remarkable to all who saw it and something unheard of for a small child. When St Zacharias was offering incense to the Lord in this place, the Angel Gabriel appeared to him announcing to him that his prayer had been heard by God;71 for at the hour of incense all the priests were supplicating the Lord for the coming of the Messiah and the liberation of the people.     70   71   68 69

2 Maccabees 2.5–8. Cf. 1 Kings 9.1–9. 2 Maccabees 3. Luke 1.5–23.

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bl In this Temple Christ was offered by His parents with turtle doves and a pigeon and was received by Simeon;72 and He was announced by the widow St Anna to all who were awaiting the redemption of Israel.73

mnstv where [in the Temple] the boy Jesus was presented and was taken up into the arms of Simeon the Just. The same Simeon, filled with the Holy Spirit, recognized his Saviour and said, ‘Lord, now let your servant [depart in peace] etc.’

When He had reached twelve years of age, in order to set an example of attending to the study of the holy scripture, sitting in discussion among the doctors He opposed and refuted in such a way that all marvelled at His responses and at His wisdom.74 At one time He went up on to the Pinnacle of the Temple, where the Devil tempted Him to cast Himself down.75 [50] At the time of His approaching Passion He spent all day teaching in the Temple, withdrawing to Bethany in the evening and returning in the early morning. At His death, the veil of the Temple was rent from top to bottom to expose the entrance to the Holy of Holies. From the Pinnacle of the Temple blessed James [the Less] the Apostle was thrown while preaching and was struck with a fuller’s club and crowned with martyrdom.76 At the entrance of the Temple is the Beautiful Gate77 and on another side is the Temple of Solomon.78 Between the Temple and the Golden Gate were the trees from which the boys took the palms when the Lord sat on the ass. And there near the Temple of Solomon in the corner of the city is the chamber of Christ, the bath of Christ and the bed of the mother of the Lord; and there is the tomb of St Simeon [l the Just].79 mnstv On that mountain Abraham wanted to sacrifice his son Isaac to the Lord. In the Lord’s Temple Jesus freed the adulteress from the hand of the Jews and there making a whip of cords the Lord began to eject from the Temple the buyers and sellers and He overturned the tables and chairs of the money-changers saying, ‘It is written: My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves.’80 bl

    74   75   76   72

Luke 2.22–35. Luke 2.36–8. Luke 2.41–8. Matthew 4.5–7; Luke 4.9–12. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.23.1–18, in Loeb 1, pp. 168–75; Jerome, de Viris Illustribus 2, in PL 23, col. 613. 77   Acts 3.2. Identified at this time as Bab al-Silsila, or the Gate of the Chain. 78   The ‘Aqsa Mosque, on the south side of the Dome of the Rock: Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 417–34. 79   The sanctuary known as Masjid Mahd ‘Isa, or Miḥrāb Maryam: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 310–14. 80   Matthew 21.12–13; Mark 11.15–17; Luke 19.45–6. 73

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Near the Temple of the Lord is the Temple of Solomon, in which there are two temples, and no Christian dares enter out of fear of the Saracens and for that reason I shall say nothing more of them. Near the place that leads to the valley of Jehoshaphat is the place where blessed Stephen was tied when he was stoned; at that time, having placed [51] his knees on the ground, he prayed for those stoning him saying, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them, for they do not know what they are doing.’81 Then one goes to the church of St Anne,82 where is shown the crypt in which [l it is maintained that] the Virgin Mary was born and which was formerly the house of Joachim and blessed Anne, his wife, the mother of the glorious Virgin. Near there [l beside the wall of the Temple] is the Sheep-Pool to which the angel of the Lord came down from time to time and disturbed the waters; and whoever entered the pool first after the agitation of the water became cured of whatever infirmity he was suffering from. And it is said that the wood of the Cross of Christ lay for a long time in that pool. In this pool Christ also cured a paralytic [52] of thirty-eight years who was lying on a pallet, saying, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’83 Afterwards one goes to the house of Pilate, where Christ was flogged and mocked by the soldiers, spat upon, struck with blows to the cheeks, crowned with a crown of thorns and finally condemned to death. And there is there a way that leads to the Temple of the Lord, along which the Jews came from the Temple shouting, ‘Crucify him, crucify him.’84 Then one goes to the house of Annas, chief of the priests, who was the fatherin-law of Caiaphas, to whom Jesus was first taken; and there is the house in which the Jews took counsel to take hold of Jesus by deceit and kill Him.85 Near there is a certain church that is called St Mary of the Spasm (S. Maria de Spasmo),86 where she fainted [53] out of sorrow when she saw Her Son carrying the cross. And walled into a high arch87 there are still two large white stones, on which the Lord rested when He was carrying the cross. And there is there the street that leads to St Stephen’s gate, outside which he was stoned.88 Formerly it was called the   Acts 7.54–60.   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 142–56. 83   John 5.2–12. l clearly identifies the Sheep-Pool as Birkat Isrā’īl, rather than with 81 82

the pool lying beside St Anne’s church: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 389–91. 84   Matthew 27.27–30; Mark 15.1–20; Luke 23.1–25; John 19.1–16. The site is marked by the medieval church of the Flagellation (Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 93–7). 85   John 18.12–14. The site contained the chapel of the Repose (Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 132–7). 86   l: Sancta Maria de Panmeison; s: sancta Maria de pasmon/pasmason; t: Marie de Spasmon: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 319–22. 87   The so-called Ecce Homo arch in the present Via Dolorosa. 88   St Stephen’s was the n gate (now Damascus Gate). The text thus reflects two different traditions, since it states earlier that Stephen was stoned outside the e gate facing the valley of Jehoshaphat.

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Fish Gate and through it the Jews leading Jesus found a certain man of Cyrene coming in from the country.89 They compelled him to bear the cross for Jesus, and he carried it as far as Mount Calvary, where they crucified Jesus. Near the church of St Mary of the Spasm was, so they say, the palace of King Herod. Not far from there is shown the house of the traitor Judas, in which he lived with his wife and children. One then goes to the Tower of King David, which is now destroyed90 [l, where Joseph of Arimathea was in prison for forty-four years after the Ascension of the Lord until the coming of the emperors of Rome, Titus and Vespasian]. And there is the gate that is called David’s Gate, a short distance outside which Judas hanged himself from a sycamore tree. Two ballista-shots from there is the Cave of the Lion, where were buried 11,000 martyrs who were killed for the name of Jesus Christ under the wicked Chosroes, king of the Persians.91 Two miles from Jerusalem is the place where was cut the life-giving wood of the Cross of Christ. There is built a very beautiful church [54]. That place is called in Arabic, Umm al-Salīb (Mesalibe), that is, ‘Mother of the Cross’.92 Then, two-and-a-half leagues away is a copious spring, in which blessed Philip baptized the Ethiopian eunuch returning from Jerusalem. Then a league away is the place where was born John the Baptist and Zechariah his father,

blmnv

where blessed John the Baptist was born, in the place where Zechariah and Elizabeth were living,

t

which is three leagues distant from Jerusalem;93 and there also on the mountain the blessed Virgin Mary hastened to greet Elizabeth, her kinswoman, who said, [l ‘Blessed are you among women, etc.’ and also,] ‘Why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? Behold, when the voice [l of your greeting came to my ears, the babe leapt in my womb].’94 Mary then said, ‘My

  Although the Way of the Cross traverses St Stephen’s Street, Calvary is not outside St Stephen’s Gate. The ‘Fish Gate’ (cf. Nehemiah 12.39) is probably here to be identified as the Old Gate, or Justice Gate, recorded by Burchard of Mount Sion in the old city wall inside the medieval city. Its ruins are also noted by James of Verona in 1335 (ed. Röhricht, p. 206; cf. Alliata and Kaswalder, ‘Settima stazione’). 90   The Citadel was dismantled by Malik al-Nāṣir Dā’ūd of Karak in 1239 and was not restored until 710 h/ad 1310–11, in the third reign of the Mamluk sultan al-Nāṣir Muḥammad (Johns, ‘The Citadel’, pp. 167–71). 91   During the Persian sack of Jerusalem in 614. 92   s translates Mesalibe as ‘monastery of the Cross’ (monasterium crucis), which corresponds with the more usual appellation in Arabic, Dayr al-Salīb. l has Messabilie. 93   ‘Ayn Karim. 94   Luke 1.42–4. 89

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soul magnifies the Lord.’95 and there Zechariah blessed God, saying, ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel’ ….96 bl Then after two leagues is the village of Emmaus (castellum Emaus), which is forty stades from Jerusalem [l near Modein (Modin), the city of the Maccabees, and the city of Gibeon (Gabalo)].97 In that village the Lord appeared to two disciples breaking bread and giving the blessing [l and they recognized Him in the breaking of bread].98 7.  The Pilgrimages of Bethlehem and Hebron He who wants to go to Bethlehem must go out through David’s Gate for two ballista-shots and more. From that gate on the right-hand side is Gihon, where King Solomon was anointed king.99 There is the church of St Peter;100 in it many kings and prophets are and were anointed. One league from there is St Samuel,101 where Elijah also lived. The field in which Elijah was taken up is called the Field of Flowers (campus Floridus). l

mnstv Afterwards one must go to Bethlehem,

and halfway along the road there is a church in the place where [55] the Prophet Elijah did penance. mnstv A mile from Bethlehem is the Field of Stone Chickpeas: for when our Lord was passing along the road, He saw a man sowing chickpeas. And when He asked him, ‘What are you sowing?,’ the man replied, ‘I am

  Luke 1.46–55.   Luke 1.68–79. 97   Inserted as it is into the pilgrimage circuit to the Monastery of the Cross and ‘Ayn 95 96

Karim, Emaus should be Abū Ghosh (Qaryat al-‘Inab) and Modin should be Ṣūba, the Crusader Belmont. However, the version of this passage given below in texts mnstv is somewhat different. Such inconsistency possibly reflects the shift of the Emmaus tradition to al-Qubayba, which occurred in the later thirteenth century. 98   Luke 24.13–31. 99   1 Kings 1.38–40. 100   Probably St Procopius on Jabal al-Ṭūr, though that lay to the left of the road: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 353–5. 101   Evidently the church of St Elias (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 224–6), not St Samuel which lay nw of the city.

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sowing stones!’ And the Lord said to him, ‘Then stones may they be!’ And from that time all the chickpeas were turned into stones and to the present day stone chickpeas are found there. l A mile from there is the tomb of Rachel, the wife of Jacob, who finished her life in that place while giving birth to Benjamin. Jacob placed twelve large stones on her grave in memory of his twelve sons.102

mnstv

Also near there is the tomb of Rachel, the wife of Jacob, who died on the road when she gave birth to Benjamin.

l

Then one goes to Bethlehem, which incorporates the house in which was born the True Bread that came down from heaven.

b On the slope of the mountain of Jerusalem, four miles away, is Bethlehem, which means ‘House of Bread’. [55] In it was born the True Bread that came down from heaven.

bl In this holy and venerable city is a very beautiful cathedral church consecrated in honour of the blessed Mary, in which is the crypt [l chapel] in which our Saviour Jesus Christ was born.103

mnstv In Bethlehem is the church of the blessed Virgin Mary, one of the most beautiful in all the world; it is completely worked and decorated with mosaic and roofed in lead. In that [56] church is the crypt, where Christ, the Saviour of the world, was born.

And there is the place where there was the crib, from which the ox and ass were eating and in which the Blessed Virgin laid Him, because there was no place for Him in the inn. Indeed the crib with the hay on which the infant Jesus was laid is said to be in Rome in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. [l In that chapel three kings, Balthazar, Jaspar and Melchior, came from the east to worship the Son of God and offer Him gifts.] In the wall on the left-hand side of the church of St Mary in Bethlehem is the place where the umbilical cord was placed and where the Lord was circumcised. And on the right-hand side is the place where the Holy Innocents were buried, where there is now an altar [l south of the choir. On the right-hand side is the well, where was seen the star that led the three kings on the day of its appearance.] Within the canons’ cloister is the crypt in which blessed Jerome did penance, and where he composed the bible and many other books.   Genesis 35.16–20. On the tomb, see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 176–8.   Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 137–56.

102 103

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bl This holy city, selected by the Lord, was chosen by the Lord to be of service to Him there. [b He coveted the waters from the cisterns of Bethlehem, desiring the wisdom of salvation from the cistern of the blessed Virgin …] Not far from the church of the Blessed Virgin is the church of blessed Paula, noble matron from Rome, where she did penance with her daughter Eustochium, holy virgin.104 Down below in the same church is a large crypt, in which there is a chapel in which, it is said, from time to time Mary used to live with her onlybegotten Son. And it is said that our Lady used to press her milk-laden breasts into the ground, as a result of which the ground became so whitened that it appears like milk. It is also said that if any woman should lack milk for any reason, if she puts a little of that earth in a cyathus105 [s of water] and drinks [b in honour of the blessed Mary], immediately the milk will return. b A mile from Bethlehem is the Field of Stone Chickpeas. For when the Lord was passing along the road, He saw a man sowing chickpeas. And when He asked him, ‘What are you sowing?’, the man replied, ‘Stones.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘Stones may they be!’ And from that time all the chickpeas were turned into stones and to the present day stone chickpeas are found there. Also near there is the tomb of Rachel, the wife of Jacob, who, while she was giving birth to Benjamin in that [58] place, ended her life. From her was descended that woman Naomi, who brought Ruth the Moabite from Petra of the Desert, whom Boaz married,106 from whose progeny came the Lamb, the Master of the earth, to the mountain of the daughters of Sion. Two miles from Bethlehem is the place where the angel appeared to the shepherds on the morning of the birth of Christ, saying, ‘I bring you news of great joy; for today is born in the city of David the Saviour of the world.’107

And they said, ‘Glory to God in the highest.’ And there above Bethlehem is the church where Mary rested, when she gave birth to the Lord.108 Then one takes the road that leads to St Abraham. b

mnstv And it is called the city of David because [t David was born] there.

mnstv At the sixth mile from Bethlehem is the town of Tekoa (Thecua, al-Tuqu‘), in which was born the prophet Amos; and there outside the castle in a cave, in which there is now a church, he lies buried; and

    106   107   108   104 105

Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 156–7. A measure of liquid, equivalent to a twelfth of a sextarius. Matthew 1.5. Luke 2.10–11. The Kathisma, al-Qadismū: Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 157–8.

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his tomb is still visible.109 There also many thousands of bodies of the Innocents were once buried. A mile [59] from Tekoa and the fourth from Bethlehem is the church of the blessed abbot Chariton,110 father of many monasteries, who when the day of his death was drawing near exhorted his monks to remain in the love of God and of their neighbour. [s And his monks, sorrowing over his death, in order to comfort the holy father asked him to request the Lord that when he died all of them might die with him: and so it happened.] About six miles from there is En-gedi (Engadi), once a large village of the Jews in the tribe of Judah near the Dead Sea. There balsam once used to grow. After it are also named the vineyards of En-gedi, which later were carried away to Babylon by Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. At the twelfth mile from Bethlehem is Hebron, a very ancient town of the Philistines [l and dwelling place of giants, a city of priests and fugitives in the tribe of Judah. Hebron is] located in the territory of Damascus in which God fashioned Adam, our father. [60] Formerly it was called Kiriath-arba (Caritharbe), that is to say [l in Arabic111] the ‘city of four’, because there are buried our four reverend fathers in a double cave, i.e. Adam, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their wives, i.e. Eve, Sarah, Rebekah and Leah. [l The head of Adam is buried inside the wall of the church112 against the altar and there it is greatly honoured by the Saracens and there is written in stone, ‘Here is the head of Adam.’113 Outside the church towards the north is a cave where in a tomb lies Joseph, who was sold into Egypt and is greatly honoured by the Saracens.] And not far from there is the cave or crypt in which Adam and Eve repented for a hundred years after the death of their son Abel [l whom Cain, his brother, killed.] [b Then, advised by an angel, he knew his wife and begat his son Seth], from whose tribe Christ was descended. l Then two ballista-shots away is the spring of the blessed Virgin Mary, where she rested and drank the water and washed the clothes of her Son when she was fleeing into Egypt. At the second mile from Hebron is the tomb of Lot,114 Abraham’s nephew. b At the second mile from Hebron is a field whose earth is red and is dug up and dissipated by the locals, being venally carried away throughout Egypt where it is bought for a very high price. By as much as that field is excavated in breadth and in depth, so the next year it is found refilled to the same extent by the working of God.     111   112   113   114   109

110

Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 347–50. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 221–4. i.e. Qaryat ‘Arba. Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 223–39. Hic est caput Ade. In Banī Na‘īm: see Pringle, Churches 1, p. 107.

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Near Hebron is Mount Mamre,115 where there is the oak or holm oak below which Abraham was sitting when he saw three angels coming to him: he saw three and worshipped one. [61] b This oak continued to grow until the time of the emperor Theodosius, according to Jerome.116 From it is said to have been derived this substance, which although dry is nevertheless said to be medicinal, so that if anyone riding carries some of this oak on him, his animal will not be sick. In Hebron the spies, Caleb, Joshua and their ten companions, first set foot in the Promised Land.117

s And it is said that if anyone riding carries some of this oak on him, his animal will not be sick.

l At the second mile from Hebron towards Bethlehem is a certain village where Jonah the prophet lived after he came from the city of Nineveh and there he died and was placed in a tomb. At the second mile from Hebron towards the south is the place where Abraham prayed for Lot, his nephew, when he came from Zoar (Segor), the fifth of the cities; and by his prayers Lot was saved from the inundation. There are many pilgrimages in Hebron and it would take a long time to relate them all. Near there is the place where Cain killed his brother Abel out of envy in a certain field beside the land of Damascus, and the Lord cursed him from the ground. David reigned at first in Hebron for seven years; afterwards he reigned in Jerusalem. At the second mile from Jerusalem on the road that leads to Shechem (Sichem) is Mount Gibeah (mons Gabaa) in the tribe of Benjamin.118 Adjoining the Mount of Olives is the Mount of Offence, and they are separated by the road that leads to the valley of Jehoshaphat and to Bethany. And it is called the Mount of Offence because King Solomon placed on it the idol of Moloch and worshipped it.119 This place [62] is called by some Galilee, where the Lord appeared to the women when He arose from the dead in accordance with the

  Tall al-Rumayda: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 201–4.   Liber locorum, ed. Klostermann, p. 7, lines 18–19, where the reference, however,

115 116

is to Constantine. 117   Numbers 13.1–22. 118   Gibeah or Benjamin (or Saul), identified with Tall al-Fūl (Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 435). 119   1 Kings 11.7.

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word of the gospel, saying, ‘Go and tell the disciples and Peter that I shall go before you into Galilee.’120 Opposite Mount Sion is a mountain where there is now the church of St Cyprian,121 where the star appeared to the Magi when they were coming out of Jerusalem after they had spoken with Herod about the birth of Christ, saying, ‘Where is He who is born king of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east, etc.’122 8.  The Pilgrimages of Bethany and the River Jordan Afterwards one must go to Bethany,123 the village of Mary and Martha, where there is the house of Simon the Leper, in which the Lord ate with His Apostles, where also Mary Magdalene hearing that the Lord was reclining there came and standing behind Him began to bathe His feet with tears and wipe them with her hair.124 There she also deserved to hear those glorious words, ‘Your sins are forgiven you. Go in peace.’ Opposite that place is the cave in which Lazarus was buried; lmnstv

And there He raised him from the dead after he had lain in the tomb for four days. Then the Lord wept when He said to him, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ Afterwards he lived for twenty-eight years and was bishop of Marseilles, where he died.125

l

mnstv and [63] there the Lord raised him from the dead, where there is now a church.

Likewise, two ballista-shots outside the village is the house of Martha, where there is now a church, where the Lord ate with His disciples when Martha said to Him, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister leaves   Cf. Matthew 28.10, 16; Mark 16.7; Luke 24.6. Mount Galilee was alternatively identified with Karn al-Sayyad at the n end of the Mount of Olives: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 124–5. 121   The church was dedicated to St Procopius: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 353–5. 122   Matthew 2.2. 123   The following account of Bethany is virtually the same as the account which text b places earlier in Ch. 5. 124   Matthew 26.6–13; Mark 14.3–9; Luke 7.36–8: John 11.2, 12.3. 125   For the tradition that Lazarus sailed with Mary Magdalene and Martha of Bethany to Provence, where he became bishop of Marseilles and was finally buried below the church of St.-Victor, see Rabanus Maurus, de Vita Beatæ Mariæ Magdalenæ 36–50, in PL 112, cols. 1492–508; Gervase of Tilbury, Otia Imperialia 2.10, 3.90, ed. Banks and Binns, pp. 294–6, 734; Chotzakoglou, Church of Saint Lazarus, pp. 18–23 120

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me alone to serve? Tell her therefore to help me.’126 Two stone’s throws from there is the stone on which the Lord leant when Mary and Martha ran up to Him weeping and saying to Him, ‘Lord, if You had been here our brother would not have died.’ [l He said to Martha, ‘If you would believe, you would see wonderful things.’]127 b From Bethany one goes directly seven leagues to the River Jordan.

Then one goes directly [l fourteen miles] to the River Jordan, lmnstv

The River Jordan is formed below the mountains [b of Gilboa] from two springs, that is to say the Jor and the Dan, which rise at the foot of Mount Lebanon near Cæsarea Philippi, from which [64] it takes its name and its origin. It descends into the Lake of Gennesaret and coming out of it irrigates the adjacent region for almost a hundred miles, extending through the famous valley that is called the Valley of Saltings128 and flowing into the Dead Sea. After that it appears no more but is absorbed into the abyss. The River Jordan furnishes from itself many commodities to the whole region. For it yields watered gardens and land bearing fruit, having sweet waters for drinking, healthy fish to eat and banks suitable for growing reeds and canes, from which the roofs of houses are fashioned and covered. [b The adjacent fields produce a juice of abundant sweetness, which they distill from the sugar-canes [that grow there] in dense numbers.]

bl

bl The pilgrims and also the native people are accustomed to wash their bodies and clothes in the Jordan waters with great devotion, because our Redeemer was baptized in the river by the blessed John and sanctified the river by contact with His purest flesh, conferring regenerative strength to all the waters. Moreover, the whole Trinity has declared that river to be fortunate and most worthy, above which the Father was heard, the Holy Spirit was seen in the form of a dove, and the Son was baptized in human nature.129

mnstv where one is bathed in the very place where the Lord was willing to be baptized, where also the Holy Spirit came down upon Him and the voice of the Father was heard, ‘Here is my Beloved Son.’

126   Luke 10.40. The church was probably a ruined sixth-century Byzantine church at al-Junayna: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 282–3. 127   John 11.21–40. 128   Valley of Siddim: cf. Genesis 14.3 and 10. 129   Matthew 3.13–17; Mark 1.9–11; Luke 3.21–2; John 1.29–34.

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bl Many people of both sexes, men and women, were baptized with the baptism of repentance by the blessed John in the aforesaid waters and, through Christ’s grace and baptism, rendered themselves suitable, fit and ready for submersion in the waters. As a sign of the purification to come, Naaman the Syrian was baptized in this river and cleansed of leprosy, receiving flesh like that of a boy.130 [b Joshua with the multitude of the children of Israel crossed with dry feet, while the upper waters ran upstream and the lower waters ran down into the sea. From it the children of Israel extracted twelve stones according to the number of the tribes, of which blessed John the Baptist said literally, ‘The Lord has power to raise up sons to Abraham from these stones.’131] Elijah and Elisha crossed on dry land after the Jordan’s waters had been struck by Elijah’s cloak and divided into two parts.132 bl Many religious men, on account of the holiness of the river [66] and the convenience of the waters built habitations near the river. Indeed, very many, dead to the world, chose a sepulchre of quietness for themselves in the wilderness of the Jordan – where John fleeing the crowds of men hid away from the time of his childhood in order to be able to devote himself to the Lord more freely – so that they might live for God. In the solitude of this hermitage blessed John used to eat locusts with wild honey.

mnstv [65] Near there is a church built in honour of blessed John the Baptist.133 [66]

And there blessed Zozimus was abbot and father of many monks and completed his life in penitence. Mary the Egyptian found him in the desert and remained there unrecognized by anyone for thirty-eight years.134 bl From the river to Mount Sinai, where the body of blessed Catherine, virgin and martyr, lies, is a journey of fifteen days through     132   133   134   130

2 Kings 5.1–14. Matthew 3.9; Luke 3.8; cf. Joshua 3.7–18. 2 Kings.2.8. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 240–44. Epiphanius mentions a monastery of Zozimas two miles from the monastery of Gerasimus (ch. 11.14, ed. Donner, p. 79, trans. Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims, p. 121; Hirschfeld, ‘List of the Byzantine Monasteries’, pp. 79–80). Zozimas also features in the Life of St Mary the Egyptian, related by Sophronius (AA SS, April 1, pp. 77–90; cf. Robertson, ‘Twelfth-Century Literary Experience’.) 131

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the desert. At the second mile from the Jordan is the River Jabbok (Jacob);135 after having swum across it [l forded it] when he was returning from Mesopotamia, [Jacob] wrestled with an angel.136 At the fourth mile from the Jordan is Jericho, formerly a very large city, which Joshua, the leader of the people of Israel, took when he entered the Promised Land and at whose prayers the city walls fell down. From there also was Rahab the harlot, who received the spies of Israel into her house. [67] For that reason she was made safe along with her house.137 From it was Zacchæus, the chief publican, who wanted to see Jesus when He came to Jericho and was unable to because he was short in stature.138 At the second mile from Jericho to the east is the Asphalt Lake or Asphaltites (asphaltidis), which is called the Dead Sea; and it is called ‘dead’ for this reason, because it neither receives nor sustains anything living. There four very wretched cities, Sodom, Gomorrah, Zeboi‘im and Admah, persevering in their shamefulness, were submerged in that lake by God’s fair justice, consumed by sulphurous fire. b It also has beside it a high mountain of salt. The trees on its shore bear apples with a beautiful skin on the outside, but inside is found nothing but ash and stinking embers. Above the Dead Sea is Zoar (Segor), which is called Bela (Belcozara),139 the fifth of those cities which was preserved from the flood through the prayers of Lot. Now indeed it is called the ‘Town of the Palm’ (oppidum palme) by our compatriots. Above that Asphalt Sea or Dead Sea on the slope of Arabia is the cave of Karnaim on the mountain of the Moabites, at which [68] Balaam was led to curse Israel when the ass on which he was sitting spoke to him.140 That Asphalt Lake or Dead Sea separates Judæa and Arabia. mnstv In the time of the children of Israel, Arabia was a solitary place, i.e. a desert, where the Lord kept them for forty years raining manna on them to eat from heaven. In Arabia is the valley of Moses (Wādī Mūsa), in which Moses struck the rock twice and it yielded two rivers of water to the people of God, by which that whole province is watered today. In Arabia is Mount Sinai on which the law was given to Moses on stone tablets, inscribed by the finger of God. On its summit the body of the blessed virgin Catherine was placed by angelic hands, having been brought from Alexandria, where she acquired the palm of martyrdom. In Arabia is Mount Hor, where Aaron lies buried.     137   138   139   140   135 136

Wādi Zarqā. Genesis 33.22–4. Joshua 6. Luke 19.1–4. Genesis 14.8. Numbers 22.21–35.

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[69] There also is Mount Abarim, on which the Lord buried Moses, without his tomb ever having been seen. There is also Karak, which was formerly called Petra of the Desert and Montreal (Mons regalis), a very strong castle, sited on a high mountain beyond the Jordan near the city of Rabbath of the sons of Ammon.141 Baldwin, the first king of the Latins in Jerusalem, made it subject to the Christians and fortified it for the defence of the kingdom of David.142 At the second mile from Jericho is Mount Quarantine (Jabal al-Qurunṭul), a very high mountain on which Christ fasted for forty days and nights and afterwards suffered hunger. There also the Devil first tempted Him concerning gluttony, saying to Him, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’143 On another mountain not far from there (the Devil tempted Him) a second time concerning avarice, when he showed Him all mnstv the kingdoms of the world, saying, ‘All these things will I give you if you fall down and worship me.’144 Thirdly (the Devil tempted Him) concerning vain glory [70], when he put Him above the pinnacle of the Temple and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.’145 l Pilgrims and all religious, led principally by the example of the Lord, choosing that desert to be the most desirable for leading an eremitical life, soldier on in little cells with much devotion. Below Quarantine is that rivulet that the Prophet Elisha rendered sweet and drinkable from having been bitter.146 l Likewise below Quarantine is the garden of Abraham. In that garden grew the palm that the angel brought to Mount Sion at the passing of the Virgin Mary.147 lmnstv At the second mile from Jericho is Gilgal (Galgala), in which was born Elisha the prophet, the disciple of Elijah.148 [l At the fourteenth mile from Quarantine one returns to Jerusalem.]   The metropolitan see of Petra (Wādī Mūsa) was transferred to al-Karak (Crac) in 1167, having formerly been located in Areopolis, biblical Rabbath-moab (now al-Rabba), not Rabbath-ammon (modern ‘Ammān). It was also called Karak of Montreal (Crac de Montreal), because the caput of the lordship of Montreal was moved there from al-Shawbak (Montreal) in 1143. 142   Baldwin I fortified not al-Karak, but al-Shawbak (Montreal), in 1115. 143   Matthew 4.3; cf. Luke 4.3. 144   Matthew 4.9; cf. Luke 4.5–7. 145   Matthew 4.6; Luke 4.9. 146   2 Kings 19–22. 147   A reference to the early traditions concerning the Dormition of the Virgin Mary: see Shoemaker, Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition, pp. 351–3. 148   Elijah found Elisha ploughing on his way from Horeb to Damascus, but we are not told where (1 Kings 19.15–21). Gilgal is mentioned, however, when Elijah and Elisha are about to cross the Jordan (2 Kings 2.1) 141

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bl For whatsoever places on which the Lord’s feet have trod are held by the faithful to be holy, consecrated and beyond value. Thus, not undeservedly that Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey and exceeding the fragrance of all spices, has encouraged, attracted and drawn to itself not only religious clerks but also lay people, both knights and those of other rank, so that they might live in it legally, having left behind their relatives and their own inherited estates. Of these, some are called Hospitallers or brothers of St John, others brothers of the knighthood of the Temple, and others brothers of St Mary of the Germans. mnstv A day-and-a-half’s journey from Jerusalem is Gaza, beside the sea, one of the five cities of the Philistines, whose gates Samson [71] carried away to the top of a hill.149 Then Beer-sheba (Bersabee) in the tribe of Simeon, sited between the mountain region and the city of Ascalon, ten miles distant from Ascalon, which today is commonly called Gibelin (Bayt Jibrīn).150 A day-and-a-half’s journey from Gaza is Damietta, a city of Egypt and land of merchants, where blessed Jeremiah the prophet died struck down by stones. Some people say that it happened in Tamna (Tampna), which is near Damietta.151 In Babylonia the body of blessed Barbara, virgin and martyr, is displayed openly.152 In Alexandria blessed Mark the Evangelist and the blessed virgin Catherine underwent martyrdom.153 In Egypt is a city called Hermopolis, to which Joseph, warned by an angel, fled with Mary and the Child Jesus; in it Jesus lived and performed many miracles until the death of Herod. There also is [72] the palm tree that bowed down to the Virgin Mary who wanted to eat of its fruit and on Jesus’ command made itself erect once again.154 The town of Darum (Dayr al-Balaḥ) is sited on the border of Idumæa and Palestine, five miles distant from Gaza and ten from Ascalon. Ascalon is one of the five cities of the Philistines, not far from the sea. Gath (Geth)

  Judges 16.3.   Bayt Jibrīn was mistakenly confused with Beer-sheba in this period. 151   The Bible does not say how Jeremiah died. This tradition may perhaps be related 149 150

to the passage in Jeremiah 43.8–13, where God told Jeremiah to hide large stones in the pavement at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes (Daphnae, Tall Dafanna). 152   In the church of St Barbara in Old Cairo (Babylon): see Wolff, How Many Miles?, p. 141. 153   Wolff, How Many Miles?, pp. 76–9. 154   This story appears in the eighth-century gospel of Pseudo-Matthew (Elliott, Apocryphal Jesus, pp. 24–5) and in the ‘Palm’ traditions surrounding the Dormition of the Virgin Mary (Shoemaker, Ancient Traditions, pp. 292–5); it is also found in the pilgrim guide included in the Rothelin version of William of Tyre’s Old French continuation (ch. 11, RHC Occ 2, pp. 514–15, ed. Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, p. 175, trans. J. Shirley, pp. 28–9) and in Matthew Paris [9.12].

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was one of the cities of the Philistines located not far from Lydda and Ramla (Ramula) and out of its ruins the castle of Gibelin (Ibelin, Yibnā) was constructed on the same hill.155 For this castle of Gibelin (Bayt Jibrīn), which in antiquity was called Beer-sheba (Bersabee), and the castle of Blanchegarde (Blancegarde, Tall al-Safi‘) were built to repulse the attacks of the Ascalonites.156 Blanchegarde is three miles distant from Ascalon. From Ascalon was King Herod who was king at the time when Christ was born and ordered the Holy Innocents to be slain in Bethlehem and in its territory.157 Ekron (Acharon), the fifth city of the Philistines, is sited near the sea not far from Azotus (Ashdod, ‘Isdūd); and there is the place where there is now a church,158 where the angel of the Lord came to Habakkuk, who was taking food to the reapers, and seizing him by the hair carried him to Daniel, who was in the lions’ den in Babylon. Joppe is located not far from Ekron [74] on the sea shore; there blessed Peter resuscitated the widow Tabitha.159 bl At the fourth mile from Jerusalem is Mount Joy (mons Joie), where St Samuel is buried. At the sixth mile from Mount Joy is Bayt Nūbā (Betenuble). At the sixth mile from Bayt Nūbā is the city of Lydda (civitas liddensis), which is called in French Rames (Ramla),[l At

mnstv On the road that leads from Jerusalem, at the sixth mile from the city, is Mount Modein (Modin), from which came Mattathias, the father of the Maccabees; on it lie buried the Maccabees, and their tombs are still apparent.160 At the eighth mile from

  The castle of Ibelin (Yibnā) was built on a site mistakenly identified as Gath in 1141 (William of Tyre 15.24, ed. Huygens, pp. 706–7, trans. Babcock and Krey 2, pp. 130–31). 156   Philip here confuses Ibelin (Yibnā) and Bayt Jibrīn, both of which were sometimes referred to as Gibelin. Bayt Jibrīn was built in 1137 (William of Tyre 14.22, ed. Huygens, pp. 659–61, trans. Babcock and Krey 2, pp. 80–82) and Blanchegarde in 1142 (William of Tyre 15.25, ed. Huygens, pp. 707–9, trans. Babcock and Krey 2, pp. 131–2). 157   According to Julius Africanus (Epistola ad Aristidem 4, in PG 10, col. 59; cf. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 1.6.2–3, 1.7.11–12, in Loeb 1, pp. 51, 61–2) and Epiphanius (Adversus LXXX Haereses 1.1.20, in PG 41, cols. 269–72), Antipater, the father of Herod the Great, was the son of Herod of Ascalon 158   This church was not at ‘Isdūd, but at Kafr Jinnis, n of Lydda and close to Joppe: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 283–5. Text l locates it correctly (see below). 159   Acts 9.36–42. 160   Cf. Jerome, Liber locorum, ed. Klostermann, p. 133, lines 17–29. Jerome was probably referring to al-Midiyya, near Lydda-Diospolis. In the twelfth century, however, Fretellus and other texts on which Philip of Savona later drew had placed the hill of Modein closer to Jerusalem near Qaryat al-‘Inab (Abū Ghosh), while Theoderic (ch. 38, ed. Huygens, p. 184) identified it specifically with the site of the Hospitaller castle of Belmont (Ṣūba). Already by the mid-thirteenth century, however, an alternative, though equally incorrect, site was being pointed out: that of the former Templar castle of Laṭrūn, near ‘Amwas (see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 5–7). 155

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the second mile from there is the place] where St George was martyred.161

Modein on the road that leads to Joppe (Jaffa) is Lydda, which is also called Diospolis, in which the body of the martyr George is said to have been buried. In Lydda, which is now commonly called St George, blessed Peter cured a certain person called Æneas.

At the eighth mile from Ramla is Joppe (Jaffa) [l which is said to be a castle on the sea shore]. There is there a stone [75] that is called the stone (le perron) of St James.

Then one goes to Joppe (Jaffa),

l Outside its walls is a chapel that is of the prophet Habakkuk, where the angel of the Lord grasped him by the crown of his head and carried him by the hair of his head to the prophet Daniel in Babylon, who was in the lions’ den and gave him something to eat; then the Lord restored Habakkuk to his own place.162

and then to Arsūf (Assur),

At the twenty-fourth mile from Joppe is Cæsarea of Palestine. This Cæsarea, however, had the name Strato’s Tower before Herod, who killed the children, enlarged it in honour of Cæsar [Augustus]. It is sited on the sea shore, though it does not have a convenient harbour; however, it has an abundant richness of orchards, pastures and flowing waters. Indeed it is the metropolis of Palæstina Secunda. [l From it came Cornelius, the centurion whom Peter the Apostle baptized and consecrated bishop.163 And from that Cæsarea was blessed Philip, one of the seven deacons ordained by the

and afterwards to [75] Cæsarea, which is the metropolis of Palestine. From it came the centurion Cornelius, whom blessed Peter baptized and consecrated as bishop. Formerly it was called Strato’s Tower. From that Cæsarea was blessed Philip, one of the seven disciples chosen by the Apostles, who is attested and shown to have had four daughter prophetesses; and his body is shown to have been buried there with his daughters.

bl

161   Lydda was called St.-Georges in French, Ramla being another settlement some miles away. 162   See Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 283–5. 163   Acts 10.1–48.

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Apostles, who is shown to have had four daughter prophetesses, and his body is shown to have been buried there with his daughters.164] In this city moreover is the prison where blessed Paul the Apostle was detained for a long time by the people so that he might proceed to Rome and where he pursued his apostolate.165 Outside the city [l among the gardens] is [l a stone that is called] the Table of the Lord [l where He ate with His disciples. Beside that is the seat upon which St Peter celebrated mass and there are three thick stones that were his candlesticks.166] Arsūf (Assur), which in antiquity was called Antipatris,170 is located on the sea between Joppe and Cæsarea. b At the second mile from Cæsarea is the place that is called […] where she rested.167 Then at three leagues is the cave of Blessed Mary. A mile from [76] there is le Merle, where blessed Andrew was born.168

l At the second mile from Cæsarea is Our Lady the Great. There is a certain chapel there where she used to live. The people go there freely on pilgrimage.

b A mile [from there] is Pilgrims’ Castle.169 Outside the castle is a stone where the Virgin Mary rested and inside the castle is the body of blessed Euphemia, virgin and Martyr.

mnstv

[76] At the seventh mile from Cæsarea is Pilgrims’ Castle, which in antiquity was called the Cut Rock (Petra incisa/excisa). It is sited on the sea shore and is a very fine castle

  Acts 8.40, 21.8–9.   Acts 23.31–27.1. 166   These traditions seem to have been associated with the metae and spina of the 164 165

Roman circus, outside the city walls. 167   St Mary of the Marshes: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 257–8. 168   According to John 1.44, Andrew was from Bethsaida on the sea of Galilee. Le Merle, meaning ‘the blackbird’, is identified as Ṭanṭūra, ancient Dor. 169   ‘Atlit, built from 1217 onwards to replace the earlier castle of le Detroit (Khirbat Dustray): see Johns, Pilgrims’ Castle; Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 69–80; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 22–3, 47–8. 170   Recte Apollonia. Antipatris was Ra’s al-‘Ayn.

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of the Temple, in which the body of blessed Euphemia, virgin and martyr, is held in great veneration, having been miraculously translated there from Chalcedon, a city of Greece.175 At the second mile from the castle is the church of St John of Tīra.171 Next, at the second mile, is the church of St Mary of Carmel, a beautiful and delightful place situated among the mountains, where the Latin brothers live doing penance.172 Then … [77] at the […] mile is the church of the blessed virgin Margaret.173 On Mount Carmel, on the part that overlooks the city of Porphyria, which today is called Ḥayfā (Cayphas), pilgrims following the example of the holy and solitary man, Elijah the prophet, and in imitation of him [live a solitary life] beside the spring that is called Elijah’s Spring, where, not far from that monastery, he used to lead a solitary life. At the foot of the mountain is the cave of Elijah.174 Then after three leagues one comes straight to Acre (Accon), on the sea shore … The Land of Jerusalem is placed at the centre of the world.

Then is the village that is called Capernaum (Capharnaum).176 Then there is another village that is called [Bayt] Hanna.

[77] Afterwards is Ḥayfā (Cayphas) or Porphyria. Then Acre (Accon), which was formerly called Ptolemaïs, eight miles distant from Ḥayfā. Ḥayfā is sited on the shore below Mount Carmel. A long time ago blessed Elijah the prophet lived on Mount Carmel, and his disciples with him, and after him the prophet Elisha.

mnstv At

the third mile from Mount Carmel is Mount Cain,177 at the foot of which, beside the spring, Lamech, the father [78] of Noah, killed     173   174   175  

Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 369–72. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 249–57. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 244–8. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 226–9. Chalcedon lay in Bithynia, on the e side of the Bosphorus. The relics may have been transferred to Palestine after the fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade in 1204 (cf. Johns, Guide to ‘Atlit, p. 55); in 1291, they were taken to Nicosia and eventually passed to the Hospitallers (Barber, New Knighthood, pp. 199–200). 176   Probably Khirbat al-Kanīsa. 177   mons Caym, Qaymūn. 171 172

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Cain with his arrow and his guide with his bow, wherefore he said, ‘I have killed the innocent man, etc.’178 At the third mile from Jerusalem is the village of Anathoth (‘Anāta), where blessed Jeremiah the prophet was born.179 At the sixth mile from Jerusalem is Ramah (Rama, al-Rām), a city of the tribe of Benjamin. At the ninth mile from Jerusalem near Modein (Modin, Midiyya) is Eleutheropolis (recte Nicopolis) or Emmaus (‘Amwas), where two of His disciples recognized Him in the breaking of bread. Likewise Gibeon (Gabaon, al-Jīb), a city in the tribe of Benjamin, is sited near Emmaus and Modein. 9.  The Pilgrimages of Tiberias and Places near by180 [165] At the fourteenth mile from Nazareth is the city of Tiberias, which in antiquity was called Chinnereth (Cinareth), but which the tetrarch Herod called Tiberias in honour of Tiberias Cæsar.181 Jesus in His youth [166] used to frequent it. This city is sited on the sea of Galilee, or Lake of Gennesaret (Genezareth). There are baths there, which continuously issue scalding hot water. On that sea the Lord walked with dry feet and said to Peter, who wanted to go to Him but was afraid of sinking, ‘O man of little faith, why did you doubt?’182 There also on another occasion when the disciples were in danger He calmed the sea. At the left-hand end of the lake in an inlet of the mountain is Gennesaret, a place that generates a breeze (generans auram), which is still felt by the inhabitants of that place. This region is Galilee of the tribes, in the tribe, however, of Zebulun and Naphtali. In the upper part of this Galilee were the twenty cities that King Solomon gave to his friend Hiram, king of Tyre.183 At the second mile from Chinnereth is the town of Magdala, from which came blessed Mary Magdalene.   This passage alludes to a legend, based on Genesis 4.17–24 and recorded in the Talmud and Midrash, in which Lamech, when blind, accidentally killed his great-greatgrandfather, Cain, with an arrow and then his own son, Tubal-cain, who was guiding him, by clasping his hands together in sorrow. Philip has confused him, however, with another Lamech, descended from Seth, who, according to Genesis 5.28–31, fathered Noah when he was 182 years old and lived to the age of 775. 179   Jeremiah 1.1. 180   Sections 9 and 10 do not appear in b and l, which nevertheless contain much of the same material elsewhere. 181   Tiberias was founded by Herod Antipas in ad 17–22. Chinnereth was at Tall al‘Urayma on the nw side of the lake: see Abel, Géographie 1, pp. 494–5 and 2, pp. 299, 483–4; Aharoni, Land of the Bible, p. 433. 182   Matthew 14.31. 183   1 Kings 9.11–13. 178

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In Tiberias there happened an excellent miracle, which is not to be overlooked. Namely, that when the boy Jesus was living with a certain Jew, the Jew became angry with Him, seized a burning firebrand and threw it after Him [167] hoping to hit Him; but the firebrand in an extraordinary way became stuck [in the ground] and grew into an enormous tree, which up to the present day produces blossom and fruit. This tree is commonly called in the Syrian language Zaror.184 At the fourth mile from Tiberias to the south is Dothan, where Joseph’s brothers sold him to the Ishmaelites. Also at the fourth mile from Tiberias is the city of Bethulia, from which came Judith, who killed Holofernes. The sea of Galilee ends between Bethsaida and Capernaum. In Bethsaida were born Peter and Andrew, James Alphæus and Philip.185 At the fourth mile from Bethsaida is Chorazin (Corozaim),186 in which the Antichrist, the seducer of the world, will be born. Of these two cities the Lord said, ‘Woe to you Bethsaida! Woe to you Chorazin!’187 At the fourth mile from Chorazin is Kedar (Cedar), of which it is said in the Psalm, ‘I have lived with the inhabitants of Kedar, etc.’188 The city of Capernaum, the city of the centurion, is sited at the right-hand end of the sea; in this city Jesus performed many miracles. At the second mile from Capernaum is the way down from the mountain on which the Lord gave His sermon to the crowds and on which instructed the Apostles, [168] teaching them; and there He cured the leper.189 A mile from that descent is the place where the Lord fed 5,000 people from five loaves and two fish, whence the place is called ‘The Table’, i.e. the place of refreshment. Below it is the place where Christ appeared to the disciples after His resurrection, eating with them a portion of grilled fish and a honey comb.190 The Jordan separates Galilee from Idumæa and the land of Bostra (Bosron, Būsra‘), which is the second metropolis of Idumæa. At the seventh mile from Mount Tabor is the city of Jezreel (Iezrahel), which is also called Zir‘īn (Zaraim), in which lived the wicked Queen Jezebel who took away Naboth’s vineyard.191 Near Jezreel is the plain of Megiddo (campus Macedon) in which King Ahaziah died, conquered by the king of Samaria.192 One   s: Caror. The meaning is uncertain, though in Arabic sharār means ‘sparks’ and sharrār ‘sparkling’. 185   Cf. John 43–4. 186   Kursi (ancient Chorsia, Gergesa), the correct location being Khirbat Karraza (TIR, pp. 103–4). 187   Cf. Matthew 11.20–24; Luke 10.13. 188   Cf. Psalms 120.5. Kedar was not a place but a tribe. Probably a confusion either, like Burchard, with Gamala/Jamla or with Gadara. 189   Matthew 8.1–4. 190   Al-Ṭābgha, on the n side of the lake: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 334–9. 191   1 Kings 21. 192   Ahaziah, king of Judah, was pursued and killed in a coup d’état by Yehu, newly consecrated king of Israel, while visiting the wounded and about to be deposed and killed king of Israel, Joram, in Jezreel (2 Kings 8.25–9, 9.1–28; 2 Chronicles 22.1–9). 184

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mile from Jezreel are the mountains of Gilboa, where Saul and his son Jonathan died. At the second mile from Gilboa is Scythopolis (Citopolis, Cytopolis), the metropolitan city of Galilee193 [169], which is also called Beth-shean (Bethsan, Baysān), above whose walls were hung the bodies of Saul and Jonathan.194 Below the mountains of Gilboa the Jordan is formed. From that place as far as the Dead Sea is called the famous valley (vallis illustris) and through it glides the Jordan, whose water enters the Dead Sea but without being mixed with it. For it is said that in that sea wood sinks and iron floats. At the foot of Mount Lebanon is located the city of Bāniyās (Paneas), which is also called Cæsarea Philippi, where the Lord promised the keys of the kingdom of heaven to St Peter.195 Near there, at the foot of Mount Lebanon, are found two springs, that is to say Jor and Dan, which enter the sea of Galilee below the mountains of Gilboa and form the Jordan, as has been explained above. Beyond the sea of Galilee opposite Tiberias is the city of Gergesa, where Jesus cured a man possessed by a legion of demons by commanding them to enter into some pigs who were drowned in the same lake.196 10.  The Pilgrimages of Damascus and its Territory Arabia and Idumæa meet in the territory of Bostra (Bozdron, Būsra‘). Idumæa is the land of Damascus. Idumæa, however, is below Syria. The capital [170] of Syria, Damascus, is an awe-inspiring metropolis. Damascus was built by Eliezer, a slave of Abraham.197 Some say that it was built by someone called Damascus on the field in which Cain killed his brother Abel. Esau, who was called both Seir and Edom, lived in Damascus. Seir means ‘hairy’ and Edom ‘red’, whence from Edom all that land is called Idumæa. Moreover, part of that land is Uz, from which blessed Job came; it is called Sawād (Sueda, Sueta) from which it was called Bilād al-Suwayt (Baladach Suithes, Baldat suites).198   Ahaziah, king of Judah, was pursued and killed in a coup d’état by Yehu, newly consecrated king of Israel, while visiting the wounded and about to be deposed and killed king of Israel, Joram, in Jezreel (2 Kings 8.25–9, 9.1–28; 2 Chronicles 22.1–9). 193   The see was transferred to Mount Tabor in 1103 and then, by 1129, to Nazareth (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 64–5, 118–19). 194   1 Samuel 31.10; 2 Samuel 21.12. 195   Matthew 16.13–20. 196   Matthew’s gospel places this miracle in the land of the Gadarenes (8.28), but different versions of Mark 5.1 and Luke 8.27 have Gadarenes, Gergesenes or Gerasenes. Origen, followed by others, placed it at Gergesa, modern Kursi (see TIR, p. 104). 197   Genesis 15.1–3. 198   ‘The Black Country’ (see Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, pp. 532–3). Also called Suwayt, this was the Terre de Suethe of the Frankish sources, situated e of the sea of Galilee (Dussaud, Topographie, pp. 381–2; Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Syrie, pp. 66–7, 120, 124). 192

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Within the borders of Idumæa at the second mile from the Jordan is the River Jabbok (Iaboch); after he had crossed it when he was returning from Mesopotamia, Jacob wrestled with the angel. In Idumæa is Mount Seir, below which is Damascus. At the fourth mile from Damascus is the place in which Christ appeared to Saul [171] saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ etc. In Damascus Ananias baptized Saul.199 At the tenth mile from Damascus is the city of Sardenay (Sardana, Saydnaya) in which there is the most venerable icon of the glorious Virgin Mary, which was brought from Jerusalem.200 The whole of that blessed image was turned into flesh, such that holy oil does not cease to emanate from it both day and night. All the pilgrims coming there carry away some of that oil in small glass ampullæ. In that city no Saracen can live, since within a year he will die. Similarly, whatever Saracen is anointed with the liquid of the same oil dies instantly. At the foot of Lebanon to the east rise the Abana (Abbana) and [172] Pharpar (Pharphar), the rivers of Damascus.201 The Abana flows between the mountains of Lebanon and the plain of ‘Arqa (planiciem Archados),202 joining the Great Sea in that territory in which blessed Eustachius withdrew, bereft of his wife and abandoned by his sons.203 The Pharpar extends through Syria to Antioch, flowing next to its walls.204 At the tenth mile from Antioch in the port of al-Suwaydiyya (Soldinus),205 that is to say Port St Simeon, it commits itself to the Mediterranean Sea.   Acts 9.4–19.   See Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 219–21. 201   2 Kings 5.12. These are the Nahr Baradā and Nahr al-A‘waj respectively (Abel, 199 200

Géographie 1, p. 487 n.1). 202   The Baradā flows se from the Anti-Lebanon mountains through Damascus into the desert, where it ends in marshes. Here, however, Philip is describing another river in the northern part of Mount Lebanon: perhaps the Nahr al-Bārid (Cold River), which reaches the sea between Tripoli and ‘Arqa, or possibly the Nahr al-Kabīr, ancient Eleutheros, which drains the Buqay‘a plain itself (cf. Dussaud, Topographie, pp. 90–95, 288). 203   The legend of St Eustachius is told c.1260 in the Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine (ed. Maggione 2, pp. 1090–98). Originally a Roman general named Placidus, he converted to Christianity after seeing a vision of Christ between the antlers of a stag while hunting in Tivoli near Rome and was martyred under Hadrian by being roasted inside a bronze bull along with his wife and two sons. The legend also involves a sea voyage, during which his wife abandons him for the captain, and other trials and vicissitudes in the nature of those suffered by Job. His bones were translated from Rome to St.-Denis, near Paris, in the twelfth century. 204   The Biblical Pharpar (Nahr al-A‘waj) flows e from Mount Hermon past Damascus into the desert. From the time of the First Crusade onwards, however, the name Farfar or Pharphar was also erroneously applied by western sources to the Orontes, or Nahr al-‘Aṣi (William of Tyre 4.8, ed. Huygens, p. 243; Dussaud, Topographie, p. 171). 205   Medieval western sources applied the name Soldinus or Solinus both to the remains of the town of al-Suwaydiyya, ancient Seleucia, and also to the River Orontes itself where it met the sea (see Dussaud, Topographie, p. 431).

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In Antioch blessed Peter resided for seven years adorned with the pontifical fillet.206 In Antioch the precious virgin Margaret suffered death under the prefect Olybrius.207 Lebanon divides Idumæa and Phœnicia. Phœnicia is the province in which is Ṣūr, that is Tyre, the most noble metropolis, which did not wish to receive Christ when He was walking through that coastal area. According to the witness of holy scripture, Tyre rendered up so many martyrs to God that He alone can tell the number. Tyre covers the entombed Origen.208 Before Tyre is that piece of marble of immoderate size on which Jesus [173] was standing to preach when a woman from the crowd raised her voice saying, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore You, etc.’209 At the eighth mile from Tyre on the sea to the north is Ṣarafand (Sarphen), which is called Sarepta of the Sidonians, in which the Prophet Elijah lived and where he resuscitated the widow’s son,210 whom they say was the Prophet Jonah. At the sixth mile from Ṣarafand is the illustrious city of Sidon, outside whose walls the Lord cured the daughter of a woman troubled by a demon, when the girl’s mother said to Jesus, ‘Lord, yet even the dogs eat [the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table].’211 From that city was Queen Dido, who founded Carthage in Africa. At the sixteenth mile from Sidon is the very opulent city of Beirut, where an icon of our Lord was facetiously crucified [s by the Jews] not long after His Passion, to His dishonour, and produced blood and water; whereupon, on seeing the miracle, the crucifiers with many others believed in the true Crucified One. Whosoever was anointed with a small drop from the icon was restored to health from whatever infirmity. It appears that this icon was afterwards taken to Rome.212 At the foot of Mount Lebanon, at the second mile from Tyre, is the well of living waters. The spring of the orchards, however, is at the sixth mile from the city of Tripoli at the western foot of Lebanon. Tripoli in fact is the finest city of Syria, sited on the sea and overflowing with many delights. At the twenty-fourth mile from Tripoli is the city of Antaradus (Anteradus), which is commonly called Tortosa (Ṭarṭūs). In this city is a small chapel located in the middle of the major church of Antaradus. It is said to have been built by the Apostles Peter and John in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary and is held in great

  Liber Pontificalis, trans. Davis, p. 1; Galatians 2.11.

206 207

 St Margaret the Virgin or St Marina is associated with Antioch in Pisidia. The story of her martyrdom is told in Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda Aurea, ed. Maggione 2, pp. 616–20. 208   Burchard saw his tomb there in the church of the Holy Sepulchre [13.2]. 209   Luke 11.27. 210   I Kings 17.8–24. 211   Matthew 15.27; cf. Mark 7.28. 212   It is now in the chapel of St Laurence in the Lateran Palace: see Pringle, Churches 1, p. 117.

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veneration to the present day.213 Many blessings are manifested there through the intercession of the same glorious Virgin Mary. And of the pilgrimages of Jerusalem and all the Holy Land that I saw and moreover was able to know these sayings will suffice. I, Philip, have briefly committed them to writing in honour of the omnipotent God and for use of pilgrims. [t Thus ends the Places and Pilgrimages of Jerusalem and All the Holy Land, which I, Philip of the city of God, saw; and in so far as I have been able to explore these places through the virtue of favours and in so far as I have been able very briefly with God’s help, I have committed them to writing.]

213   On the church, see Enlart, Monuments des croisés 2, pp. 395–426; Deschamps, Terre Sainte romane, pp. 231–6; Müller-Wiener, Castles, pp. 50–51, pls. 34–5.

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Riccoldo of Monte Croce op: Pilgrimage (1288–89) Here begins the book of the pilgrimage of Friar R[iccoldo] of the Order of Preachers. In this book are briefly included the kingdoms, peoples, provinces, laws, rites, sects and heresies and the monsters that I have found in eastern parts so the brothers who wish to take up the task for Christ of extending the faith may know what they require and where and how they can best proceed. 1.  The Reason for the Undertaking I, the least in the order of Preaching Friars, used to reflect frequently on the limitlessness and reaching out of divine love to the human race, and that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, and that He Himself, the Son of the Most High, carefully recalled His pilgrimage to memory for us so that we should not be unthankful, saying, ‘I came from the Father and have come into the world’,1 and also that, despite being newly born, poor and small, He did not spare Himself or His mother a long and laborious journey, but with His poor mother and with an old man carrying Him travelled to Egypt to escape His enemies – I, to whom there was no reason for fear, decided that it would be very shameful to me, having received such benefits of which He alone knew, especially because He called me and separated me from the world and took me up into the Order of Preaching Friars to be His witness and preacher, and so ‘I thought of my ways and turned my feet to your testimonies’2 – I thought, I repeat, that it would not be wise for me to sit idly around and not experience something of the hardship of poverty and lengthy [38] pilgrimage, especially when I turned over in my mind what long and laborious pilgrimages I had undertaken while still living in the world, in order to learn those worldly sciences that people call liberal.

  John 16.28.   Cf. Psalms 119.59.

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2.  The Pilgrimage Having received the pope’s permission through the mediation of the master of the order,3 I began my pilgrimage and crossed over the sea, so that I might see in person those places that Christ bodily visited, especially the place where He deigned to die for the salvation of humankind, so that the memory of His Passion might be impressed on my mind more firmly and that the blood of Christ that was shed for our salvation might give me strength and steadfastness to preach and die for Him, who gave me life by His death. Galilee So I came to Acre and from there in one day’s journey we went with many Christians into Galilee. We came first of all, at a distance of twenty miles, to Cana of Galilee, where Christ performed the first miracle by changing water and making it into wine. Cana of Galilee is four or five miles from Nazareth. There outside the village we found the well from which the servants drew the water to fill the jars. There we found the place of the marriage feast and the places and shapes of the jars. There we sang and preached the gospel of the marriage feast.4 There I asked Christ, just as He had changed the water into wine, so to convert the water of my insipidity and lack of devotion into the wine of repentance and spiritual flavour. From there we came by a straight course of fifteen miles to the village [40] of Gennesaret (Genesaret),5 which is on the sea of Galilee. There on the way down the mountain overlooking the sea we sang the gospel of those two demoniacs whom Christ cured there of a legion of demons, which Christ allowed to enter into some pigs.6 There I asked the Lord to spare me from the molestations of demons. From there we went down five miles to Bethsaida (Bessayda), the city of Andrew and Peter, which is beside the sea.7 There we came near the sea and sang the gospel, ‘As He was walking beside the sea of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers’, etc.8 There I asked Christ to call me to His holy discipleship and to make me a fisher of men. From there we climbed three miles up to the mountain that is above the sea of Galilee, where the Lord sat and preached to his disciples, and we sang the gospel, ‘Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on to a mountain’, etc.9 There I asked the Lord     5   6   7   3

The pope was Nicolas IV and the master general Munio de Zamora. John 2.1–11. Khirbat ‘Urayma, on the nw side of the lake (TIR, p. 132). Matthew 8.28–34. However, this event took place on the e side of the lake. Bethsaida is identified with the sites of al-Tall and al-‘Araj, e of the Jordan and some distance n of the lake (TIR, p. 85); this was evidently not the site seen by Riccoldo. 8   Matthew 4.18. 9   Matthew 5.1. 4

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to remove completely from me all earthly desires and to turn my mind to heavenly things. From there we went up a mile to the mountain near there where the Lord made a meal from five loaves of barley bread; and we sang the gospel10 and preached, and afterwards, sitting in rows on the grass and hay, we all broke bread and ate with joy and tears. Near there is the old cistern into which they threw Joseph;11 also near by, ten miles away, is the castle of Ṣafad (Safet), the key to the whole of Galilee.12 We went down two miles from there to Capernaum (Cafarnaum)13 and came to the place where He cured the leper14 and afterwards to the place where Matthew was sitting at the custom-house receiving taxes, and there we sang and preached the gospel of the calling of Matthew.15 From there, returning around the sea of Galilee, we came after two miles to the place of the Table (locus tabule),16 which is between Capernaum and Bethsaida in the place where [42] the Lord appeared to the disciples after the Resurrection, standing on the shore, and called them in from the sea and invited them to eat. We sang and preached the gospel,17 and we all ate where He ate bread and fish with them. Returning from there around the sea of Galilee towards Bethsaida (Betsayda) and Ginnesar (Genesar),18 we came after six miles to Magdala (Magdalum),19 the village (castrum) of Mary Magdalene beside Lake Ginnosar; and weeping and crying because we found the beautiful church not destroyed but made into a stable,20 we sang and preached the gospel of the Magdalene.21 Coming back from there beside the sea of Tiberias, we arrived after five miles at the city of Tiberias and found there many things worthy of record. Among other things, I noted that all the water of the sea of Tiberias is everywhere very sweet   Matthew 14.13–21; Mark 6.32–44; Luke 9.10–17; John 6.1–14.   Identified by Muslims with Jubb Yusuf, a Mamluk khān on the road n of the lake. 12   The castle was taken by Baybars in 1266 and extensively rebuilt by the Mamluks: 10 11

see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 206–9; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 91–2; Barbé and Damati, ‘Le Château de Safed’. 13   Tall Ḥum (TIR, p. 97). 14   Matthew 8.1–4. 15   Matthew 9.9. 16   Al-Ṭābgha, ancient Heptapegon (TIR, p. 142). 17   John 21.4–14. 18   i.e. Gennesaret, as above. 19   Majdal, on the w side of the lake n of Tiberias (TIR, pp. 173–4). 20   Compare Epistolæ 3: ‘You know, Lady [Mary Magdalene], that your beautiful church which the Christians built in your honour in Magdala I found reduced by the Saracens like a vile stable of brute animals’ (ed. Rohricht, p. 278–9; Fr. trans. Kappler, p. 229). 21   Luke 7.36–50.

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and pleasant to drink, but that there enter into it from many quarters waters that are stinking, sulphurous and extremely bitter. From there, climbing a high mountain in order to come to a very high one, Mount Tabor, we came after ten miles to Bethulia (Betulia), the little city of Judith, and at the foot of the city we rested at the spring to which the Jews besieged by Holofernes used to come out to refresh themselves.22 Passing through Bethulia, after five miles we climbed lofty Mount Tabor [add. wx: on going down which mountain, Melchizedek met Abraham, as is recounted in the Scholastic History23]. There we found many large ruined churches24 and came to a higher place where the Lord was transfigured; and we read the gospel of the Transfiguration25 and preached, weeping and marvelling at such destruction, etc. From there we saw part of Arabia and the mountain where or whence are derived the springs of Jor and Dan, which begin the Jordan. From there we saw the mountains of Gilboa. At the foot of Mount Tabor is the great plain of Esdrælon, which is called the plain or field of Beans,26 above which, facing Mount Tabor, is the small city that they call Nain (Naym), where the Lord brought back to life the widow’s son.27 Crossing the great plain of Esdrælon and passing through Nain, we hastened twelve miles to Nazareth. Ascending the mountain we came to the Lord’s Leap, where the Jews wanted to cast Jesus down when He began to read and preach to them.28 There we read and preached the gospel. They show some footprints and tracks in the rock, which they say are the footprints of Christ. Nazareth From there we came two miles to Nazareth and found the great church almost completely destroyed.29 Nothing remained of the original buildings except the single chamber where Our Lady received the Annunciation. Our Lady has preserved it in remembrance of her humility and poverty. There is there an altar to the Lord in the place where Our Lady was praying when the Angel Gabriel was sent to her and an altar of the Angel Gabriel where Gabriel stood while making the Annunciation. We celebrated mass on both altars and preached the word of God.   Judith 7.3, 7.7, 7.12–13. Bethulia lay near Dothan, s of Janīn. Like Burchard [13.6], Riccoldo appears to identify Bethulia with the Horns of Ḥāṭṭin. 23   Petrus Comestor, Historia Scholastica, in PL 198, col. 1094; cf. Genesis 14.18–20. 24   The Benedictine abbey church was destroyed by Baybars in April 1263: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 63–85. 25   Matthew 17.1–9; Mark 9.2–10; Luke 9.28–36. 26   planities uel campus fabarum, so-called after the Templar castle of la Fève (castrum Fabe/Fabbarum, al-Fūla), which stood in it: see Kedar and Pringle, ‘La Fève’; Pringle, Churches 1, p. 207; id., Secular Buildings, p. 49. 27   Luke 7.11–17. 28   Luke 4.16–30. On the site (Jabal al-Qafza), see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 45–8. 29   It was demolished by Baybars in April 1263: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 116–40. 22

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Then we walked round and through the city, especially those places that Our Lady and the Boy Jesus most often used to frequent. We found there next to the city a spring, which is held there in greatest veneration, because Our Lady used to go to the spring from time to time and the Boy Jesus would often carry water from it to His mother.30 We also went to the synagogue in which Jesus read from the book of the Prophet Isaiah.31 All these places of Galilee, from the first to the last, we found being held by the Saracens in peace and tranquility. From Nazareth we came twelve miles to the castle of Sepphoris (castrum Zaffetanum),32 where John the Evangelist and St James, the son of Zebedee, were born. Christians were living there.33 From there we returned ten miles to Acre, city of the Christians. Judæa and the Promised Land From Acre we hastened towards Jerusalem and came after eight miles to the Kishon brook, where Elijah, through the hand of his followers, killed 850 prophets of Baal and of the sacred groves.34 After crossing the brook, we came [48] three miles to Ḥayfā, a city beside the sea, and from there we came two miles to the most beautiful little mountain of Carmel, where Elijah brought together the multitude of Israel and overcame the priests of Baal, etc.35 From there we came ten miles to Pilgrims’ Castle, which is a renowned castle of the Templars beside the sea.36 From there it is twenty miles to the castle of Qāqūn (Caco),37 and from there twenty-five miles to St George.38 From there it is twenty miles to Bayt Nūbā (Betenopolis), which was a small village of priests.39 From there we came five miles to Ramatha on Mount Ephraim, which is three miles from Jerusalem, and visited the house of Samuel.40   The Virgin’s Fountain, associated with St Gabriel’s church: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 140–44. 31   Luke 4.16–19. On the building, see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 145–7. 32   Saffūriyya. 33   On the Crusader church, see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 209–18. 34   1 Kings 18.40. 35   1 Kings 18.20–40. 36   ‘Atlīt: see Johns, Pilgrims’ Castle; Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 69–80; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 22–3. 37   After taking Qāqūn in 1265, Baybars restored the Frankish castle and converted the church into a mosque. It subsequently became a road-station on the Damascus–Cairo road and the centre of an administrative district (Pringle, Red Tower, pp. 58–71; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 83–4). 38   Lydda. 39   Identified in the Middle Ages as Biblical Nob. 40   Nabī Ṣamwīl, which in the Middle Ages was identified both as Shiloh and as Ramah, or Ramathaim-zophim, the birthplace and burial place of Samuel (1 Samuel 1.1, 25.1; cf. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 85–7). 30

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From there we came three miles to Jerusalem, the holy city, which also in truth may be named the city of ruins and destruction. There we went first to the church of the Holy Sepulchre of Our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were unable to enter because the Saracens would not allow us in. Going up from there to Mount Sion, the city that David conquered and built, we found the Tower of David, built of large squared stones in such a way that even its destroyers failed to destroy it and have left something to posterity.41 Afterwards we found the place where St James the Great was beheaded. Now there is a church there and inside the church the place of decapitation and a marble slab, which they show still stained red with blood.42 Afterwards we found the place where the Cenacle stood, it being largely demolished. In that place was built [50] an enormous church,43 which contained on one side the chamber or place where the Blessed Virgin lived after the Ascension of her Son. On the other side, in terms of length, it contains the place where Christ dined with His disciples and memorials of other things that he performed the same evening. There is the altar where He ordained the sacrament of the Eucharist. There also is the place where the disciples were gathered together when suddenly there came a sound from heaven. Below in the same place is the house where the disciples were gathered together in the evening on account of their fear of the Jews and the place where He stood in the midst of them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’44 There is an altar there, where we celebrated and preached, crying and weeping and fearing dreadfully to be killed by the Saracens.45 Near there, beside the church, is the column of Christ’s flagellation still stained with Christ’s blood. Next to it is the house of Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas.46 Near by is the place where Peter, after he denied [Christ], went outside and wept 41   The Citadel was dismantled by Malik al-Nāṣir Dā’ūd of Karak in 1239 and was restored from 710 h/ad 1310–11 onwards under the Mamluk sultan al-Nāṣir Muḥammad (Johns, ‘The Citadel’, pp. 167–71). 42   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 168–82. 43   St Mary of Mount Sion: see Pringle, Churches, 3, pp. 261–87. 44   Luke 24.36. 45   In a letter written after the fall of Acre in 1291, Riccoldo recalled his visit to the church of Mount Sion of a few years earlier: ‘What shall I say of the other places and cities, when in the holy city of Jerusalem I found shamefully made into a stable by the Saracens that great and most holy church on Mount Sion, where the Lord made with His disciples that wonderful Last Supper, where He changed bread and wine into His Body and His Blood? Within that same church they showed your humble chamber, O Lady of heaven, where you lived the days of your life after the ascension of your Son! And behold! the whole abandoned place sighs without inhabitants, except that the Saracens have left unharmed (dimiserunt) the very lofty building over the place where the Apostles of your most Holy Son received the Holy Spirit, and in the same place they have their law proclaimed day and night, the hymn of the perfidious Muḥammad, that is to say the Qur‘ān’ (Epistolæ 2, ed. Röhricht, pp. 273–4, Fr. trans. Kappler, p. 222). 46   The church of St Saviour: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 365–72.

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bitterly. There in memory of Peter’s denial, bitter tears and repentance a church has been built.47 From there, descending Mount Sion, we found the house of the Preaching Friars, where there now remains a garden. This place is [52] roughly midway between Solomon’s Temple and the Lord’s Temple.48 From the Temple of Solomon we saw the place from which St James, the Lord’s brother, was thrown, where there is a very great precipice above the valley of Jehoshaphat.49 Solomon filled in this place when he built Millo. From there, going out of the city we entered the field of Akeldama, which up to the present day is a burial place for strangers.50 Near there we found the cell of St Onuphrius and other holy fathers.51 Going down from there to the valley of Jehoshaphat, we found the remarkable tomb of Pharaoh, which Solomon is said to have built for his wife, Pharaoh’s daughter,52 whom he delighted in so much that he wrote for her the Song of Songs. From there, from the valley of Jehoshaphat, we went down twenty miles to Jericho by the road along which the man who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho went; even now it is deserted, unsafe and frequented by robbers. After continuing down it for five miles, however, we came upon the little fortress that Ptolemy, son of Abubus, built and in which he killed Simon, the high priest, when

47   Possibly this is also the church of St Saviour, to which the tradition of Peter’s denial seems to have shifted from the nearby cave and church of St Peter of the Cock-Crow (in Gallicantu) around this time: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 346–9, 367. 48   The Dominicans established a house in Jerusalem in the 1230s but would have been forced to abandon it in 1244 (Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 92–3). It is uncertain whether the house (locus) mentioned by Riccoldo was this or another one, established later outside the walls of the city. The latter appears to have been in the Hinnom valley and is referred to by Ludolph of Sudheim in 1336–41 (ed. Neumann, p. 355, trans. Stewart, 112) and by Felix Faber in 1480–83 (trans. Stewart 1, pp. 535–6). A location between the Lord’s Temple (Dome of the Rock) and Solomon’s Temple (al-Aqsa mosque) would place Riccoldo’s house inside the Haram al-Sharīf, which would be impossible. Possibly Riccoldo meant to say ‘between Solomon’s Temple and Mount Sion’. 49   This sentence might appear to imply that Riccoldo visited ‘Solomon’s Temple’. But he is unlikely to have been admitted to the Aqsa mosque, from which the ‘precipice’ at the sw corner of the Temple area is in any case invisible. It is visible, however, as one descends Mount Sion towards the Temple area, from both inside and outside the walls. Riccoldo would probably have seen it from inside the walls, as he next had to go out of the city to reach Akeldama. 50   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 222–8. 51   Onuphrius was a monk who lived as a hermit in Sinai in the fourth century. It is uncertain how he came to be associated with Jerusalem. See Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 341–2. 52   1 Kings 3.1. This rock-cut tomb of the first century bc stands in the village of Silwān: see Murphy-O’Connor, Holy Land, pp. 116–18.

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he and his sons were drunk during a feast that he had prepared for them. There is still a tower and it is called even today the Red Tower (turris rubea).53 From there we went down ten miles into Jericho, which is more or less deserted. From there, hastening to the Jordan, we found, four miles on, near the Jordan, the place where John the Baptist used to live, where there is a beautiful monastery in memory of John the Baptist.54 One mile from there [54] we came to the Jordan and to the place where John baptized Jesus. There on the feast of the Epiphany55 we found over ten thousand Christians of every people and nation gathered together for baptism and the feast. There we built an altar beside the river on which we celebrated, and we preached and baptized with tears of rejoicing. While all the people were being baptized and were singing ‘Kyrie eleison’, so great was the weeping and crying that I thought the angels had descended from heaven and were crying out with us in plaintive tones. Then we sang the gospel, ‘When all the people were baptized’, etc.56 After the baptism we went up six miles from the Jordan to the Mount of Temptation in the wilderness, where Jesus was led, and to the place where he fasted forty days and forty nights.57 There is a church and a cell where we celebrated and preached to many Christians who had congregated there and to the hermits who were living there; and we learnt from them, in order, about the places and dwellings connected with Christ.58 Two miles from there they took us to a place on a mountain, very high and difficult to climb, where the devil took Him up on to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world;59 and in truth the place is appropriate for temptation and cupidity, because, although in itself it is deserted, having nothing of any good in it, nonetheless just about every good thing is to be found in the most beautiful of plains below it. For it overlooks the flowing waters of the Jordan and the plain of Jericho, in which there are streams, springs, gardens watered like paradise, fields of sugar-cane from which they make sugar and a large number of mills, where they crush the sugar. There are the palms of Jericho and the rose gardens of Jericho. From there we saw, ten miles away, the   1 Maccabees 16.11–17. This occurred in 134 bc. The fortress, called Dok, may be identified with the fortification on Jabal Qurunṭul above Jericho (Abel, Géographie 2, pp. 375–6; cf. Pringle, Churches 1, p. 252); but the site described here is a former Templar castle, also called the Castle of Blood (Qal‘at al-Damm), which stands closer to Jerusalem (Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 345–6; id., Secular Buildings, pp. 78–9). 54   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 240–44. 55   6 January 1289. 56   Luke 3.21. 57   Matthew 4.1–2. 58   In the twelfth century the Quarantine monastery, built and cut into the side of Jabal Qurunṭul, had been a priory of the Holy Sepulchre, but by the time of Riccoldo’s visit the hermits are more likely to have been Greek Orthodox: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 252–7. 59   Matthew 4.8–10. This was the summit of Jabal Qurunṭul itself: see Pringle, Churches 1, p. 257. 53

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sites of Sodom, Gomorrah and other cities, and the Dead Sea, which they call the Cursed Sea. From there we saw al-Karak (Ilcracco), which is Petra of the Desert, and as far as the mountain of the daughter of Sion. [56] There, in truth, in the place where the temptation took place, we sang and preached. From there we went up twenty miles to Jerusalem by the road along which Christ passed when going to His Passion. Coming to Bethany, which is three miles from Jerusalem, we came first of all upon the place where Martha ran to meet Jesus outside Bethany.60 Afterwards in Bethany we found the house of Lazarus and his tomb, out of which the Lord called him, and we sang the gospel and preached about Lazarus.61 From there we came to Bethphage (Beffage) beside the Mount of Olives and found the place of the fig tree that dried up on the Lord’s command62 and the place from which He sent two disciples into Jerusalem for an ass.63 From there we came one mile to the Mount of Olives and to the place and stone of the Ascension of Christ and many other wonderful things. Near there is another mountain, which is called Galilee. It is said that this is the mountain referred to by the words, ‘The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain’, etc.,64 not because the mountain is in Galilee (when on the contrary it is in Judah), but because the mountain itself is called Galilee; but others say that the reference is to Mount Tabor, which really is in Galilee. Coming down from the Mount of Olives, however, we came to the place where on seeing the city Jesus wept over it.65 There we took olive branches, blessed them, [58] distributed them to all and went down by the road along which Christ went with the procession on Palm Sunday (die olivarum); and we came to the Golden Gate, through which the Lord entered with the procession, which gate is at the foot of the Temple. Then, going up into the city in order to proceed to Bethlehem, six miles away, we left the city near Mount Sion and found near the city the spring of Rogel (En-rogel), where there was the royal garden in which Adonijah, son of Haggith, held a feast when he wanted to become king.66 From there, proceeding along the road that the Magi took towards Bethlehem, we found after one mile the place 60   John 11.20. The supposed site of this was probably al-Junayna: see Pringle, Churches 1, p. 282. 61   John 11.1–46. On the site, see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 122–37. Riccoldo also writes in Epistolæ 3: ‘… the beautiful church that the Christians built to you [Mary Magdalene] in Bethany, where Jesus, the Love Divine, wept and called your brother Lazarus from the tomb, that same church, I say, I found filled with dung and a stable for brute animals’ (ed. Röhricht, p. 279, Fr. trans. Kappler, p. 229). 62   Matthew 21.18–19. 63   Matthew 21.1–5; Mark 11.1–3; Luke 19.29–31. 64   Matthew 28.16. 65   Luke 19.41. 66   1 Kings 5–10.

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where the star reappeared to them; there is a church there in memory of the star.67 From there we came to the Four Thousand Martyrs, where the lion carried them, and there is there a beautiful monastery where Saracen monks are living.68 Three miles from there, midway between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, we found the place of Elijah.69 Two miles from there we came to Rachel’s tomb beside the road to Ephrathah (Effrata), a tomb whose fine quality and antiquity are attested to by the masonry itself.70 From there we came to the Field of the Chickpeas, where nothing sprouts or grows except small pebbles like chickpeas. They say that when Christ was passing by there and enquired of a workman who was sowing with the words, ‘What are you sowing?’, the man in derision replied, ‘I am sowing stones.’ Then Christ said, ‘Then you shall reap stones.’ Since then, so they say, nothing has grown there. [60] Bethlehem From there we came to Bethlehem, a little city where He who is great was born little. There we found a very beautiful church of Our Lady71 and in the church the inn, which was a narrow passage, in which on one side there was the manger where they laid the Lord and on the other side of the passage something like a grotto or cave for poor people to live in, close together. Within it is an altar in the place where Our Lady gave birth. There we celebrated, preached and gave communion to the people. After the celebration of mass, we found in the manger the most beautiful infant son of a poor Christian woman, who lived next to the church, and rejoicing in him we adored the newborn Christ in the manner of the Magi and after giving the little one presents we returned him to his mother. From there we went three miles down to the place of the shepherds who were near by, three miles from Bethlehem. There the memory of the shepherds is kept by the great ruin of the churches that were built there.72 Near there is a hamlet or village of the prophets who came up to Elijah and Elisha and said, ‘Today the Lord will take away your master from you.’73 From there, going up by the road leading to Bethlehem by which the shepherds came and by which Joseph went up with his 67   Philip of Savona associates the reappearance of the star with the church of St Procopius, which he calls St Cyprian (see above); but in the 1340s, Niccolò da Poggibonsi (Libro d’Oltramare, p. 58) appears to associate it with Bi’r al-Qadismū, further s (see Pringle, Churches 2, p. 158 and 3, pp. 353–4). 68   This may be a predecessor of the Ṣūfī zāwiyya in Mamilla, which Mujīr al-Dīn in the late fifteenth century (Histoire de Jérusalem, trans. Sauvaire, p. 8) said had formerly been a church; but if so Riccoldo has placed it too far s (cf. Pringle, Churches 3, p. 219). 69   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 224–6. 70   Genesis 35.16–20. On the present monument, see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 176–8. 71   Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 137–56. 72   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 315–16. 73   2 Kings 2.3. The biblical text says that this occurred in Bethel.

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pregnant wife Mary, we found, one mile from Bethlehem, the place where Mary and Joseph rested, weary and thirsty. There they showed us the well in which, they said, the water rose up to the top and afforded a drink to the pregnant Virgin and her husband.74 From there we went back up to Bethlehem to the place of the Nativity and found near the church of Our Lady [62] the palace where Jerome translated the books [of the Bible], the seat where he used to sit and the place of the dormition of St Paula.75 From there, we returned in order to go to the house of Zechariah, who lived three miles outside Jerusalem, and found there first of all the place where Elizabeth came to meet Mary and the child leapt in her womb.76 Afterwards we found the house of Zechariah and near by, a third of a mile away, the house of Elizabeth. Between them a stream runs out from a very beautiful spring. There Mary and Elizabeth while pregnant often used to rest and talk together. There we also found the place of the birth of John the Baptist.77 Returning two miles from there in the direction of Jerusalem we found the place where the great tree was cut from which the wood of the cross was fashioned.78 From there we went back to Jerusalem by the road along which Queen Candace’s eunuch, whom Philip baptized, was returning and we found the road along which he was travelling in his chariot, reading Isaiah.79 Jerusalem again Arriving in Jerusalem to fulfil our desire to visit the Sepulchre, we again ascended Mount Sion, where Christ dined with the disciples and washed their feet. From there we descended the route that He took after supper to go to the garden. We came to the waters of Siloam, where Isaiah was sawn in two80 and to which the Lord sent the man who was blind from birth.81 From there we crossed the Kidron brook, which is in the valley of Jehoshaphat and runs between the Mount of Olives   Bi’r al-Qadismū: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 157–8.   Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 156–7. In his third letter Riccoldo writes: ‘O St Jerome,

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how you delighted in Effrata, how you desired Bethlehem, where was born that Bread of angels and men, where you translated the holy books with much labour! There they showed me the seat where you sat, the tomb of your faithful Paula, and the palace where you lived; and all is destroyed and for a long time under the dominion of the Saracen blasphemers of Christ’ (Epistolæ 3, ed. Röhricht, pp. 279–80, cf. Fr. trans. Kappler, p. 231). 76   Luke 1.39–41. 77   The church of St John in ‘Ayn Karim: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 30–38. 78   Monastery of the Cross: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 33–40. 79   Acts 8.26–39. The road was the Roman one to Eleutheropolis (Bayt Jibrīn) and Gaza. 80   An apocryphal story, of which there is perhaps a hint in Hebrews 11.37. 81   John 9.1–7.

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and Jerusalem. From there, going up through the valley of Jehoshaphat, we came to the place [64] where the garden was into which Jesus entered; and there we found the place where Jesus prayed and where He was taken prisoner beside the garden. It is now called the Field of Flowers. Near it is the empty82 tomb of the Virgin, in the middle of the valley of Jehoshaphat.83 There indeed, contemplating the place of judgement in the valley of Jehoshaphat between the Mount of Olives and Mount Calvary, we sat weeping and fearful, awaiting judgement. We discussed, moreover, where the most just Judge would sit on high and where would be to His right hand and where to His left hand. Then we chose a place to the right and each made a mark on a stone as a record. I also erected and marked a stone there and accepted a place to the right for myself and for all those who had heard the word of God from me and who had persevered in the faith and in the truth of the gospels; and I marked the stone in this way at the request of many faithful witnesses, who stood there weeping. From there we went into the very beautiful tomb of the Virgin, which the Saracens guard with many lights and great reverence, and there we rested, singing, celebrating, preaching and giving communion to the people. On coming out we found near by the place and field where St Stephen was stoned.84 Ascending the road by which they threw him out of the city with stones we entered Jerusalem by the Sabbath Gate (porta Sabatorum) and found the church of St Anne, the mother of Our Lady. There they show the place where they rightly affirm that the blessed Virgin was born and next to it is the tomb of her mother, St Anne.85 Near there we found the Sheep- [66] Pool. Continuing up, however, we found the house of Herod and near by the house of Pilate. There we saw the Pavement (lithostrotos)86 and the place where Jesus was judged, and the place where the people stood in the square before the palace when Pilate went out to them.87 Going up along the road that Christ walked carrying His cross, we found the place where Christ said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me!’88 They show there the place where Our Lady fainted while following her Son carrying the cross;89 and they show the place and the memorial where He fell. There beside the way they show the house of Judas and the memorial. There they show the place where Christ halted with the cross and rested a short while, exhausted. There, crossing it, is the road that comes into the city where they met Simon of Cyrene coming from his house in the country to carry Jesus’     84   85   82

‘empty’ is inserted in Riccoldo’s own hand. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 287–306. Acts 7.58. Although the church was now a madrasa, it appears that Christians were still allowed access to the crypt: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 142–56. 86   John 19.13. 87   On these sites in the present Via Dolorosa, see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 89–91, 93–7; Storme, Voie Douloureuse. 88   Luke 23.28. 89   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 319–22. 83

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cross.90 Beside it is the house (locus) that belonged to the Friars Minor.91 Ascending, however, by the way straight ahead where Christ went up, we found the place where they say that Helena tested the Lord’s cross and distinguished it from the crosses of the thieves by the miracle of bringing a dead man back to life again.92 [68] The Lord’s Holy Sepulchre Proceeding from there we entered the church of the Sepulchre.93 It is an enormous church, containing Mount Calvary and the place of the Sepulchre. Ascending Mount Calvary, we found in the place where the Lord was crucified the place where the wood of the cross was fixed in the stone and beside it an image of the Crucified in mosaic work, facing west just as the Lord was crucified; and at the foot of the stone into which the cross was fixed are positioned the blessed Virgin and blessed John, who stand next to the cross and look east towards the face of Christ. This is a place of such devotion that if one did not weep out of compassion for the Son crying out and dying on the cross, one would be disposed to weep out of compassion for the mother, weeping at the feet of Christ while He dies for us. O soul, O soul of sinful man, how could you afterwards vivify and govern a body of such corruption and contradiction? Why has the sorrow of death not been made for me the sorrow of compassion? If I had really been devout as I thought, I would have been able to die of sorrow or joy from the completion of so great a desire. Moreover, looking around anxiously to see if I should truly see with the eyes of my body my Lord hanging on the cross, I saw only with the eyes of faith. With the eyes of my body, however, I saw the place of the crucifixion, the rock split from top [70] to bottom,94 and part of the column at which the Lord was scourged, which was holding up a stone altar table near the station where the Virgin mother cried. Nearby and behind it was the place – and they showed the stone – where they placed the body, bound it with linen cloth and preserved it with spices for burial. From there, wanting to go to the Sepulchre and look for the Lord whom we had not found on Mount Calvary, for they had already taken Him down when I, miserable as I am, arrived there late, I said, ‘Let us go and look for Him at the tomb where they have laid Him.’ Gathering together the Christians who were there, numbering more than a hundred, I organized a procession. We started at the column, which they say is at the centre of the world, and followed the route by which the Marys came with spices, proceeding along the way in regular fashion and asking each other, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us’, etc.95 Afterwards, as   Matthew 27.32; Mark 15.21; Luke 23.26.   Pringle, Churches 3, p. 97. 92   For the legend of the finding of the Cross and a translation of a fifth- to sixth90 91

century Syriac version of it, see Drijvers, Helena Augusta, pp. 165–80. 93   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 3–72. 94   Cf. Matthew 27.51. 95   Mark 16.3.

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we were approaching, we sang in a loud voice and repeated, ‘Praise to the Paschal Victim.’96 At each step, one person sang the verse and all responded. Surrounding and moving around the Sepulchre anxiously searching, since we were not finding the Lord, someone exclaimed, ‘The Lord, my Hope, has risen and is going before them into Galilee.’97 This he said in such a loud voice that outside the whole church a noise and tumult resounded among the Saracens. We entered the Sepulchre, however, and found that large stone at the mouth of the tomb, albeit rolled away beside the entrance. We came out without finding the Lord. Next they showed us the garden and the place where He appeared first to Mary Magdalene and then the way, not in the garden, where He appeared to the other Marys and they held His feet. In the same [72] church is another church, below which Helena dug when she found the crosses. We went down to the church by more than twenty steps and it is all excavated in the rock. We remained a day and a night in the church of the Sepulchre, celebrating, preaching many times over and giving communion to the people. On coming out and returning from Jerusalem, we came directly after eight miles to Emmaus, talking of Christ, that He might draw near and go with us through the meadows and beautiful places. On our approach to the village (castellum) we came to the road in which He made as if to go further and afterwards, in Emmaus, to the place where they prepared a meal and recognized Him.98 There is there a beautiful church.99 Returning ten miles from there we came near to Ramla (Rama), the city of Joseph who buried Jesus, and from there by Cæsarea Philippi, which is on the sea.100 From there twenty-five miles to the castle of Qāqūn (Cacco). From there, as we were approaching Pilgrims’ Castle, we came to the cave of the Virgin. The Virgin’s cave is actually a pit, beside the sea on the road coming from Egypt to Judæa or Galilee. For Joseph wanted to turn aside from Judæa and proceed to Galilee. When he was beside the sea on the road coming from Cæsarea Philippi and was resting on a stone, the stone became almost like liquid and of its own accord made itself yielding like a bed. Thus it hid the Boy, Mary and Joseph, so that they were not seen [74] by those following them and wanting to do them harm, or so they say.101 Four miles from there we came to Pilgrims’ Castle, and thence to Acre.     98   99  

Victimae pascalis laudes. Easter day liturgy; cf. Matthew 28.7; Mark 16.6–7. Luke 24.13–35. This is perhaps more likely to have been at Abū Ghosh than at al-Qubayba, whose Frankish church may by this time have been demolished: see Pringle, Churches 1, p. 8 and 2, pp. 168–9. 100   Riccoldo means Cæsarea Palæstina or Maritima; Cæsarea Philippi was Bāniyās, at the springs of the Jordan. 101   This apocryphal legend was possibly associated with the now lost chapel of St Mary of the Marshes: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 257–8. 96 97

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From Acre, travelling by sea past Tyre and Sidon, we came after two hundred miles to Tripoli, near which, at four miles’ distance, is the spring of the gardens and the well of living waters. From there, after ten miles, we saw the Mount of Leopards and, at twenty miles, Mount Lebanon, where there are Maronites, who say that in Christ there is one will; they agree with us, however, in all other things, more so than any other eastern sect.102 Near there, fifteen miles away, are the Assassins, whom the Easterners call Ishmaelites, born of Ishmael. Killing and being killed, they think they will receive certain delectations, which they believe constitute eternal life. As far as their law is concerned, these people are Saracens. Travelling from Tripoli by sea for twenty miles, we came near to Tortosa (Ṭarṭūs), whence they showed us the plain between the mountains of Lebanon and the Black Mountain, where Noah103 made the ark. Afterwards we entered [76] Armenia near Ayas (Laiacium). From there, after thirty miles, Mamistra,104 where Theodore was bishop, the greatest heretic, who defiling the whole gospel with his exposition, said that the Virgin did not give birth to God, but to a just man who was the temple of God.105 We found his poisonous books in all parts of the East among the Nestorians. For Nestorius was his follower. Then we passed by Tarsus of Cilicia, from which came blessed Paul the Apostle. After crossing Armenia we entered Turkey …

  In 1181, the Maronites had abjured Monotheletism and entered into full communion with the church of Rome (William of Tyre 22.8, ed. Huygens, pp. 1018–19; Hamilton, Latin Church, pp. 207–8; Salibi, ‘Maronite Church’). 103   The principal manuscript has ‘Moses’. 104   Greek Mopsuestia, Arabic al-Massisa, Turkish Misis. 105   Theodore of Mopsuestia (c.350–428), whose teaching on the Incarnation was condemned by the councils of Ephesus (431) and Constantinople (553): see ODCC, pp. 1598–9. 102

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These are the Pilgrimages and Places of the Holy Land (Thirteenth Century) 1. First, in Jerusalem is the church in which is the glorious Sepulchre of the Lord [w First, in Jerusalem is the glorious Sepulchre of the Lord in the centre of the temple in a small cell.]. Near by is the stone on which Christ was washed and anointed with spices. Next to it is the place of Calvary, where Christ was crucified. There follows the chapel in which there are four columns that are said to bewail the Passion of Christ;1 and in it is the place where the Holy Cross and the nails of the Crucified were found by blessed Helena; and in it is the window of the souls of Purgatory. There follows the place where there is a [w third of a] column to which Christ was tied. There follows the prison in which Christ was placed; in front of the prison is a stone on which Christ’s feet were bound together. There follows the place where Christ appeared to the three Marys [w in the form of a gardener. Between the place of Calvary and the Sepulchre, in the centre, is the place and the stone on which Christ was laid after being taken down from the cross, and near the chapel of the Greeks is the place where He was wrapped in clean muslin and laid in the Sepulchre]. There follows the place where the head of Adam was found. Outside the church is a chapel where St Mary stood under the Cross, and the place where blessed John stood, and the place where blessed Michael stood. | Beside this is a stone on which Christ rested when carrying the cross to His passion. [w There follows outside the church: near by is the place and marble stone in the form of a cross where Christ fell, rendered lifeless under the cross, saying, ‘I am already in my Father’s kingdom.’] There follows the chapel where Mary Magdalene stood weeping. 2. On Mount Sion is the church in which St James the Great was beheaded. There follows the church of the Saviour, in which there is the stone that the angel rolled back from the entrance of the Lord’s Sepulchre; in the wall in front of the church is part of a column on which Christ was flogged. There follows the place where St John the Evangelist celebrated mass for St Mary. There follows the place where the Virgin Mary passed from this world. [w There follows the place where St Matthias was chosen to be an Apostle.] There follows the place where the Virgin Mary washed her hands, and there is a stone that was carried by angels from Mount Sinai. There follows the church in which Christ ate with His disciples and there He washed the feet of His disciples; in front of the church is the chamber of St Mary in which she lived after the Ascension of her Son. | There   The chapel of St Helena.

1

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follows [w Behind the choir of the church is] the tomb of David and Solomon, and there David the prophet composed seven penitential psalms. Next to it is the place where the water was heated for washing the feet of the Lord’s disciples. Next to that is the place where Christ appeared to the disciples when the doors were closed and proffered His side to St Thomas to touch. There is the tomb of St Simeon the Just. Above is the place where the Holy Spirit was sent upon the Lord’s disciples. There follows the place where St Stephen was first buried.2 There follows the place where the Jew’s hand withered when he very shamefully extended it towards St Mary’s bier.3 There follows the place where St Peter did penance for his three denials of Christ. | On the other side of [w Near] Mount Sion is the place where the Jews took evil counsel concerning Christ. 3. In the valley of Jehoshaphat is the Field of Blood that was bought [w for the burial of strangers] with the thirty pieces of silver for which Christ was sold. Near by are the dwellings where Christ rested for many nights with His disciples. There follows the spring of Siloam, where Christ gave sight to the blind man. Near by is the place where Judas hanged himself by a noose. [336] There follows the spring where the Virgin Mary washed her Son’s clothes. There follows the house4 of James the Less. There follows the garden of Gethsemane, | where Christ was arrested [w where Judas betrayed Christ with a kiss]. In that garden is the stone on which Christ prayed to the Father, sweating bloody sweat. [w In the same place Christ said, ‘Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.’5] There follows the stone on which Jesus stood and preached to His people. There follows the place where the blessed Virgin cast her girdle to St Thomas.6 There follows the place where Sibylla saw the wood of the Holy Cross.7 There follows the prison in which Christ was held, and there is there the foot of the column on which He was flogged. 4. On the Mount of Olives is the church in which Christ ascended into heaven; | and there also appear [the impressions of] Christ’s feet [w in the church is the stone on which He stood when He ascended]. There follows Mount Galilee, where Christ appeared to His disciples [w on the day of the Resurrection]. There follows the stone [on] which Christ stood weeping over Jerusalem. There follows the chapel in which there is the tomb of St Mary the Egyptian.8 There follows the way   Stephen’s remains were reburied in the new church of St Stephen north of the city in May 439: see Pringle, Churches 3, p. 372. 3   Shoemaker, Ancient Traditions, pp. 35–8, 366–8; Elliott, The Apocryphal Jesus, pp. 43–4. 4   Recte ‘tomb’. 5   Matthew 26.39. 6   In some traditions concerning the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Thomas arrives after her burial in Gethsemane but in time to catch her girdle, which she throws to him as she is carried up: Baldi, Enchiridion, p. 754; cf. Shoemaker, Ancient Traditions, pp. 67–71. 7   An allusion to the tradition also found in Ernoul [3.17.3]. 8   Identified earlier as that of St Pelagia. 2

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to Bethphage, where Christ mounted the ass on Palm Sunday. There follows the place where Christ composed the Lord’s Prayer. Near by is the place where the Apostles composed the Creed. In the middle of the valley of Jehoshaphat is the | tomb of the Virgin Mary [w church of the Virgin Mary with forty steps descending to the chapel of the Virgin’s tomb]. There follows the place where St Stephen was stoned. 5. On the mount of the city of Jerusalem there are the gates that are called Golden, through which the Lord entered to His Passion [w on Palm Sunday]. There follows the Temple of the Lord, and the Temple of Solomon. There follows the church of St Anne, in which St Mary was born. Near by is the Sheep-Pool, where the Lord cured the sick man. There follows the house of Herod in which Christ was clothed in white and mocked, and the house of Pilate in which Christ was flogged and crowned with thorns, and the house of Caiaphas into which Christ was led. There follows the house of Simon the Leper, in which the Lord forgave Mary Magdalene her sins. There follows the road on which the (identity of the) Holy Cross was proved through the resurrection of one dead man. There follows the house of the rich man who denied morsels of bread [w that fell from his table] to the poor man Lazarus: his present house is in hell. 6. On the road to the River Jordan is Bethany, where Christ raised Lazarus. [w Near by is the place where Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’9 There follows the road to Jericho, which is one day’s journey from Jerusalem. Beside the road is the place where the blind man sat who cried out, ‘Have pity on me, Son of David!’ ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ ‘Rabbi, that I might see.’10] There follows the mountain on which Christ fasted forty days and forty nights. [w And on the highest point of the mountain He was tempted by the Devil, as it has it in the gospel: ‘Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness.’11] There follows the spring of the Prophet Elisha. Near by is Jericho, where the Lord gave sight to a blind man. |There follows the church of St John, where the Lord was baptized in the River Jordan by John the Baptist. [w One mile away is the River Jordan, where the Lord was baptized by John; near by is the church of St John the Baptist.] There follows the Dead Sea [w where are Sodom and Gomorrah]. There follows the monastery of Jerome.12 Near Bethany is the house of Martha and the house of Mary Magdalene. 7. [w Going from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, at the city boundary on the left is the castle of David and the house of Caiaphas.] In Bethlehem [w in the place of the inn] is the church in which Christ was born, and the place where He was laid in a manger, and | the place where the Holy Innocents are [w the chapel in which the   John 11.21.   Mark 10.46–52; Luke 18.35–43; cf. Matthew 20.29–34. 11   Matthew 4.1. 12   Dayr Hajla, or the monastery of Our Lady of Kalamon. By the late thirteenth century 9

10

it had assumed the dedication of the abandoned nearby monastery of St Gerasimus, whom western pilgrims often confused with St Jerome: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 197–202.

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Holy Innocents were buried]. Outside the church is the chapel [w of St Nicolas] in which there is the rock that is called St Mary’s milk. [338] Near Bethlehem, at a distance of | half a mile [w a quarter of the mile], is the place where the angel of the Lord announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds, and there the angels sang ‘Glory to God in the highest.’13 On the way to Bethlehem is the tomb of Rachel. There follows the place where the [stone] chickpeas were found. Near by is the | house [w church] of the Prophet Elijah. There follows the place where the star appeared to the three Magi, which they lost [sight of] on entering Jerusalem. 8. Near Jerusalem [is the place where] the wood of the Holy Cross was cut. There follows the road that goes [w to the left to the mountain country] to the house of Zechariah, where St John the Baptist was born.14 Near by is the spring where St Mary the Virgin greeted Elizabeth, and there the Virgin Mary composed the hymn, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord.’15 [w Near by is the church in which John the Baptist was born.] 9. From Jerusalem to St Abraham (Hebron) is one day’s journey, and there are the tombs of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and there is the valley of Hebron, where Adam was formed by Christ. There follows the desert, where St John the Baptist did penance. Near by is the spring where St John the Baptist washed his head.16 Near St Abraham is the place where Abraham saw three angels and worshipped one. There follows the place where Abraham intended sacrificing his son. 10. Near Samaria the Lord spoke to the [w Samaritan] woman over the well. In Sebaste St John the Baptist was beheaded. In Nazareth the angel said to Mary, ‘Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with you.’17 In Cana of Galilee the Lord turned water into wine. On Mount Tabor Christ was transfigured. On the sea of Tiberias Christ walked on the waters, and there He called Peter and Andrew, and James and John. Near by is the deserted place where Christ fed five thousand people from five loaves and two fish. 11. In Damascus St Paul was converted. There follows St Mary of Sardenay (sancta Maria de Sardinalli). On Mount Sinai the law was given. Near by the Lord appeared to Moses in a bramble bush. Near by is the Red Sea, where the children of Israel crossed over. Likewise on Mount Sinai the body of St Catherine is buried. In Babylon (Cairo) is the church in which is the body of St Barbara. Near Babylon is the spring where balsam grew. Jesus, however, passing through the midst of them went His way.18 Thanks be to God. Amen.

    15   16   17   18   13

Luke 2.14. ‘Ayn Karim: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 30–46. Luke 1.46. ‘Ayn al-Ma‘mudiyya, sw of Hebron: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 29–30. Cf. Luke 1.28. Cf. Luke 4.30. This sentence, referring to the Lord’s Leap near Nazareth, is evidently out of place here. 14

17

Greek Anonymous ii: The Places of Jerusalem (c.1250–c.1350) 1. You ask me for the benefit of your mind for an account of the Holy Places through which Christ, the Mother of God and the Holy Apostles, prophets and other saints walked and I shall oblige. Dearest brothers, listen to what I shall tell you about the Holy City of Jerusalem, the most important of the holy of holies, Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives. Let us begin our account from the lifegiving Sepulchre of Our Lord Jesus Christ.1 The church of the Holy Sepulchre is rounded in shape and sited at the centre of the Holy City of Jerusalem. It has two domes and joined to it in the middle of the holy church a very beautiful bell-tower. These elements, standing apart, represent a symbol of the Holy Trinity. Where the dome projects above the Holy Sepulchre it is not covered by any roof, because from there the Holy Fire comes down; the rest of the dome is roofed with lead and inside it is covered all around by a timber structure following the circle of the wall. From the circle and below are depicted in mosaic work all the saints, Constantine the Great and St Helena. Below the prophets, panels of purple marble are fastened to the wall. The places for the catechumens are set out encircling the Holy Sepulchre.2 There are also eight marble columns and bases outside the standing places, and at floor level sixteen columns and a massive arch.3 In the centre of the rotunda at ground level a stone ædicule is to be seen, and inside the ædicule is the Sepulchre of Our Lord Jesus Christ. When you enter the door of the Holy Sepulchre you see lying the stone that was rolled away from the tomb, like a holy table, white and very beautiful. And the Holy Sepulchre is made of very beautiful marble. And above the Holy Sepulchre hang thirty lamps, two of which burn continually, night and day. There is depicted the wrapping of Christ in the clothes of the dead; then the Resurrection, and then the Ascension. Around the Sepulchre marble panels are fixed to the walls; and on the pavement inside it is another stone on which the angel sat and said to the women, ‘Whom do you seek? Jesus of Nazareth? He has risen; He is not here.’4 Above the stone hang four lamps. Above the Holy Sepulchre is a   See Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 6–72.   In the gallery of the rotunda. 3   There were indeed 8 columns and 10 masonry piers at gallery level, but 14 columns 1

2

and 6 masonry piers at ground level. The ‘massive arch’ was that linking the rotunda to the choir. 4   Cf. Matthew 28.5–6.

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small baldachin, roofed in lead; and it is supported by twelve purple columns with golden capitals and displays on all sides various pictures in golden mosaic. Thence comes down the Holy Light on the Holy and Great Saturday at the time of vespers, and it attaches itself to the Holy Sepulchre and immediately the lamps hanging there are lit. There are side chapels5 of the heretic Armenians, Jacobites, Indians and Nestorians. We hold the entire body of the church. Between the two domes extends a broad vault, on which are to be seen depicted in mosaic the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Annunciation of the most Holy Virgin. And there hangs a lamp. Below the dome on the floor is the navel of the earth, the centre of the world. And there hangs a chandelier. And there are four enormous arches. Below that dome is the choir of the church, in which the Orthodox perform the liturgies. It is decorated with mosaic, in which Christ is seen depicted affixed; and words are inscribed with these letters: ‘God be with us. Understand, you people, and submit.’6 Twelve columns occupy the circumference of the choir; and above hang four lamps. There is the throne of the patriarch. Thirty lamps burn before the holy table, which is covered with a variously embroidered cloth. After the choir is the Prison of Christ, separated by fifteen feet from the holy choir. 6b. In this place also are the stocks in which they put the feet of Jesus Christ; and they are made of marble. It also has the table on which the holy sacrifice of the mass is performed. Four lamps burn there. And a distance of ten paces away is the column at which the Jews flogged Christ. Four lamps burn there. Near by in front of it is the place where they made the nails with which they affixed the Lord to the Cross. A little distance in front, in the pavement in the chapel of the Italians,7 is a round white piece of marble and in its centre is a hole; and when people apply their ears to it, they hear the clash of the bronze anvil from which the nails were made. The smith is held there, as if in a prison, until the Day of Judgement. Behind the choir they divided the clothes of Christ, as the prophet says: ‘They divide my garments among them, etc.’8 7. On the right-hand side of the choir of the Holy Sepulchre one ascends fifteen steps and thus enters Golgotha, in which the Lord was nailed to the Cross. There the sun was obscured and the veil of the Temple was rent from top to bottom. There the thief said, ‘Remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.’9 In that place there is also the rock that was split and on which the precious blood of Christ flowed out; and the Crucifixion of Christ is also depicted. It has fifteen lamps. And the dome of the chapel of Golgotha is shaped like a cross and the images of the prophets are delineated there in mosaic, with Abraham offering his son as a sacrifice. And there is the place in which he made   Παρακλήσια.   Reference obscure. 7   i.e. the Franciscans, who maintained a presence in the Holy Sepulchre after the loss 5 6

of Jerusalem in 1244 and received a firmān granting them rights there from Sultan al-Nāṣir Muḥammad in 1309: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 32–3, 97. 8   Psalms 22.18. 9   Luke 23.42.

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the sacrifice. The pavement of Golgotha is chequered with mosaic and imparts the greatest delight to onlookers. Against the back of Golgotha, where you go down thirty steps, is set the church of St Helena. It has four marble columns, which hold up forever what remains of it.10 There is besides the throne of St James Adelphotheus.11 Another twelve steps after that is a cave in which the Cross of the Lord, which had been hidden, was found by St Helena. And there is a table on which the liturgy is performed. It has four lamps. Before the Holy Sepulchre in the direction of the holy table is the place in which Nicodemus and Joseph took care of the dead body of Christ and buried it in a clean linen shroud. The place is variously decorated with purple and black pieces of marble. And above hang eight lamps, burning day and night. It has four marble columns and a dome in the form of a cross. There are thirty vaults in the church. The church has three doors. One faces west; the blessed Mary the Egyptian was prevented from entering though it by the angel when she wanted to go in to worship. And above it is seen the icon of the most Holy Mother of God, which addressed her and said, ‘If you cross over the Jordan you will find rest.’ The other two doors of the church face south and have six columns [each] and three purple ones; and the lintels are sculpted. And in the same place you see a very beautiful stone ædicule, decorated in mosaic, in which the king used to sit and judge. And the sacred atrium of the Holy Sepulchre is paved all over with marble slabs. And there are four piers. And in the same place, when the cross was placed on a dead man, the dead man was restored to life.12 There are besides three churches: that of the Holy Resurrection of Christ, that of the Forty Holy Martyrs, that of St James Adelphotheus and that of the women who brought spices. And in that place Mary Magdalene saw Christ after the Resurrection and thinking Him to be the gardener said, ‘Sir, where you have laid the body of my Jesus?’13 And the Lord said to her, ‘Mary, do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father and your God.’14 A little further on is the Patriarchate and above it is [St Mary] Hodegetria where nuns are living.15 From it the Mother of God stood watching her Son on the Cross and weeping. It is one stadium from the Holy Sepulchre. 8a. In this area to the west of the Holy Sepulchre there are thirteen16 monasteries: first the Forerunner,17 then the great George,18 then the great Demetrius,19 then   τòν νεκρòν: the dead body, corpse, relic.   James ‘the Brother of God’, or brother of Christ, also known as James the Just, who

10 11

was the first bishop of Jerusalem. 12   This episode comes from the legend of the finding of the True Cross: see Drijvers, Helena Augusta, pp. 165–80. 13   Cf. John 20.15. 14   Cf. John 20.17. 15   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 314–16. 16   This number appears to include either St Mary Hodegetria already mentioned, or St Theodore (not mentioned). 17   St John the Baptist, see Churches 3, pp. 192–203. 18   Pringle, Churches 3, 165–6. 19   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 160–61.

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the great Nicolas,20 then St Thecla,21 then St Anne,22 then St Euthymius,23 then St Catherine,24 then the taxiarch25 Michael,26 then another church of St George,27 then St John the Theologian,28 then St Basil.29 All the monasteries are distinguished by domes. 2. The house of David is four stadia south of the Holy Sepulchre. It is an enormous tower, in which David compiled the Psalter.30 The author states, ‘In the house of David is great fear’, and elsewhere, ‘Terrible things are accomplished, etc.’ In it Christ will sit and judge the world and the fiery river of vengeance will flow forth. And for that reason it is called the Valley of Tears. For He will call the just, whom He has caused to repent of their actions, into the kingdom of heaven; but on the sinners fire will pour forth from the house of David and consume them.31 Not far from there is the monastery of St James Adelphotheus.32 It is held by the Armenians. There follows after no great interval the house of John the Theologian and not much further on the church built by Solomon, Holy Sion, the mother of the Churches.33 3. In Holy Sion is to be seen the house of the Mother of God and St John the Theologian. There John received the Mother of God as his own. As the Evangelist says, ‘Woman, behold your son.’ Likewise he said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother.’ And he took her into his household.34 In Holy Sion in the house of the Virgin was made the mystic feast and there is the washing basin.35 There the Holy Spirit descended with tongues of fire on the Holy Apostles. There the Mother of God fell asleep and the Apostles came together, carried on clouds, and took care of her burial in Gethsemane. In Holy Sion there also exists another prison of Christ.36 In the same place is the paralytic, who struck a blow at Christ. There     22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30  

Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 338–41. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 381–3. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 156–7. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 164–5. Pringle, Churches 3, p. 158. Commander of a squadron of cavalry. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 335–8. Pringle, Churches 3, p. 165. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 208–11. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 157–8. The Tower of David stands in the Citadel, w of the Holy Sepulchre, overlooking the upper part of the Hinnom Valley, which is associated with Hell and the Last Judgement. 31   Cf. Zechariah 12–14. 32   Pringle, Churches 3, pp.168–82. 33   The house of John was one of the holy sites associated with the church of St Mary of Mount Sion: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 261–87. 34   John 19.26–7. 35   Used by Christ for washing the disciples’ feet. 36   This was shown in the church of St Saviour: Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 365–72. 20 21

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also are the tombs of the prophets David and Solomon, of the priest Simeon and of the protomartyr Stephen. There is also to be seen the stone that the angel carried away from Mount Sinai. The stone is blackish and of changeable colour and is the size of a man with both arms extended. Mount Sion is one mile from the Holy Sepulchre. Within four stadia is the Potter’s Field, which serves for the burial of foreigners;37 at this time monks are buried in it and do not come to judgement. It is a mile from the Holy Sepulchre. Below is the well of the just man Job38 and a little above, towards Jerusalem, lies the pool of Siloam, to which Christ sent the blind man to wash, when He said, ‘Go and wash in Siloam.’39 And when he had washed, he saw. It is a mile from the Holy Sepulchre. And four stadia above there is the tomb of James Adelphotheus, whom the Jews killed by throwing him from the pinnacle of the Temple.40 4. Outside the town to the east of the Holy Sepulchre is Gethsemane, in which is the tomb of the Mother of God. It has a church annexed to it.41 The beautiful door has eight marble columns and when you go down forty-eight steps you will find the church and in the middle of the church a stone ædicule and in the middle of the ædicule the holy tomb of the Mother of God, which is marble, white and very beautiful. In it hang eighteen lamps. Beside the same place is the closed door from which, at the Lord’s second coming, a river of fire will flow forth against the heretics and sinners who speak ill of it. Near there is the cave into which Christ withdrew with the Holy Apostles;42 and on that night He withdrew into the garden and the traitor Judas brought a body of Jews to seize the Lord. And he kissed Him, saying, ‘Hail Rabbi’,43 which means ‘master’. And putting out their hands the Jews took hold of the Lord and led Him with bound hands to the chief of the priests. There Peter cut off the ear of Malchus. Not far away is the place in which Christ prayed;44 and a little way after that is the stone on which He sat and, seeing Jerusalem, said, ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you kill the prophets and stone those sent to you; how often have I wanted to gather your children together.’45 And likewise He said, ‘Behold, your house is left desolate,46 and there will not remain one stone upon another.’47 Gethsemane is one mile from the Holy Sepulchre.     39   40   41   42   43   44  

The burial place in Akeldama: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 222–8. Bi’r Ayyūb. John 9.7. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 185–9. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 287–306. Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 98–103. Matthew 26.49. The site of the former church of St Saviour, by now destroyed: Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 358–65. 45   Matthew 23.37; Luke 13.34 46   Matthew 23.38; cf. Luke 13.35. 47   Matthew 24.2. 37 38

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5. Above Gethsemane is the Mount of Olives, from which Christ was taken up into heaven; and it has a large church.48 In the middle of the church is a stone ædicule with fifteen marble columns; and in the middle of the ædicule is the impression of the sole of Christ’s foot, set in the stone, which He stood upon when He was taken up into heaven. And four constantly burning lamps hang there. Down thirty steps is to be seen the tomb of St Pelagia,49 separated from the wall by half a man’s foot. If anyone goes into the space between the wall and the tomb, he is immediately held fast; and unless he has previously confessed all his sins to a confessor, he will never get out. There is the cell in which she remained for seven years. Three lamps hang there. Two stadia away is Galilee and Cana in which the wedding took place and Christ turned water into wine. The church has now been levelled to the ground.50 6a. On the Mount of Olives Melchizedek remained for ten years. And God sent Abraham, who cut his hair and fingernails; and Melchizedek gave him bread, and he ate and received a blessing from him.51 The Mount of Olives is one mile from the Holy Sepulchre. To the east of the Mount of Olives in an area lower down is Bethany.52 And in it is the tomb of St Lazarus, made of marble and very beautiful, and near it the stone on which Christ sat after his journey. Facing the tomb inside the cave is the tomb of Martha and [Mary] Magdalene, the sisters of Lazarus. Bethany is two miles from the Holy Sepulchre. From this place one’s course is directed east to the town of Jericho. 9. Mount Sinai is thrust into the innermost part of the desert and is fifteen days’ journey from Jerusalem. There Moses beheld the holy burning bush. The [roof of the] church,53 built of timber, is covered with lead and supported by twelve columns. The chancel (bema) is decorated with a mosaic representing the Lord’s Transfiguration. There are located in a marble repository the remains of St Catherine, above which hang three lamps. Behind the chancel, below the holy table, burn three lamps. Within the body of the church are chapels of the holy abbots, who were slaughtered on Mount Sion and in the town of Raythou (al-Ṭūr), and their remains are preserved in them. Near the nave (katholikon) are to be seen another six chapels. And there are yet more chapels in the monastery, in which fourteen priests celebrate the liturgy. There is also a well, from which Moses supplied his sheep with drinking water. Mount Sinai rises above the monastery and one ascends to it by 6,600 steps. On the way up, in the middle of the mountain one finds a holy church of the Mother of God, which is called Engytria, because of   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 72–88.   Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 342–6. 50   A reference to the former church on Mount Galilee (Karm al-Sayyad): Pringle, 48 49

Churches 3, pp. 124–5. 51   See Pseudo-Athanasius, Historia de Melchisedech, in PG 28, cols. 525–30; cf. Pringle, Churches 2, p. 83. 52   See Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 122–37. 53   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 49–58.

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the promise that she is seen to have made on behalf of the monastery.54 Above it is the holy chapel of the prophet Elijah and the cave in which he fasted forty days.55 And on the summit of the holy mountain is the church of the most holy prophet Moses, in which he fasted for forty days.56 Afterwards God appeared to him and dictated to him the law; and he displayed the inscriptions carved by God. And in the same place is the stone that concealed him. In the middle part of the mountain are sixty resting places;57 and near there lies the stone on which John Climacus sat for forty years and wrote the Ladder.58 It is six miles from the monastery. The stone that Moses struck with his staff and from which waters sprang forth lies halfway along the route by which one proceeds to the monastery of the Forty Martyrs.59 And above there is seen the Mountain of St Catherine, on which she lay for 365 years guarded by angels. From Sinai to the town of Raythou60 is a journey of two days. Near by is the Red Sea, which Moses crossed. In Raythou there are also seventy palm trunks. And not far away is the monastery of the Forerunner, where the monks died cut to pieces by the Blemmyes.61 10. Egypt is two days’ journey from the city of Jerusalem. Thither went the Mother of God with Christ, escaping the wrath of Herod; and thus was fulfilled the saying of the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt have I called my son.’62 And there is the place called Mataria. And there flows a delightful healing stream. In it the Mother of God washed the swaddling-clothes of her Son. And it extends its waters into the field in which the plantation of balsams (Balsamelaion) abounds. Two days’ journey from Cairo is seen the monastery of the great Arsenius. And in the same place the Nile flows out of paradise and inundates the whole of Egypt. Outside Cairo is the Chaneci.63 From there you proceed to Gaza. It has a very beautiful     56   57  

Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 58–9. Pringle, Churches 2, p. 59. Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 59–61. The place where the seventy elders remained with Aaron while Moses went up the mountain to receive the Law (Exodus 24.1–2, 9–14). From the later fourth century this was shown as a flat rock with an altar in the centre (Egeria, Itinerarium 4.4, in CCSL 175, p. 42, trans. Wilkinson, pp. 95–6; Meistermann, Guide du Nil au Jourdain, p. 145). 58   John Climacus (c.525–605/6), monk and for a time abbot of Sinai, who spent most of his life as a hermit at the foot of the mountain. His ‘Ladder of Paradise’ (Scala Paradisi) was written for John, abbot of Raythou, and sets out thirty steps for attaining religious perfection (PG 88, cols. 631–1164). 59   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 61–2. 60   Al-Ṭūr on the Gulf of Suez: see Meistermann, Guide du Nil au Jourdain, pp. 168– 72. 61   Incursions by the Blemmyes in 370 and 400 followed an earlier onslaught by the Saracens in 305: see Meistermann, Guide du Nil au Jourdain, pp. 118, 169. 62   Hosea 11.1. 63   Τò Χανέκει: identifiable with Menyet el Chanezir (Mīt Khanāzīr), which the early fourteenth-century Devise des chemins de Babylone places six leagues from Cairo on the 54 55

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church of the Mother of God.64 Gaza is two days’ journey from Jerusalem. On the way is the place where St Philip cleansed the eunuch in a holy bath.65 Caiapha,66 where Peter used to fish, is one mile from Jerusalem. The sea of Tiberias in which the Apostles used to fish is three days from Jerusalem. There, when He discovered them, Christ said, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ And they followed Him.67 12. In Jerusalem itself under the Greek emperors there were 365 monasteries and sacred buildings. All of them are now in the power of the infidels. To the east of the Holy Sepulchre inside Jerusalem, about four stadia away, is to be seen the Holy of Holies and the Temple in which the Lord used to teach.68 Inside the Holy of Holies, Zechariah, the father of the Forerunner, was killed and in the same Temple the Prophet Simeon carried the Lord in his arms […] hang […] with marble […s] and a chain. And when a Christian enters he is removed, since access is now permitted to nobody on account of the Sons of Hagar (Agarenoi).69 In the middle of it there is also the table suspended by God.70 The Temple is enormous and rounded with a dome roofed in lead and is decorated inside and out with mosaic. It has a court, on the eastern side of which is a gate with four doors through which Christ passed with palms and branches; and to this day it is closed. Near by is also the court of Pilate and the prætorium of Caiaphas,71 and a little further on the Sheep-Pool with five porticoes, called Bethesda by the Jews. It is three stadia from the Holy Sepulchre. Close by is the house of Joachim and Anne, the mother of the Mother of God.72 Not far from it is the mire into which the Jews threw Jeremiah.73 way to Manṣūra and Gaza (ed. Paviot, pp. 208–9; ed. Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, p. 244). 64   The church of St Porphyrius, which in the Middle Ages was commonly referred to as being dedicated to St Mary: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 216–19. 65   Probably ‘Ayn al-Hanniyya, on the Roman road between Jerusalem and Eleutheropolis (Bayt Jibrīn): see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 23–4. 66   Καϊάφα: presumably a reference to Ḥayfā (Χάϊφα), though it is not mentioned in the Bible and is more like two days’ journey from Jerusalem; possibly the writer has confused Ḥayfā with Jaffa (Γιάφφα), also known as Joppe (’Ιόππη), roughly a day from Jerusalem, in which Peter stayed several days with Simon the Tanner (Acts 9.36–43, 10.1–23, 11.5). 67   Matthew 4.19–20. 68   The Dome of the Rock, or Qubbat al-Sakhra: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 397–417. 69   i.e. Muslims. 70   i.e. the Rock, which appears suspended over the cave beneath it, described by Epiphanius (639–89) as the ‘hanging rock’ (trans. Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims, p. 117). 71   Associated with the churches of the Flagellation and Condemnation: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 89–91, 93–7. 72   St Anne’s church, by now the Madrasa al-Ṣalāḥiyya: Pringle, Churches 3, pp. 143–4. 73   Jeremiah 38.6.

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It is four stadia from the Holy Sepulchre. This is a list of the monasteries both outside and inside Jerusalem, and on the Jordan itself. 13. Halfway [to the Jordan] rises the spring of the Apostles, a short distance from which is the monastery of St Euthymius, sited on the top of a mountain.74 It is fifteen miles from Jerusalem. And beyond it is to be seen the monastery of the Mother of God.75 And in that same place Joshua, son of Nun, gazing upon the angel, said, ‘Are you one of us?’ And the angel replied, ‘I am the commander of the Lord’s army and I come to you now.’ And Joshua worshipped him; and the angel said, ‘Put off the shoes from your feet; for the place on which you stand is holy.76 Now take up the Ark of the Covenant and proceed against Jericho, that the walls of the city may fall down to their foundations.’77 In Jericho are the salty waters of the sea, which Moses made sweet.78 Near by is the sycamore that Zacchæus climbed in order to see Christ.79 Rising above it is the mountain on which Christ fasted for forty days.80 Then, when He was hungry, the Devil came to Him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ And the Lord replied, ‘Get back Satan!’, etc. and he immediately disappeared.81 It is twenty miles from the city of Jerusalem. Towards the wilderness from there is to be seen the monastery of St John the Forerunner.82 Beside the monastery flows the River Jordan, in which John baptized our Lord Jesus Christ. In the same place, on the bank of the river, John saw the Holy Trinity. And across the Jordan is the cave in which he used to rest. From there also Elijah was taken up in a fiery chariot. The River Jordan is thirty miles from the city of Jerusalem. Beyond the Jordan there are also the high mountains up which Moses went and prayed towards Jerusalem; and he is buried in the same place. In the inner part of the wilderness may be observed the tomb of blessed Mary the Egyptian, whom Abbot Zozimas looked after and buried. The saint had lived in that region for forty years. It is eight days’ journey from the city of Jerusalem. 14. The right side83 of the Jordan is occupied by Sodom, Gomorrah, the Dead Sea and the region of Lot, between which lies hell. They are thirty miles from Jerusalem. In the same place84 is the monastery of St Gerasimus, who ministered   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 229–37. In fact the monastery lay in a plain.   The monastery of Our Lady of Kalamon (Dayr Hajla), today the monastery of St

74 75

Gerasimus: Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 197–202. 76   Joshua 5.13–15. 77   Cf. Joshua 6.1–7. 78   Elisha sweetened the water from a spring by casting salt into it (2 Kings 2.19–22). 79   Luke 19.2–4. 80   Jabal al-Qurunṭul. 81   Matthew 4.1–11. 82   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 240–44. 83   i.e. s. 84   i.e. beside the Jordan.

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to the saints.85 Above, between the hills towards Jerusalem is the monastery of St Sabas and his tomb.86 The monastery is built close by the torrent.87 Underneath the monastery gushes forth the spring, which Sabas procured from God by his prayers. The church rises up to a dome, which is imbued with a dark blue colour. Near by is the cell of St John of Damascus, in which he wrote the ‘Proper it is when truly …’88 and the Octoëchos.89 At the time of St Sabas it was inhabited by 1,200 monks. It is fourteen miles from the city of Jerusalem. Towards Jerusalem, on a mountain, is built the monastery of St Theodosius the Abbot.90 It is eight miles from the city of Jerusalem. Above it is the monastery of St Elias the Prophet,91 which lies beside the road halfway to Bethlehem. The church is domed; and there Elijah went to sleep and the angel said to him, ‘Arise and eat, for the journey is long.’92 In that place Joseph took the Mother of God with him into the wādi to secretly divorce her, and an angel came and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear. Take Mary your wife; for from her will be born a child from the Holy Spirit.’93 15. As one proceeds from there to holy Bethlehem, halfway along the road there is the tomb of Rachel, marked with a stone chamber.94 Near by is Bethlehem, in which Christ was born. The church is very long, built of timber and roofed in lead, with gold-coloured mosaics.95 In the church are fifty columns and the pavement is of marble. On the right side of the church is to be seen a very beautiful porphyry baptismal font. To the left of the chancel one descends by fourteen steps into the cave in which Christ was born. The place of the Nativity faces east; and on the right-hand side of the cave is the place where Salome96 hid the water that had washed Christ; out of it is made an ointment, which is customarily placed in   The saint’s relics and the dedication of the church were transferred to the nearby monastery of St Mary of Kalamon by the early fourteenth century (see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 238–9). This appears to be the last to mention both monasteries in terms suggesting that they were both still occupied. 86   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 258–66. The body of St Sabas was removed to Venice sometime between c.1400 and the time of Felix Faber’s visit in 1480–83; it was returned in 1965 (ibid., pp. 261, 265). 87   The Kidron brook. 88   ’Άξιόν ’εστιν ‘ως ’αληθως … 89   A collection of Greek liturgical hymns, arranged according to the eight tones, which is attributed to John of Damascus. 90   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 271–8. 91   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 224–6. 92   Cf. 1 Kings 19.7. 93   Cf. Matthew 1.20–21. 94   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 176–8. 95   Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 137–56. 96   This is evidently the Salome mentioned in the proto-gospel of James, who doubted Mary’s virginity until she had tested her condition for herself (ch. 19.3–20.4, trans. in New Testament Apocrypha 1, pp. 434–5; cf. Elliott, Apocryphal Jesus, p. 13). 85

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perfume boxes. It is with that ointment that the harlot anointed the Lord on the Wednesday of Holy Week.97 Ten lamps hang there and the cave is covered with cloth on all sides.98 8b. It has two bronze doors; and going up fifteen steps on the right side of the chancel one enters the church of St George.99 At a distance of about two stadia behind the chancel is the place of the Shepherds.100 Holy Bethlehem is one mile from the city of Jerusalem. From there to Bayt Jāla (Apezala), to the house of Ephrathah, is a distance of one mile. After Bayt Jāla is to be seen the church of the Great George;101 and inside it is kept the chain that was laid on his back. It is eight miles from Jerusalem. The place of Abraham (Hebron) is dark black earth.102 This is the place where Abraham provided hospitality; and in the middle of his house is his tomb.103 It is three miles from Jerusalem. There he saw the Holy Trinity.104 Thirty-three miles from there lies the holy monastery of St Chariton.105 11. In these parts there also lies the mountain country of John the Forerunner, to which the Mother of God came and greeted Elizabeth.106 Two stadia from there you come upon the water of Refutation; and in the upper part is the stone that split and preserved the Forerunner and his mother.107 Where the Forerunner was born a church has been built.108 Two miles towards Jerusalem is the monastery of the Holy Cross.109 Below the holy table is the place in which Lot planted three firebrands, which grew up into trees. From their wood the Jews made the Cross and on to it they fastened the Lord in glory. The church is very beautiful and is distinguished by a dome and enclosed all around by walls like a fortress. The gate is of iron.   This occurred in Bethany in the house of Simon the Leper. Matthew 26.6–13 and Mark 14.3–9 do not identify the woman or her profession, but John 12.3–7 names her as Mary of Bethany, whom medieval Latins and Greeks equated with Mary Magdalene. 98   The MS ends here with the word ‘Amen’. 99   Pringle, Churches 1, p. 150. 100   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 315–16. 101   Al-Khiḍr: Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 295–6. 102   Other sources describe it as reddish in colour and as having medicinal powers. 103   In the Ḥaram al-Khalīl, by this time a mosque but in the twelfth century a cathedral church: see Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 223–39. 104   The three mysterious men, representing God, who visited Abraham at Mamre (Genesis 18). 105   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 221–4. 106   Luke 1.39–40. The place identified here is ‘Ayn Karim. 107   The proto-gospel of James tells how John the Baptist escaped Herod’s massacre of the Innocents by being concealed with his mother, St Elizabeth, in a cleft which opened in the mountain side (trans. Cullman, 387). In the twelfth century this cave was shown below the Cistercian church of St John in the Woods, in ‘Ayn Karim (Pringle, Churches 1, pp. 38–47). 108   See Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 30–38. 109   Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 33–40. 97

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Above the holy table hang four lamps. When you make for Jerusalem [from there], after covering five stadia you will come to the monastery of St Babyla.110 There was cut off the head of St George.111 On the upper part of the road is to be seen a stone on which the Mother of God sat;112 not much after it is another stone, standing on which the Mother of God worshipped the holy and precious wood [of the Cross] and Holy Jerusalem. Near the walls of the citadel, six stadia away, is the field of Agrippa, to which Jeremiah sent Abimelech to pick figs and he went to sleep for seventy years.113 Above the field, on top of the mountain, is the citadel in which they cut the prophet Isaiah in two with a wooden saw.114 The circumference of the holy city of Jerusalem is five miles. These things I have described to you, oh friend, for the benefit of the soul and deliverance, and for the renewal of the celestial kingdom, by the grace and humanity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever, Amen.

  St Mamilla, in the cemetery on the w side of the city: see Pringle, Churches 3, pp.

110

217–20.

  On the association of St George with this area, see Pringle, Churches 3, p. 167.   The place of the Kathisma (al-Qadismū), or ‘sitting down’, where by 1172 a

111

112

chapel of St Mary had replaced the church originally founded in 451–458: see Pringle, Churches 2, pp. 157–8. 113   Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian official of King Zedekiah, who rescued Jeremiah from a pit in which he had been placed (Jeremiah 38.4–13). A Christian Apocalypse of ad 136 relates how Jeremiah sent him to collect figs; but he fell asleep under a tree for the 66 years between Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of the Temple and the return of the exiles from Babylon, awaking to find the figs still fresh (Harris, Rest of the Words of Baruch; Hirsch et al., ‘Ebed-melech’, in Jewish Encyclopedia). 114   The Bible does not record how Isaiah died, though Hebrews 11.37 refers to unnamed prophets being sawn in half. Medieval Latin texts also locate his tomb near Siloam.

Sources Abbreviations AA SS

Acta Sanctorum (Bollandiana), Antwerp–Paris–Rome–Brussels (1643–). AOL Archives de l’Orient latin, 2 vols., Paris: Leroux (1881–84). BAAL Bulletin d’Archéologie et d’Architecture libanaise. BEFAR Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d’Athènes et de Rome. CCCM Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaeualis, Turnhout: Brepols (1966–). CCSL Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina, Turnhout: Brepols (1953–). CGOH Cartulaire général de l’ordre des Hospitaliers de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem (1100–1310), ed. J. Delaville le Roulx, 4 vols., Paris: Leroux (1894–1906). DRHC Documents relatifs à l’histoire des croisades, Paris: Geuthner (1946–). IHC Itinera Hierosolymitana Crucesignatorum (saec. XII-XIII), ed. S. de Sandoli, 4 vols., SBF, Coll. maj. 24, Jerusalem (1978–84). Loeb Loeb Classical Library, London–Cambridge, MA (1912–). MGH SRM Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum, Hanover (1885–) MGH SS Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum, ed. G.H. Pertz, T. Mommsen et al., Hanover– Berlin et al. (1826–). ODCC Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed. E.A. Livingstone, Oxford: Oxford University Press (1997). OVKT Oesterreichische Vierteljahresschrift für Katholische Theologie. PG Patrologia Cursus Completus, Series Graeca, ed. J.P. Migne, 161 vols., Paris (1857–). PL Patrologia Cursus Completus, Series Latina, ed. J.P. Migne, 221 vols., Paris (1844–64). PPTS Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society Library, 13 vols., London (1890– 97). RHC Occ Recueil des historiens des croisades: Historiens occidentaux, 5 vols., Paris (1844–95). RHC Or Recueil des historiens des croisades: Historiens orientaux, 5 vols., Paris (1872–1906). RHGF Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, 24 vols., Paris: Imprimenè royale nationale (1738–1904).

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

394

RRH RRH Ad RS TIR

TOT

TTH ZDPV

Regesta Regni Hierosolymitani, ed. R. Röhricht, Innsbruck: Wagner (1893). Regesta Regni Hierosolymitani, Additamentum, ed. R. Röhricht, Innsbruck: Wagner (1904). Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aeui Scriptores, or Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland in the Middle Ages (Rolls Series), 99 vols., London (1858–97). Tabula Imperii Romani: Iudaea Palaestina: Eretz Israel in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Periods, maps and gazetteer, ed. Y. Tsafrir, L. Di Segni and J. Green, Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities (1994). Tabulae Ordinis Theotonici ex Tabularii Regii Berolinensis Codice Potissimum, ed. E. Strehlke, Berlin: Weidmann (1869); repr. with Preface by H.E. Mayer, Toronto: University of Toronto Press (1975). Translated Texts for Historians, Liverpool (1985–). Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins.

Pilgrimage Accounts and Geographical Descriptions of the Holy Land, 1187–1291 Text

ad

De Expugnatione Terrae Sanctae Libellus, ed. J. Stevenson, in RS 66, pp. 209–62; extracts repr. in IHC 3, pp. 109–19. Account of the fall of the first Latin Kingdom, from the death of Baldwin V until the year after the battle of Ḥaṭṭīn.

1186–88

Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi, ed. W. Stubbs, in RS 38.1; trans. H.J. Nicholson, Chronicle of the Third Crusade, Aldershot: Ashgate (1997). Latin account of the Third Crusade, including pilgrimages to Jerusalem.

1189–92

Ambroise, Estoire de la Guerre Sainte, ed. and trans. M. Ailes and M. Barber, The History of the Holy War, 2 vols., Woodbridge: Boydell (2003). French verse account of the Third Crusade, including pilgrimages to Jerusalem.

1189–92

Aymar the Monk, Tractatus de Locis et Statu Terre Iherosolimitanae, in IHC 3, pp. 163–93. Chs. 1–7 represent the anonymous Tractatus de locis et statu sancte terre ierosolimitane (1168–87); chs. 8–13 are based on Bede, de Locis sanctis and other texts.

1199

Sources

[1]

[2]

[3]

395

Liber de Existencia Riveriarum et Forma Maris Nostri Mediterranei, ed. P.G. Dalché, Carte marine et portolan au xiie siècle (Rome 1995).

c.1200

Samuel Bar Samson, ed. F. Schulcz, A Letter from Samuel b. Samson (Weitzen 1929); trans. Adler, Jewish Travellers, pp. 103–11; Fr. trans. Carmoly, Itinéraires, pp. 113–68; cf. Prawer, History of the Jews, pp. 215–21.

1210

Wilbrand of Oldenburg, ‘Journey in the Holy Land’, Itinerarium … Terrae Sanctae, ed. D. Pringle, ‘Wilbrand of Oldenburg’s Journey to Syria, Lesser Armenia, Cyprus and the Holy Land (1211–12)’, Crusades 11 (2012), in press.

1211–12

Gervase of Tilbury, Otia Imperialia: Recreation for an Emperor 1.23–4 and appx. 2.2, ed. and trans. S.E. Banks and J.W. Binns (Oxford 2002), pp. 494–521, 880–99. Adaptation of Theodosius, de Situ Terrae Sanctae, followed by a fuller description of the Promised Land and adjoining territories based on Fretellus, both incorporated into an encyclopædia presented to Emperor Otto IV.

1215

Thietmar, ‘Pilgrimage’, Liber Peregrinationis, ed. J.C.M. Laurent, Mag. Thietmari Peregrinatio (Hamburg 1857).

1217–18

James of Vitry, Historia Hierosolimitana, Orientalis et Occidentalis, ed. F. Moschus, Iacobi de Vitriaco, libri duo (Douai 1597; repr. Farnborough 1971); ed. and Fr. trans. J. Donnadieu, Histoire orientale (Turnhout 2008).

–1226

Oliver of Paderborn, Descriptio Terre Sancte, ed. H. Hoogeweg, Die Schriften des Kölner Domscholasters (Tübingen 1894), pp. 1–24; extracts repr. in IHC 4, pp. 377– 401. Derived from Fretellus (1137) and Anon. vi (c.1148), with no contemporary information added.

1196– 1227

Domentijian, ‘Life of St Sava of Serbia’, ed. Dj. Daničić, Život svetoga Simeuna i svetoga Save (Belgrade 1865). Pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

1229–30

Ernoul’s Chronicle, ed. L. de Mas Latrie, Chronique d’Ernoul et de Bernard le Trésorier (Paris 1871); selected geographical descriptions in Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, pp. 29– 76; repr. in IHC 3, pp. 393–447.

c.1231

396

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

Estoires d’Outremer et de la naissance de Salehadin, ed. M.A. Jubb (London 1990); selected geographical descriptions ed. Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, pp. 23–8, 77–86; repr. in IHC 2, pp. 415–21.

c.1231

[4]

‘The Holy Pilgrimages’, Les sains pelerinages que l’en doit requerre en la terre sainte, ed. Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, pp. 1041–7; repr. in IHC 3, pp. 465–77.

1229–39

[5]

Anon. ix–x, ed. W.A. Neumann, Tübinger Theologische Quartalschrift (Tübingen 1874), pp. 534–9; ed. G. Golubovich, Biblioteca Bio-Bibliografica 1, pp. 405–10; IHC 3, pp. 91–107. Chs. 7–8 of Anon ix represent the Tractatus de Locis (1168–87).

1229–39

[6]

‘All the Land that the Sultan retains’, Tota Terra quam Soldanus detinet, ed. P. Deschamps, ‘Étude sur un texte latin’, Syria 23 (1942–43), pp. 86–104; repr. in IHC 3, pp. 479–83.

c.1239

Philip Mouskès (or Mouskèt), Description des saints-lieux, ed. Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, pp. 105–22; repr. in IHC 3, pp. 485–501. Description inserted into a rhymed chronicle of the history of France and Flanders.

1242

Notum sit Omnibus Fidelibus Christianis, in IHC 4, pp. 369– 75. Short description of Jerusalem, including the Temple area, followed by a list of the relics to be seen in Constantinople.

–1244

The pilgrimage of Louis IX from Acre to Nazareth (March 1251), recorded by Geoffrey of Beaulieu op, Vita S. Ludovici francorum regis 4.38, in AA SS, Aug. 5 (Paris 1868), col. 550; repr. in IHC 4, pp. 104–5.

1251

Albert of Stade, Itinerarium Terrae Sanctae, ed. G. Golubovich, Biblioteca Bio-Bibliografica 1, pp. 181–5; IHC 4, pp. 1–9. Fictitious journey, based on unknown source.

c.1251– 52

Greek Anon. i, ‘A Partial Account of the Holy Places of Jerusalem’, Μερκή Διήγησις ’εκ των ‘αγίον τόπων της ‘Ιερουσαλήμ, ed. A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, in Pravoslavnyi Palestinskii Sbornik 40 (St Petersburg 1895); Ger. trans. Külzer, Peregrinatio graeca, pp. 305–12.

1253–54

[7]

[8]

Sources

397

William of Rubruck, The Mission of William of Rubruck: His Journey to the Court of the Great Khan Möngke 1253–1255, trans. P. Jackson, Hakluyt Society, 2nd series 173, London (1990).

1253–55

Matthew Paris, De Situ Sanctae Civitatis et Urbibus Circumpositis, in Chronica majora, ed. H.R. Luard, RS 57.2 (London 1872–83), pp. 107–10; repr. in IHC 3, pp. 503–11. Description of Jerusalem and its surroundings in 1099, based on William of Tyre.

1235–59

Matthew Paris, ‘Itinerary from London to Jerusalem’, ed. Raynaud and Michelant, Itinéraires, pp. 123–40; repr. in IHC 3, pp. 513–21.

1250–59

‘Description of Jerusalem and the Holy Places’, in Continuation de Guillaume de Tyr de 1229 à 1261, dite du manuscrit de Rothelin, chs. 2–11, in RHC Occ 2, pp. 490–515; ed. Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, pp. 141–75; repr. in IHC 4, pp. 27–55; trans. J. Shirley, Crusader Syria in the Thirteenth Century (Aldershot 1999), pp. 13–29. Reworking of the description of Jerusalem from Ernoul’s Chronicle (chs. 2–9), followed by a pilgrimage text (chs. 10–11) similar to those in [4] and [10].

c.1261

[10b]

‘The Ways and Pilgrimages of the Holy Land’, Les Chemins et les Pelerinages de la Terre Sainte, text b, ed. Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, pp. 189–99; repr. in IHC 4, pp. 68–79.

1244–63

[11]

‘Pilgrimages, and Pardons of Acre’, Pelrinages et Pardouns de Acre, ed. Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, pp. 227–36; repr. in IHC 4, pp. 109–17.

1258–63

De Constructione Castrum Saphet, ed. R.B.C. Huygens (Amsterdam 1981); trans. Kennedy, Crusader Castles, pp. 190–98. Description of the castle and neighbouring holy sites, attributed to Benedict of Alignan, archbishop of Marseilles.

c.1264

Les Chemins et les Pelerinages de la Terre Sainte, text a, ed. Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, pp. 179–88; repr. in IHC 4, pp. 58–69.

1261–65

Les Pelerinaiges por aler en Iherusalem, ed. Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, pp. 87–104; repr. in IHC 3, pp. 449–63.

1261–68

[9]

[10a]

398

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

Description of Jerusalem in Chronicon Sampetrinum, ed. B. Stübel, Geschichtsquellen der Provinz Sachsen 1 (Halle 1870); repr. in IHC 4, pp. 81–4.

1267–68

Anon. iv, Iter ad Terram Sanctam, ed. T. Tobler, Theodorici Libellus (Paris 1865), pp. 134–40; repr. in IHC 3, pp. 23–7; trans. in PPTS 6, pp. 17–22. Compilation including 12c. material.

c.1270

Rusticello of Pisa, Voyages en Syrie de Nicolo, Maffeo et Marco Polo (first redaction), ed. Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, pp. 203–12.

1269–71

Thiébault de Cépoy, Voyages en Syrie de Nicolo, Maffeo et Marco Polo (second redaction), ed. Michelant and Raynaud, Itinéraires, pp. 213–26.

1269–71

[12]

Friar Maurice ofm, ‘Journey to the Holy Land’, Itinerarium in Terram Sanctam, ed. Storm, Monumenta Historiae Norvegiae, pp. 163–8; repr. in Golubovich, Biblioteca BioBibliografica 2, pp. 413–15; IHC 4, pp. 85–93.

1271–73

[13]

Burchard of Mount Sion op, ‘Description of the Holy Land’, Descriptio Terrae Sanctae, ed. Laurent, Peregrinatores, pp. 1–100; repr. in IHC 4, pp. 119–219; trans. in PPTS 12.

1274–85

Burchard of Mount Sion op, Liber de Descriptione Terre Sancte (shorter version), ed. H. Canisius, Antiquae lectiones 4, Ingolstadt (1604), pp. 295–322; ed. J. Basnage, Thesaurus monumentorum ecclesiasticorum et historicorum, sive, H. Canisii Lectiones antiquae 4, Antwerp (1725), pp. 1–26; repr. Societé de l’Orient Latin, Burchardus de Monte Sion, Liber de Descriptione Terre Sancte: Textus Conferendus [1879], pp. 92–117.

1274–85

Philip of Savona ofm, ‘Description of the Holy Land’, Descriptio Terrae Sanctae, ed. W.A. Neumann, ‘Drei mittelalterliche Pilgerschriften, iii’, OVKT 11 (1872), pp. 1–78, 165–74; less complete version in IHC 4, pp. 221–54.

c.1280– 89

Liber de Civitatibus Terrae Sanctae, in IHC 4, pp. 340–67. An abbreviated version of Philip of Savona’s ‘Description’.

c.1280– 89

[14]

Sources

[15]

[16]

[17]

399

Riccoldo of Monte Croce op, ‘Pilgrimage’, Liber peregrinationis, ed. Laurent, Peregrinationes, pp. 101–41; repr. in IHC 4, pp. 255–332; ed. and Fr. trans. Kappler, Ricold de Monte Croce, pp. 36–205.

1288–89

Il Compasso da navigare, ed. B.R. Motzo (Cagliari 1947); index in Dalché, Carte marine, pp. 239–53. Portolan guide.

–1291

Anon. iii, Haec est via ad Terram Sanctam, ed. T. Tobler, Theoderici Libellus (Paris 1865), pp. 128–34; repr. in IHC 3, pp. 17–21; trans. in PPTS 6, pp. 12–17. Compiled from various 12c. and 13c. sources.

1296–

‘These are the Pilgrimages and Holy Places of the Holy Land’, Hec sunt Peregrinationes et Loca Terrae Sanctae, ed. W.A. Neumann, in OVKT 11 (1872), pp. 9–11; ed. G. Golubovich, Archivium Franciscanum, Ad Claras Aquas (1918), pp. 559– 63; repr. in IHC 4, pp. 333–9.

13c.

Ci sunt li saint leu de Jerusalem, ed. F. Bonnardot and A. Lognon, Le Saint Voyage de Jherusalem du seigneur d’Anglure, Paris (1878), appx. iv, pp. 115–21. Abbreviated translation of the Bordeaux Pilgrim (ad 333), attached to an early 14c. MS of the Chronicle of Bernard the Treasurer (Paris BN, Arsenal, MS. 4797 (formerly 677), fols. 128b–129c).

13c.

Les voiages que saint Antoine fist en la Terre d’Outremer, ed. Tobler and Molinier, Itinera Hierosolymitana 1, pp. 383– 91. Paris BN, 1038. Translation of the Piacenza Pilgrim (ad c.570).

13c.

Greek Anon. ii, de Locis Hierosolymitanis, in PG 133, cols. 973–90.

c.1250– c.1350

Marino Sanudo, Liber secretorum fidelium crucis super Terrae Sanctae recuperatione et conservatione, ed. J. Bongars (Hanau 1611; repr. Jerusalem 1972); trans. P. Lock, Book of the Secrets (Aldershot 2011); extracts trans. in PPTS 12.

1306–9, revised 1321

400

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

Maps c.1175–c.1320 Holy Land Florence (late 12c.). Bibl. Medicea Laurenziana, Ashburnham, Lib. no. 1882. Röhricht, ‘Karten und Pläne, vi’, no. 15, pl. v; Harvey, Maps, ch. 5. Florence (Burchardus 1, c.1290). Bibl. Medicea Laurenziana, MS. Plut. 76.56, fols. 97v–98r; Harvey, Maps, ch. 9; cf. Röhricht, ‘Marino Sanuto’, pp. 104–5, no. 26, pl. 7. Florence (Burchardus 2, c.1290). Archivio di Stato, Carte nautiche, geografiche e topografiche 4. Röhricht, ‘Karten und Pläne, i’, no. 1; Harvey, Maps, ch. 10. London (‘Jerome map’). British Library, Additional MS. 10049, fol. 64r. Röhricht, Bibliotheca, p. 600, no. 12; Nebenzahl, Maps, pp. 18–19, no. 3; Harvey, Maps, ch. 6. Oxford (Matthew Paris, c.1250). Corpus Christi MS. 2, fol. 2b. Nebenzahl, Maps, pp. 38–9, no. 13; Röhricht, ‘Karten und Pläne, vi’, pp. 177–80, no. 16, pl. vi; Harvey, Maps, ch. 7. Matthew Paris a (1250/59, late 16c./early 17c. copy of b). London, BL, Lansdowne MS. 253, fols. 230v–231r. Dichter, Maps of Acre, p. 14; Jomard, Monuments, nos. viii, ix; Michelant and Raynaud (eds.), Itinéraires, pp. 125–39a; Harvey, Maps, ch. 8; cf. Harvey, ‘Matthew Paris’s Maps’, pp. 169–73. ——— b (third-volume map) (1252/59). London, BL, MS. Roy. 14.c.vii, fols. 4v–5r. Dichter, Maps of Acre, pp. 12–14; Harvey, Medieval Maps, p. 91; Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, fig. 3; Kamal, Monumenta Cartographica 3.5, fol. 1001; Lewis, Art of Matthew Paris, pp. 360–61; Michelant and Raynaud (eds.), Itinéraires, pp. 125–39b; Nebenzahl, Maps, pp. 36–7, no. 12; Prawer, ‘Historical Maps of Acre’, pp. 177–8, pl. xx; Vaughan, Illustrated Chronicle, frontispiece and pp. 118, 119, 145, 155, 163, 185; Harvey, Maps, ch. 8; cf. Harvey, ‘Matthew Paris’s Maps’, pp. 169–73. ——— c (first-volume map) (1252/59). Cambridge, Corpus Christi MS. 26, fols. 3v–4r. Connolly, ‘Imagined Pilgrimage’, pp. 604–5; Dichter, Maps of Acre, pp. 10–11; Lewis, Art of Matthew Paris, pp. 350–51; Michelant and Raynaud (eds.), Itinéraires, pp. 125–39c; Harvey, Maps, ch. 8; cf. Harvey, ‘Matthew Paris’s Maps’, pp. 169–73. ——— d (second-volume map) (1250/59). Cambridge, Corpus Christi MS. 16, fols. 2v–5r. Dichter, Maps of Acre, p. 15 (no. 2); Kamal, Monumenta 3.5, fol. 1002; Michelant and Raynaud (eds.), Itinéraires, 125–39d; Vaughan, Illustrated Chronicle, pp. 85, 128, 137, 155; Harvey, Maps, ch. 8; cf. Harvey, ‘Matthew Paris’s Maps’, pp. 169–73. ——— x (near contemporary copy of c). London, BL, Cotton MS. Tiberius E.vi, fols. 3v–4r. Cf. Harvey, Maps, ch. 8; id., ‘Matthew Paris’s Maps’, p. 169 n.15. Marino Sanudo–Pietro Vesconte a (c.1320). British Library MS. 27376. Prawer, in Sanudo, Liber Secretorum, p. ix; Röhricht, ‘Marino Sanuto sen. als Kartograph Palästinas’, no. 18, pl. ii.

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——— b. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS. Vat. Reg. Lat. 548, fols. 141v–142r. Nebenzahl, Maps, pp. 42–5, no. 15. Acre Marino Sanudo–Pietro Vesconte a (c.1320). Oxford, Bodleian, MS. 10016 (Tanner 190), fol. 207r. Prawer, ‘Historical Maps of Acre’, pp. 178–80, fig. p. 179, pl. xxi.1; Dichter, Maps of Acre, pp. 17–19; Hartal, ‘Excavation of the Courthouse Site’, fig. 1. ——— b (1320s). Florence, Riccardiana, Ms. 237 (olim K.iii.33), fol. 144r. Dichter, Maps of Acre, p. 20. ——— c (early to mid 15c.). Florence, Medicea Laurenziana, MS. Plut. xxi, 23, fol. 149r. Dichter, Maps of Acre, p. 21. ——— d. Rome, Vatican, MS. Reg. Lat. 548, fol. 143r. Dichter, Maps of Acre, p. 22. ——— e. London, BL, MS. Add. 27376, fol. 190r. Dichter, Maps of Acre, pp. 23–4; Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, fig. 1; id., ‘Aspects of Everyday Life’, fig. 1; Nebenzahl, Maps, p. fig. 9; Prawer, in Sanudo, Liber Secretorum, p. xi; Röhricht, ‘Marino Sanuto’, no. 21, pl. v. ——— f (1320s). Brussels, Bibl. Royale, Mss. 9404–5, fol. 175r. ——— g (1320s). Brussels, Bibl. Royale, Mss. 9347–8, fol. 164r. Paolino Veneto (bishop of Pozzuoli) a (1323). Venice, Marciana, MS. Z. lat. 399 (colloc. 1610), fol. 84v. Prawer, ‘Historical Maps of Acre’, p. 180–82, fig. p. 181, pl. xxi; Dichter, Maps of Acre, pp. 27–9. ——— b (1328). Paris, BN, Ms. Lat. 4939, fol. 113v., col. 1. Dichter, Maps of Acre, p. 30. ——— c (1334–39). Rome, Vatican, Ms. Lat. 1960, fol. 268v. Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, fig. 2; id., ‘Aspects of Everyday Life’, fig. 2; Calano, ‘San Giovanni d’Acri’, fig. 10; Hartal, ‘Excavation of the Courthouse Site’, fig. 2. Pietro Vesconte (1320s). Rome, Vatican, MS. Palat. Lat. 1362, fol. 9r. (in atlas). Dichter, Maps of Acre, p. 26 (wrongly attributed to Paolino Veneto). Jerusalem London (c.1250). BL, Harleian 658, fol. 37b. Bahat and Rubinstein, Illustrated Atlas, p. 101; IHC 3, pp. 6–7; Röhricht, ‘Karten und Pläne, iii’, pp. 140–41, no. 4, pl. v. Sanudo–Vesconte (de Bastard) (c.1320). Collection du comte Auguste de Bastard. De Vogüé, Églises de la Terre Sainte, pp. 436–7. (London) (c.1320). BL 27376. Prawer, in Sanudo, Liber Secretorum, p. x; Röhricht, ‘Marino Sanuto’, no. 20, pl. iv. (Vatican) (c.1320). Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. Reg. Lat. 548, fol. 142v. Nebenzahl, Maps, fig. 10.

402

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

Florence (14c.). Bibl. Laurenziana, plut. 76, 56, fol. 97r. Röhricht, ‘Marino Sanuto’, no. 24, pl. viii. Other Primary Sources Abū Shāmā, Kitāb al-rawḍatayn (Book of the Two Gardens), in RHC Or 4–5. Adler, E.N., Jewish Travellers, London: Routledge (1930); repr. as Jewish Travellers in the Middle Ages, New York: Dover (1987). Adomnán of Iona, de Locis Sanctis, ed. L. Bieler, in CCSL 175, pp. 175–234; trans. in Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims, pp. 93–116. Albert of Stade, Itinerarium Terrae Sanctae, ed. G. Golubovich, Biblioteca BioBibliografica 1, pp. 181–5; repr. in IHC 4, pp. 1–9. Alexander III (Pope), Epistolæ et Privilegia, in PL 200, cols. 69–1320. Alexander IV (Pope), Les Registres d’Alexandre IV, ed. C. Bourel de la Roncière et al., 3 vols. (8 fascs.), BEFAR, series 2, 15, Paris (1902–1959). Allatius (Allacci), L., Σύμμικτα sive opusculorum Graecorum et Latinorum, vetustiorum ac recentiorum, ed. N. Nihus, 2 vols. (in one), Cologne (1653). Ambroise, Estoire de la Guerre Sainte, ed. and trans. M. Ailes and M. Barber, The History of the Holy War, 2 vols., Woodbridge: Boydell (2003). Annales de Terre Sainte, ed. R. Röhricht and G. Raynaud, in AOL 2.2, pp. 427–61. Anonymous ii, Peregrinationes ad Loca Sancta, ed. T. Tobler, Theodorici libellus, Paris (1865), pp. 118–28; trans. J. Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrimage, pp. 238– 43; repr. in IHC 3, pp. 9–15; trans. A. Stewart in PPTS 6, pp. 5–12. Anonymous iii, Haec est via ad Terram Sanctam, ed. T. Tobler, Theoderici Libellus (Paris 1865), pp. 128–34; repr. in IHC 3, pp. 17–21; trans. A. Stewart, in PPTS 6, pp. 12–17. Anonymous iv, Iter ad Terram Sanctam, ed. T. Tobler, Theodorici Libellus (Paris 1865), pp. 134–40; repr. in IHC 3, pp. 23–7; trans. A. Stewart in PPTS 6, pp. 17–22. Anonymus vi (Pseudo-Bede), Beda de Descriptione eiusdem Terre Sancte, ed. W.A. Neumann, in Österreichische Viertelsjahrschrift für katholische Theologie (1868), pp. 397–438; repr. in IHC 3, pp. 45–75; trans. A. Stewart in PPTS 6. Anonymous ix–x, ed. W.A. Neumann, Tübinger Theologische Quartalschrift (Tübingen 1874), pp. 534–9; ed. G. Golubovich, Biblioteca Bio-Bibliografica 1, pp. 405–10; repr. in IHC 3, pp. 91–107. Arnold of Lübeck, Chronica Slavorum, ed. H. Pertz, in MGH SS 21, pp. 100–250. Bahā’ al-Dīn Ibn Shaddād, al-Nawādir al-Sulṭāniyya wa’l-Maḥāsin al-Yūsufiyya, trans. D.S. Richards, The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin, Aldershot: Ashgate (2002). Baldi, D. (ed.), Enchiridion Locorum Sanctorum: Documenta S. Evangelii Loca Respicientia, 2nd edition, Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press (1955).

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Index

Aaron 121, 122, 124, 174, 217, 230, 241, 347 Abana, River (Nahr Baradā) 103, 198, 357 Abaqa (Mongol il-khan) 51, 317 Abbasid caliph 40, 106–7, 200 ‘Abd al-Mu’min (Almohad caliph) 207 Abel 101, 146, 179, 223, 306, 342, 343, 355 Abel, Fr Felix-Marie 58 Abel-mehola (Tall Abū Sūs?) 268 Abibas 112 Abihu 124 Abimelech (Ebed-melech) 191–2, 392 Abinoam 258 Abiram 122 Abishag the Shunammite 274 Abraham 114, 140–41, 142, 146, 171, 175, 176, 179, 191, 196, 202, 216, 218, 223, 305, 306, 323, 336, 342, 343, 356, 364, 380, 382, 386, 391 garden of see Jericho see also St Abraham, Hebron Abram 196 Absalom 286 Abū Ghosh (Qaryat al-‘Inab, Emmaus) 7, 41, 44, 111, 160–61, 172, 179, 221, 223, 229, 301, 310, 339, 350, 373 Abū Ḥafs ‘Umar al-Murtaḍā (Almohad caliph) 207 Abū Hasan al-Hakarī (‘amīr) 92 Abū’l-Hasan, Qal‘at (Cava Belciassem, castle) 185 Abū Qubays 70 Abubus 281, 367 Abyssinia 130 Achan (son of Carmi, son of Zerah) 117, 282 Achash (daughter of Caleb) 306 Achilles 107 Achor, valley of 282

Acre (Accon, Ptolemaïs) 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 18, 19, 21, 25, 27–8, 34, 37, 38, 41, 42, 44, 46, 49, 55, 62, 64, 71, 84, 85, 86, 95–6, 102, 104, 107, 109, 131, 146, 157, 165, 173, 183, 184, 197, 204, 205–6, 209, 210, 225, 226, 229, 235–6, 240, 243, 244, 245–6, 253, 257, 261, 267, 272, 287, 307, 353, 362, 365, 374–5 bishop 63, 133, 247 see also James of Vitry, Theobald, William castle 205, 246 cemetery 45, 205 the Chain (customs house) 205 churches and religious houses: Brothers of the Sack 16, 236; church of Bethlehem 16, 235; Dominicans 16, 55, 235; Franciscans (Friars Minor) 15, 16, 45, 236; Holy Cross 16, 235; Holy Sepulchre 16, 235; Holy Spirit 16, 235; Holy Trinity 16, 236; Magdalenes (Repentite Sisters) 16, 45, 236; St Andrew 16, 18, 235; St Anne 16, 235; St Antony 16, 45, 236; St Bartholomew of Beirut 16, 236; St Brigid 16, 45, 236; St Catherine (Greek Orthodox) 236; St Catherine of the Battlefield 16, 236; St Denys 16, 45, 236; St George (church of Lydda) 16, 45, 236; St Giles 16, 45, 236; St John the Baptist (church and hospital) 15, 16, 18, 45, 205, 236; St Laurence of the Genoese 16, 45, 235; St Lazarus of Bethany 16, 235 (Benedictine nuns); St Lazarus of the Knights 16, 45, 205, 236; St Leonard 16, 235; St

428

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

Mark of the Venetians 16, 45, 235; St Martin of the Bretons 16, 45, 236; St Mary 63; St Mary Latin 16, 235; St Mary of the Valley of Jehoshaphat 16, 235; St Mary of the Germans 16, 205, 235; St Mary of the Knights 16, 235; St Mary of Tyre (Benedictine nuns) 16, 34, 36, 235; St Mary Magdalene 16, 236; St Michael 15, 16, 45, 235; St Michael (cemetery chapel) 226; St Nicolas (cemetery chapel) 16, 45, 205, 226, 234, 235; St Peter of the Pisans 16, 45, 235; St Romanus 16, 235; St Samuel 16, 235; St Stephen 16, 235; St Thomas of Canterbury 16, 45, 205, 236; Templars 8, 16, 45, 62, 205, 235 cemetery 16, 45, 205, 226 Frankish siege (1189–91) 184 gates: Our Lady 45; Pilgrims 45, 235; St Nicolas 205 houses of: the constable 205; the patriarch 205 icon and book production 19 indulgences 15–17, 45 Mamluk capture (1291) 8–9, 55 map of 39–40 Montmusard suburb 17, 45, 182, 205, 236 plain of 8 tomb of St William 226 towers: Accursed 63, 205; of the Flies 96; of the Genoese 205; of the Pisans 40, 205 war of St Sabas 45 Adam 160, 169, 173, 192, 216, 233, 327, 377 creation 114, 171, 179, 196, 198, 223, 232, 305, 341, 380 tomb 114, 179, 305, 342 Adana (Cilicia) 78 Adiabene 293 al-‘Ādil I, al-Malik (Ayyubid sultan) 2, 86, 97, 100, 105, 120, 140 al-‘Ādil II, al-Malik (Ayyubid sultan) 5 Admah 117, 347 Adomnán (abbot of Iona) 22

Adonijah (son of Haggith) 294, 369 Adrianople 226 Adullam, cave of 302 Æneas 110, 351 Ænon 275 al-Afḍal Nūr al-Dīn ‘Alī, al-Malik (Ayyubid sultan) 90 Africa 207, 237, 358 ‘Afūla 273, 274 Agenor 244 agricultural produce, herbs and vegetables 72, 119 beans 364 corn 87, 119, 199, 207, 239, 273, 312, 323, 326 cotton 68, 107, 312 cucumbers 314 fennel 68, 312 honey 82, 314 melons 314 reeds and canes for roofing 345 roses 312, 368 rue 312 sage 312 silk 208, 250 spices 98, 199, 208 sugar-cane (canna mellis) 66, 76, 117, 199, 208, 246, 249, 250, 282, 283, 312, 345, 368 turnips 124 see also domestic animals, fruits, trees Agrippa I, Herod (king) 191, 296, 308, 392 Ahab 274, 275, 277 Ahaziah (king of Judah) 273, 355 Ahimelech 307 Aḥmad Tegüder (Takūdār) (Mongol ilkhan) 317 Ai (Khirbat al-Tall) 242, 282, 284 Aijalon (Yālū) 111 Aimery of Lusignan (king of Cyprus and Jerusalem) 65, 82 Aimery of Pax (Hospitaller castellan of Silifke) 78 ‘Ajlūn 141, 276 Akeldama see Jerusalem Akhziv (al-Zīb, casale Lamberti) 246 Alamut 68, 316 Alawites (Vannini) 251, 316

Index Albanians 241 Albert of Stade 21 Albert of Vercelli (Latin patriarch of Jerusalem) 13, 34, 62, 84, 168 Albufeira 237 Aleppo 69, 70, 73, 76, 200 Alexander III (pope) 15, 181 Alexander IV (pope) 15 Alexander the Great 75, 78, 135, 196, 197, 246, 247 Alexandretta (Iskandarūn) 74, 76 Alexandria 10, 38, 126, 129, 195, 196, 204, 207, 347, 349 patriarch 130, 133 see also Gregory I Alfonso X (king of Castille) 237 Algeciras (al-Jazirat al-Khadra) 238 Alicante 239 Alice (daughter of Rupen III, prince of Armenia, and Isabel of Toron) 37, 74, 183 Alfonso III (king of Aragon) 10 Allatius, Leo 26, 58–9 Almería 238 Almohad (al-Muwaḍḍidūn) caliphs 207 Almuñécar (al-Munakkab) 238 Alps 256 Amalek 305, 323 Amalric (king of Jerusalem) 89, 181, 199, 230, 316 Amalric of Neslé (Latin patriarch of Jerusalem) 181 ‘Ammān 244 see also Rabbath Ammon Ammon 256, 260, 267, 282, 284 see also Rabbath Ammon Ammonites 143, 256, 283, 304 Amorites 119, 120, 252, 255, 283 Amos (prophet) 115, 304, 341 ampullae 18–19 Amuda (Cilicia), castle 25, 80 ‘Amwās (Nicopolis, Emmaus) 111, 301, 310, 354 Anagni 52 Anah 266 Ananias 77, 198, 357 Anathoth (Ra’s al-Kharrūba, near ‘Anātā) 285, 293, 298, 354 Anavarza (Anazarbus) (Cilicia) 80 Andrew Nicolasson 21, 46, 240

429

Andromeda 110 Annas (father-in-law of Caiaphas) 366 ‘Anfa (Nephin) 67, 68, 250 Anne (Bi’r Bayt Hanna, Bayt Ḥanūn) 168, 353 Antaradus see Ṭarṭūs Anti-Lebanon mountains 103, 248, 251, 256, 357 antiliya (nuria, sāqiya) 149 Antioch 38, 71–3, 74, 81, 204, 239, 240, 243, 357 chancellor see Geoffrey churches and religious houses: Carpitanae nuns 15; Black Mountain 204; St Barbara 73; St Paul 72; St Peter (cathedral) 72 houses 71–2 miraculous icon of Our Lady 72 patriarch 72, 133, 204, 357 patriarchate 249, 253 port 46, 71 see also Port St Symeon prince 204, 239 see Bohemond IV, Raymond Rupen principality of 25, 253 tombs: Frederick I (containing his flesh) 72; German crusaders 72–3; St Babylas (archbishop) 189 Antioch in Pisidia 358 Antiochus I (Seleucid king) 204 Antiochus III (Seleucid king) 300 Antiochus IV Epiphanes (Seleucid king) 335 Antipater (father of Herod the Great) 110, 267, 308, 350 Antipatris (Ra’s al-‘Ayn) 110, 277, 308, 319, 352 Antony, Mark 285 Apamea (Qal‘at al-Mudīq) 243 bishop 253 Aphek 273, 274 Apollonia (Arsūf) 308, 319, 351, 352 Apollonius 241 Apollonius of Tyre 63 Apulia 65 ‘Aqaba, gulf of 4 ‘Aqabat ‘Afīq 99 ‘Āqīr 309 Aquila (Faustus) 240

430

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

Ar of Moab 244, 283 see also Rabbath Moab Arabia 94, 118, 123, 131, 135, 143, 182, 184, 243, 244, 282, 289, 305, 316, 347, 364 Secunda 199, 244, 283 Tertia 244–5 Arabs 71, 94, 100, 124 Aracheus (son of Canaan) 251 Aradus (al-Ruwād) 240, 251–2 Aragon 239 al-‘Araj 262, 362 Aram 259, 260, 261 Arcas see ‘Arqa Arculf (Gallic bishop) 22 Areopolis 282 see also Rabbath Moab Aretas (king of Damascus) 244 Arghun (Mongol il-khan) 50, 317 Arimathea 110, 301 al-‘Arīsh 10, 44 Aristotle 55 Ark of the Covenant 111, 120, 128, 174–5, 217, 241, 300, 301, 334 Arkites 252 Armenia (Greater) 1, 40, 75, 131, 197–8, 242 Armenian Cilicia (or Lesser Armenia) 10, 21, 25, 49, 50–51, 52, 55, 73–81, 240, 242, 316–19, 375 catholicus 75, 78, 317 see Gregory VI Abirad, Gregory VII kings 74, 318 see Het‘um I, Het‘um II, Levon I, Levon II, Trdat III Armenians 2, 7, 72, 74, 81, 132, 163, 165, 170, 176, 194, 226, 250, 256, 315, 382 liturgy 74–5, 78–9, 317–19 Arnais (Herneis) of Gibelet 30 Arnon (Wādī al-Mūjib) 120, 244, 256, 283, 284, 311 ‘Arqa (Arcas) 135, 251, 252, 256, 316, 357 bishop 253 Arsūf (Apollonia) 8, 41, 42, 43, 53, 86, 109, 168, 202, 212, 213, 308, 319, 351, 352 Arvad (son of Canaan) 252 Arvadites 252

Ascalon 5, 8, 37, 110, 157, 181, 206, 214, 266–7, 305, 310, 320, 349, 350 bishop 214 church of St Paul 214 tower of the Maidens 110 Ascent of Blood see Ma‘ale Adumim Ashdod (Azotus, ‘Isdūd) 110, 212, 266, 305, 309, 310, 311, 320, 350 Ashdod Yam (Minat al-Qal‘a) 212 Asher (son of Jacob) 141 tribe 245, 257, 261, 262, 270, 311 al-Ashraf Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Khalīl (Mamluk sultan) 8 ‘Askar see Sychar Asphaltides 117, 284 see also Dead Sea Assassins (al-Ḥashīshiyyīn) 68–9, 132, 200, 252, 316, 373 see also Old Man of the Mountain Assyrians 290–91 Atad, threshing floor of 282 Athanasius II (Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem) 7 Athens 240 Atlas 69 ‘Atlīt see Pilgrims’ Castle Augustinian canons 133, 153, 198, 235 Augustus Cæsar 85, 109 Auranitis 261 Ayas (Cilicia) 55, 375 ‘Aydhāb 140 Ayla 123 Aymar the Monk 22–3 ‘Ayn al-Hanniyya 388 ‘Ayn al-Ma‘mudiyya 380 ‘Ayn al-Sulṭān see Jericho ‘Ayn Jālūt, battle (1260) 44, 275 ‘Ayn Karim (House of Zechariah) 41, 44, 138, 191, 221, 223, 305, 307, 310, 338, 371, 380, 391 churches: St John 371, 380, 391; St John of the Woods 191, 233, 391 ‘Ayn Shams 301 ‘Ayn Tuba‘ūn (Tubanie) 146 Ayun (Cilicia) 77, 80 Ayyubids 3, 8, 28, 36–7, 40, 141, 157, 200, 215, 276 Azekah (Tall Zakariyya) 309 Azotus see Ashdod

Index Baal, priests of 191, 245, 272–3, 365 Baal of Peor 119 Baal-gad 256 Baalzebub 62, 95 Bāb al-Wād 44 Bāb Iskandarūn (Jonah’s Pillar) 75–6 Babel 106 Babylas see St Babylas Babylon 106, 110, 129, 192, 242, 243, 350, 392 Babylonians 334 Babylon of Egypt see Cairo, Egypt Babylonia (Egypt), desert of 122 Bacharite (Shi’ites inhabiting Dog’s Pass and Baqā‘a) 270 Badr al-Dīn Aydamrurī (‘amīr) 42 Badr al-Dīn Duldarim (‘amīr) 86 Bagatti, Fr Bellarmino 17 Baghdad 5, 40, 55, 56, 106 Abbasid caliph 106–7, 200 Baghras see Gaston Bahurim of Benjamin 286 al-Ba‘ina (St George) 7, 261, 262 monastery of Greek monks (Dayr alAsad) 167, 228 Balaam 119, 120, 283, 347 Balak (king) 119 Bal‘ama, Khirbat (Balamon, Castle of St Job) 146, 151, 268 Balāṭa see Shechem Balatonos 239 Baldwin I (king of Jerusalem) 68, 89, 230, 246, 264, 282, 348 Baldwin II (king of Jerusalem) 6, 89, 230 Baldwin III (king of Jerusalem) 89, 181, 230 Baldwin IV (king of Jerusalem) 87, 89, 145, 148, 214, 230, 262 Baldwin V (king of Jerusalem) 89, 150, 230 Baldwin of Ramla 278 Balian of Ibelin (lord of Ibelin and Nāblus) 30 Balian of Ibelin (lord of Arsūf) 308 Balthazar 223, 232, 340 Banī Na‘īm, tomb of Lot 342 Bāniyās (Cæsarea Philippi) 99, 109, 136, 184, 249, 251, 254, 255, 256, 269, 278, 310, 345, 356, 374

431

b ishop 133, 184 identified as Dan 254 Bāniyās (Valania) 70, 99, 243, 252–3 bishop 70, 243, 247, 252 Baqā‘a valley (Val Bacar, Bakar) 135, 270 Barak (son of Abinoam) 258, 271, 272, 285 Barbary 207, 238 Barby (Saxony) 47–8 al-barriyya (Birrie, desert) 122, 204 Basel, MSS in 28–9, 48 Bashan 119, 244, 256, 264 Batanea 261 Bathsheba 193 Baṭrūn 67, 250 al-Baṭṭawf (Carmelion), plain of 268, 270 Baybars I, al-Ẓāhir Rukn al-Dīn (Mamluk sultan) 8, 9, 35, 41, 42, 43, 50, 51, 53, 198, 211, 214, 227, 239, 253, 257, 269, 278, 285, 303, 308, 316, 363, 364, 365 Bayt Bazzīn, Khirbat 278 Bayt Ḥānūn (Anne, Bi’r Bayt Hanna) 5, 168, 353 Bayt Jāla 304, 310, 391 Bayt Jibrīn (Eleutheropolis) 5, 181, 305, 349, 350, 354 road to 371, 388 wrongly identified as Beer-sheba 254, 310, 349, 350 Bayt Jubr al-Taḥtāni 116 Bayt Nūbā 3, 7, 44, 87, 110, 169, 215, 229, 307, 309, 350, 365 Bayt Ṣūr (Burj al-Ṣūr) 310 Bayt ‘Ūr al-Taḥtā (Bethoron inferior, Lower Beth-horon) 301 Baytīn 117, 278, 284–5 Beatrix of Hallermund 24, 73 Beaufort Castle (Belfort, Qal‘at al-Shaqīf Arnūn) 5, 8, 37, 50, 185, 248 Becula (Bethula) 182 Bede, Venerable 22, 23 Bedouin 71, 109, 121–2, 124, 132, 201, 215, 251, 283, 315 Beer-sheba 242, 254, 265, 305, 310 mistakenly identified with Bayt Jibrīn 254, 310, 349–50 Beirut 8, 11, 44, 65–6, 205, 234, 244, 249, 270, 358

432

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

b ishop 66, 133, 247, 249 castle 65–6 churches and religious houses: Franciscans 66; St Jude 66 lords see John I of Ibelin miraculous crucifix 66, 234, 249, 358 tomb of Simon and Jude 66 Bela (Zoar) 347 Belen pass 73 Belfort see Beaufort Belmont Castle (Ṣūba) 309, 310, 338, 350 Belus, River (Nahr Na‘mayn) 107 Belvoir Castle (Kawkab al-Hawā) 5, 37, 145, 183, 271 Benedictines 35, 83, 97, 152, 153, 162, 166, 169, 174, 183, 227, 235 Benjamin 113, 141, 340, 341 tribe 118, 243, 280, 285, 298, 301, 311, 343 Beon of the children of Ruben 286 Beracah, valley of 304 Bergen 21, 46 Berlin, MSS in 26, 29, 56–7 Bernard the Treasurer (treasurer of Corbie) 30 see also Ernoul Berne, MSS in 33, 48 Bethagla 282 Bethany 3, 7, 41, 59, 93, 163, 171, 178, 190, 221, 232, 286–7, 293, 298, 299, 331, 332, 336, 344, 345, 369, 379, 386 abbey of St Lazarus (Benedictine nuns) 115, 161, 184, 235, 286, 332, 344, 369 house of Martha (church) 332, 344 tomb of Martha and Mary 190 tomb of Lazarus 286–7, 386 Bethel 111, 117, 146, 242, 278, 282, 284–5, 298, 311, 325, 370 mistakenly located near Shechem 146, 278, 325 Beth-haccarem 305 Beth-horon (Bayt ‘Ūr) pass 111, 297, 301, 309 Beth-horon, Lower (Bethoron inferior, Bayt ‘Ūr al-Taḥtā) 301 Bethlehem 3, 4, 5, 7, 14, 37, 44, 55, 59, 77, 90, 110, 111, 113–14, 115, 141,

159, 191, 198, 222–3, 232, 287, 297, 302–4, 305, 307, 310, 313, 340–41, 342, 350, 369–71, 379–80 bishop and chapter 7, 133, 214, 235 church of the Holy Nativity (or St Mary) 2, 113–14, 171, 178, 222–23, 232, 241, 267, 270, 302–4, 340–41, 370, 379–80, 390–91 church of St Paula and St Eustochium (St Nicolas, Milk Grotto) 304, 341, 371, 380 church in Acre 16, 235 Beth-peor (Khirbat al-Shaykh Jāyil) 281 Bethphage 91, 178, 190, 221, 232, 287, 332, 333, 369 church 163 Beth-rehob 254 Bethsaida 98, 183, 262, 263, 269, 322, 325, 352, 355, 362, 363 Beth-shean (Baysān, Scythopolis) 244, 266, 267, 268, 269, 272, 274, 311, 356 Beth-shemesh of Judah (Tall al-Rumayla) 301, 309 Beth-shemesh of Naphtali (Tall alRuwaysī?) 301 Bethulia (perhaps al-Shaykh Shibal, s of Janīn, but in 13th century also located near sea of Galilee) 49, 99, 148, 182, 258, 262, 263, 268–9, 324, 355, 364 identified with Ḥaṭṭīn 262, 268–9, 364 Beth-zur 310 Bezek (Khirbat Ibzīq) 304, 310 see also Bayt Jāla Bilād al-Suwayt (Baladach Suithes, Baldat suites, Black Country) 356 Bildad the Shuhite 260, 264 Bi’r al-Maksūr 225 Bi’r Ayyūb (Job’s well) 149, 385 Bi’r Bayt Hanna (Bayt Ḥānūn, Anne,) 5, 168, 210, 353 al-Bīra 278, 280 birds 101 carrier pigeon 67–8 chicken 153 duck 153 falcon 97

Index goose 153 ibis 122 nightingale 101 lark 101 ostrich 83 parrot 99 partridge 314 quail 101, 314 raven 123 stork 122 Bithynia 353 Bitulion (Shaykh Zuwayd) 182 bitumen 117, 284 Black Country 356 Black Mountain 375 Blanchegarde (Tall al-Safi‘) 350 Blemmyes 387 Blois, relics of St Mary the Egyptian 54, 331 Boaz 341 Bohemians 163 Bohemond IV (prince of Antioch and count of Tripoli) 67, 68, 69 Bohemond VII (count of Tripoli) 250 Boniface VIII (pope) 52 Bordeaux 52 Bosphorus 353 Bostra (Būsra‘) 244, 255, 260, 355, 356 Brahmins 241 Braisne, abbey of St.-Yved 26 Braunschweig 18 Breslau see Wroclaw Bretons 16, 45, 163, 236 Brothers of the Sack 16, 236 Bruges, MSS in 50, 51–2 Brussels, MSS in 33 Buffavento Castle (Cyprus) 82 Bujaya (Bugie) 207 Buqay‘a plain 357 Buquequia (Cilicia) 80 Burchard (lector of Dominicans in Magdeburg) 47 Burchard of Mount Sion 12, 23, 46–51, 57, 241–320, 337 Burchard II of Querfurt (burgrave of Magdeburg) 73 Burchard of Strasbourg 4, 102 al-Burj (Qal‘at Ṭanṭūra) 103, 309

433

Burj al-Maliḥ (tower of the Saltings) 168 Busayra 183 Būsra‘ see Bostra Byblos (Jubayl, Giblet) 249–50 bishop 249 lord 250 Byzantium 1 Cabo de Beta 237 Cabo de Plata 238 Cabo de Spartel 238 Cabul 248, 257, 260, 270, 311 Cadiz (Gàdes) 237 Cadmus 244 Cæsarea of Palestine (Cæsarea Maritima/ on Sea) 8, 37, 41, 42, 53, 85–6, 109, 148, 168, 173, 206, 211–12, 229, 240, 244, 277, 307–8, 319, 351–2, 374 archbishop 7, 86, 133, 307 see Peter of Limoges table and candlesticks of the Lord (Roman circus) 173, 212, 352 churches and chapels: St Cornelius 173, 212; St Mary Magdalene 212–13; St Peter 18, 109 house of St Philip and daughters’ tombs 109, 173, 212, 351–2 lords see John Laleman, Hugh, Nicolas, Thomas prison of St Paul 352 Cæsarea Philippi see Bāniyās Cagliari 239 Caiaphas (high priest) 85, 366 house of 113, 158, 170, 176, 194, 219, 379, 388 see also Jerusalem: church of St Saviour Cain 101, 146, 223, 273, 306, 342, 343, 353–4, 356 Cairo (Babylon) 10, 50, 52, 118, 123, 129, 130, 195, 198, 200, 204, 285 balsam plantation 118, 285–6, 342, 387 church and tomb of St Barbara 349, 380 nilometer on Rawḍa Island 129 spring of the Virgin Mary (Mataria) 286, 387 Caleb 306, 343

434

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

Cambridge Corpus Christi College, MSS in 39 University Library, MSS in 40 Cana of Galilee 3, 7, 96, 137, 165, 179–80, 187, 190, 224, 226, 233–4, 267–8, 270, 322, 362, 380, 386 Canaan (son of Ham, son of Noah) 251, 252, 266 Canaanite woman 65 Candace (queen of Ethiopia) 371 Canisius, H. 47 Cannamela (Ḥiṣn al-Tīnāt) 76, 80 Cape St Vincent (Ṭaraf al-Ghurāb) 46, 237 Capernaum (Khirbat al-Kanīsa) 85, 210, 244, 353 Capernaum (Tall Ḥum, in Galilee) 7, 25, 85, 98, 137, 166, 189, 224, 227, 255, 259, 261, 263, 269, 324, 325, 355, 363 Caphar Gamala (Bayt Jimāl, Jammala) 112, 330 Capheturici 163 Cappadocia 313, 316, 319 Carmel see Mount Carmel, al-Karmil Carmelion (al-Baṭṭawf), plain of 267–8, 270, 311 Carmelite friars 17, 34, 53, 167–8, 210–11, 229, 307, 353 Carpitanae nuns of Antioch 15 Cartagena 46, 237, 238, 239 Carthage 38, 358 Caspian mountains 197 Cassiope 110 Castille 239 king see Alfonso X Castle of the Kings (Mi‘iliya) 257 Cato 84 Caucasus 241 Caymont (Tall Qaymūn, Tel Yoqne’am, Jokneam) 210, 273, 274, 311, 353–4 Celestine III (pope) 25 Cepheus 110 Ceuta 238 Chabratha 113 Chalcedon 211, 353 Chaldæa 106, 131, 242, 243

Chaldæan Christians 315 Chaneci (Mīt Khanāzīr) 387 Charlemagne 238 Chastel Blanc see Ṣafīta Cheltenham, MSS in 34 Chemosh (Moabite god) 300 Cherdorlaomer 264–5 Cherith brook 281 Chinnereth (Gennesaret, Ginnesar, Tall al-‘Urayma) 98, 258, 269, 354 see also Galilee: sea of, Tiberias Chios 53 Chorazin 98, 255, 259, 260, 269, 324, 355 Chosroes (Persian king) 113, 338 church councils Constantinople (553) 375 Ephesus (431) 375 Lateran IV (1215) 13, 14 Lyons II (1274) 50, 236, 315 Nicæa (325) 181 Cilicia 10, 50–51, 57, 313 see also Armenian Cilicia Cistercians 233, 236 Civitas Ficuum (City of Figs) 182 Clement V (pope) 52 Cleopas 221, 229 Cleopatra (queen of Egypt) 285, 342 Compostela 19 Conder, Claude Reinier 33 Conrad (archbishop of Mainz, papal legate) 25, 77 Conrad of Montferrat 68 Conrad of Querfurt (bishop of Hildersheim, imperial chancellor) 25, 65, 74, 77, 82 Constantine I (Roman emperor) 83, 196, 342, 381 Constantinople 103, 104, 295, 353 patriarch 133 Copts 130, 131–2, 163, 315 coral 123 Corbie, abbey of St Peter 30 Corinth 18 Cornelius (centurion) see St Cornelius Crac des Chevaliers 50, 68, 239, 251, 316 Cresson, springs of the 30 crocodiles 109, 168, 198, 211–12, 308 Crocodile River (Nahr al-Zarqā) 109, 168

Index Cross-bearing friars (Fratres Cruciferi) 235 crusades First (1095–9) 357 Third (1189–92) 5, 63, 72 Fourth (1204) 211, 353 Fifth (1213–21) 13, 27–8, 51, 97 Barons’ (1239–40) 5, 37 Cumbetefort (Cumbethfor) (Cilicia) 25, 77, 80 Cut Rock see Dustray, Nahr al-Faliq Cyclades 81 Cypris 82 Cyprus 30, 81–4, 319 king 83 see Aimery of Lusignan, Henry II, Hugh I, Hugh III Cyriacus (bishop of Jerusalem, formerly Judas) 90 Dabburiyya (castrum Burie, Bourie) 5, 183, 224 Dædalus 63 Dalmanutha 255 Damascus 3, 5, 10, 27, 28, 38, 41, 99, 100, 101–3, 105–6, 107, 131, 146, 183, 189, 198, 200, 228, 244, 256, 265, 268, 311, 356–7, 380 church of St Paul made into a mosque 101 creation of Adam near 114 gate of St Paul 198 land or field of in Hebron 114, 306, 341 road to 205, 206 Ṣalāḥiyya suburb 102 Damietta 3, 10, 28, 50, 129, 204, 206, 320, 349 Damūr see Nahr Damūr Dan (son of Jacob) 141 tribe 254, 301, 311 Dan (city) 111, 242, 254, 278, 325 mistakenly located near Shechem 278, 325 Dan, River 100, 254 see also Jordan source see Phiala Daniel (prophet) 106, 110, 126, 350, 351 Daniel (Russian abbot) 89, 263 Dar‘ā 100, 255, 260

435

Darius (king of Persia) 78 al-Dārūm (Dayr al-Balaḥ) 181, 206, 349 Dathan 122 Da‘uk (Dokes, Doch), Templar mills 205, 225–6 David (king of Israel) 99, 109, 111, 119, 177, 191, 193, 202, 203, 217, 220, 274, 285, 286, 302, 304, 305, 307, 310, 334, 341, 343 tomb 194, 297, 330, 378, 385 Dayr Ayyūb (Carneas) 100, 260 Dayr Hajla 59, 282 Dayr Mār Sābā 59, 390 Dead Sea (Asphaltides, Asphalt Sea, Cursed Sea, Salt Sea, Sea of the Devil, lake of Judæa) 4, 94, 117–18, 133, 140, 142, 184, 195, 198, 242, 244, 245, 265, 267, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 289, 296, 304, 305, 311, 342, 345, 347, 356, 369, 379, 389 Debir 306 Deborah 285 Decapolis 260, 269 Decius (Roman emperor) 189 Demetrius I (Seleucid king) 248 Deschamps, Paul 36–7 Destuny, Gabriel S. 38 Devil 336 Diana 107 Dido (queen of Tyre and Sidon) 63, 358 Dinah 111 Diocletian (Roman emperor) 247 Dionysos 84 Diospolis see Lydda Dithmar 27 Dog’s Pass 249, 270 river of see Nahr al-Kalb Dok (Doch) 281, 367 domestic animals 199 buffalo 199, 201 camel 121, 126, 199, 208, 251, 314, 315 cattle 199, 208, 239, 315 chicken 313 donkey 84, 201, 208 dromedary 314 elephant 208

436

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

ule 199, 201, 208 m sheep and goat (flocks and herds) 100, 119, 130, 132, 208, 251, 315 horse 109, 199, 208 pack animals (including donkeys) 87, 111–12, 149, 150, 157, 199, 208 Dominicans (Preaching Friars) 16, 55, 235, 236, 239, 361–2 houses: Acre 16, 55, 235; Fécamp 38; Florence 55, 56; Jerusalem 48, 367 see also Burchard of Mount Sion, Riccoldo of Monte Croce Dondaine, Antoine 56 Dor (Ṭanṭūra, le Merle) 109, 229, 307, 311, 319, 352 Dorcas 110 Dothan (Tall Duthān, s of Janīn, but in the 13th century also located near the sea of Galilee) 49, 99, 146, 227, 258, 262, 263, 268, 269, 324, 355, 364 plain of (Sahl ‘Arrāba) 146, 148, 151 Dupuy, Claude (humanist) 26 Dustray, Khirbat (Petra incisa, le Detroit) 244, 245, 352 Edessa (‘Urfa) 243 Edom (Esau) 256, 267, 356 Edom (Idumæa) 171, 264 Egeria (pilgrim) 22 Egilsay (Orkney) 12 Egypt 38, 51, 54, 114, 123, 129, 131, 140, 168, 200, 207, 215, 241, 243, 262, 282, 285, 297, 306, 311, 316, 342, 361, 387 Egyptians 163, 315, 324 road to 146, 262, 271, 372 see also Way of the Sea Ekron (Accaron, Khirbat al-Muqanna‘, Tel Miqne) 62, 96, 110, 301, 305, 308, 320 Elah, valley of (Wādī al-Sanṭ) 310 Elath 265 Eleutheropolis see Bayt Jibrīn Eleutherus, River (Nahr al-Kabīr) 68, 248, 249, 357 Eliezer 356

Elijah (prophet) 63, 64, 85, 97, 108, 116, 128, 139, 150–51, 173, 248, 254, 268, 281, 323, 346, 347, 353, 370 slays the priests of Baal 191, 245, 272, 273, 365 taken up in fiery chariot 195, 389 see also St Elias, Mount Carmel, Mount Sinai Elim 129, 196 Eliphaz the Temanite 103, 264 Elisha (prophet) 85, 116, 263, 274, 307, 346, 347, 353, 370 tomb 111, 276, 325 spring see Jericho El-paran 265 Emmaus 7, 41, 44, 111, 160–61, 172, 179, 222, 223, 229, 301, 310, 339, 354, 373 see also Abū Ghosh, ‘Amwās, al-Qubayba En-dor (‘Indūr) 97, 271, 272, 323 En-gedi 4, 93, 118, 283, 285, 304, 342 mistakenly located in Cyprus 83 En-rogel 294, 367 England 18, 234, 314 English 123, 163, 205 Enlart, Camille 17 Ephraim, tribe 278, 279, 280, 281, 285, 301, 311 see also Mount Ephraim Ephrathah 191, 370, 391 Eric (prince of Norway) 46 Ernoul (squire of Balian of Ibelin) 30 Ernoul and Bernard the Treasurer, Chronicle of 3, 23, 29–34, 35 Esau 256, 264, 265–7, 284, 356 children of 265 Esdrælon 244, 262, 271, 273, 364 Eshcol brook and valley (torrens botri) 304, 306, 307 Estoires d’Outremer 30–34 Ethiopia 122, 123, 131, 207, 242, 297, 306, 316 Ethiopians 315 Eudes (bishop of Tusculum) 187 Euphrates, River 106, 243, 245, 273 Eusebius 22, 50, 276 Eve 223, 232, 306, 342 Ezekiel 242 Ezion-geber 245

Index Faba see al-Fūla plain of 273, 364 Famagusta 25, 84 Faro 237 Faṣayil (Phasælis) 281 Fatimids 2 Faustinus (Nicæa, Nicetas) 240 Faustus (Aquila) 240 Faustus (father of St Clement) 240 Fécamp 26, 38 Feliciano, Felice 35 Felix (governor of Judæa) 308 la Fève see al-Fūla Field of Chickpeas (near Bethlehem) 202, 339–40, 341, 370, 380 Field of Flowers (near Bethlehem) 141, 171, 178, 221, 222, 232, 339–40 Figs, city of (civitas Ficuum) 182 fish 80, 98, 123, 124, 131, 153, 158, 199, 208, 297, 313, 323, 324, 345 coracinus 258–9 coral 123 mussels 123 sea snails 123 Fīq 100, 274 flowers roses 130, 368 violets 101 see also agricultural produce Florence 14, 55 Florentine pilgrims (1384) 11 MSS in 48, 49, 56 Porta S. Pietro 55 S. Maria Novella 55, 56 la Forbie see Harbiyya foodstuffs 121, 124, 131 biscuit 121 bread 101, 131 cheese 121 sauces 313 see also agricultural produce, domestic animals, fish, fruits, trees Forbelet (al-Ṭayyiba) 145 France 12, 18, 54, 132, 234, 314 French 123, 163 kings 26 see also Louis IX, Philip II Augustus

437

Franciscans (Friars Minor) 13, 15, 236, 237, 239, 363–5, 382 houses: Acre 15, 16, 45, 236; Beirut 66; Genoa 53; Jerusalem 48, 58, 371; Nicosia 15; Savona 52–3; Tyre 15 martyrs at Ṣafad 257 see also Friar Maurice, Philip of Savona Franconia 243 Franks (or Latins) 62, 72, 74, 81–2, 121, 123, 314, 348–9 Frascati (Tusculum) 187 Frederick I Barbarossa (German emperor) 64, 73, 102 death and burial 72, 81 Frederick II (German emperor) 5, 7, 31, 37, 163 Frederick V (duke of Swabia) 65, 72 Fretellus of Nazareth, Rorgo 22, 54 Friars of the Sack (Brothers of Penitence of Jesus Christ) 236 Frontera 237 fruits and nuts 71–2, 101, 131, 246, 250, 257, 282, 283, 312–14, 345 Adam’s apples (etrog, balady citron) 66, 133, 313 bananas (apples of Paradise) 132–3, 313 citrina 313 dates 124, 133, 269 Dead Sea fruit 117, 286, 347 figs 121, 199, 238, 246, 250, 251, 262, 314 grapes, vines and wine 67, 81–2, 83, 84, 87, 106, 117, 121, 124, 150, 199, 207, 239, 246, 249, 250, 256, 262, 269, 273, 286, 304, 313–14, 323, 326 lemons 133, 313 olives and olive oil 87, 124, 126, 128, 146, 199, 246, 250, 251, 262, 269, 273, 314, 326 oranges 313 pine nuts (stone pine) 133 pomegranates 117, 314 sycamore fig (Pharaoh’s fig) 133 see also trees

438

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

al-Fūla (castrum Fabbarum, la Fève, Faba), castle 30, 182, 273, 274, 364 Fulk of Anjou (king of Jerusalem) 89, 184, 230 Fulk of Bouillon 74 Gabriel (archangel) 165, 180, 224, 335, 364 church and spring see Nazareth Gad 141 tribe 117, 119, 266, 267 Gadara (Jadar, ‘Umm Qays) 99, 264, 311, 324 Gadarenes 263, 356 Gàdes (Cadiz) 237 Galenni, Giovanni Battista 52 Galilee 3, 5, 8, 33, 41, 42, 85, 94, 97, 98, 99, 131, 136, 171, 244, 248, 258, 259, 260, 266, 270, 276, 298, 311, 324, 354 plain of 273 prince 253 principality 184 sea of (lake of Gennasaret, Chinnereth or Tiberias) 3, 28, 49, 63, 98, 136–7, 139, 145, 166, 179, 184, 189, 227, 255, 256, 260, 261, 262, 263, 264, 265, 266, 267, 269, 271, 272, 345, 354, 362–4, 380, 388 see also Mount Galilee Galilea (Khirbat al-Tin‘ama) 85 Gamala (al-Salam) 99, 255, 258, 259, 260, 324 Gamaliel (rabbi) 112 Gaston (Baghras) 73–4 Gastria (Cyprus) 82 Gath 110, 305, 307, 309, 310, 349–50 Gaulanitis 261 Gaza 5, 10, 38, 44, 110, 181, 195, 204, 214–15, 262, 297, 305, 310, 320, 349, 387 church of St Mary or St Porphyrius 388 Geba‘ of Benjamin (Jaba‘) 280 Gehenna 191, 299 see also Hinnom Gennesaret (Chinnereth, Ginnesar, Tall al-‘Urayma, Tel Kinrot) 98, 311,

362, 363 see also Galilee, sea of; Tiberias Genoa 52–3 Genoese 6, 9 Geoffrey (chancellor of Antioch, bishop of Tiberias) 184 Geoffrey of Beaulieu 21, 38, 187 Georgia 1, 242 Georgians 28, 132, 159–60, 163, 192, 256, 315, 317, 319 Gera 286 Gerar 242 Gerasa (Jarash) 263–4 Gerasenes 263, 356 Gergesa (Chorsia, Kursi) 264, 356 Gergesenes 263, 356 Germain (Germanus) (burgess of Jerusalem) 32, 149, 159 Germany 12, 54, 81, 243, 256, 314 Germans 163, 248 German prisoners in Damascus 27, 102, 105–6 see also Teutonic Order Gerold of Lausanne (Latin patriarch of Jerusalem) 7, 213 Geshur 264 Gharas al-Dīn Khilij (‘amīr) 86 al-Gharbiyya 237 al-Ghawr (terra de Gor) 182 Ghent, MSS in 28–9 Gibeah of Benjamin (Gibeah of Saul, Tall al-Fūl) 280, 300, 343 Gibeon (al-Jīb) 111, 297, 300, 309, 339, 354 Gibeonites 301, 309 Gibraltar (Jabal al-Tāriq) 46, 238 Gideon 275 Gihon (river of Paradise) 123, 129 Gihon, Mount see Mount Gihon Gihon, spring see Jerusalem Gilboa see Mount Gilboa Gilead, land of 119, 262, 277, 281 Gilgal 116, 274, 281, 282, 284, 285, 300, 348 Ginnesar (Chinnereth, Gennesaret), plain of 262, 268, 268, 363 Girgashites 252 Gittaim (Gith) 103

Index Glassberger, Nicolas (Moravian Franciscan) 27 Gloriet (Ra’s Ibn Hāni) 71 ‘Glory to God in the Highest’ see Shepherds’ Fields Godfrey of Bouillon 89, 136, 230 Godfrey of Viterbo 63 Gog 197 Goliath 111, 177, 220, 307, 310 see also ‘Ayn Jālūt, Jerusalem: towers Golubovich, G. 35, 36, 53, 54, 57 Gomorrah 94, 115, 117, 118, 142, 183, 184, 195, 275, 347, 369, 379, 389 Goshen 319 Granada, kingdom of 238 Great Sea (Mediterranean) 139, 242, 243, 245, 246, 249, 272, 305, 308, 311, 312, 357 Greece 313 Greeks (Orthodox) 2, 7, 62, 72, 74, 75, 76, 78–9, 81–2, 103, 108, 116, 119, 120, 121, 124, 130, 131, 138, 154, 163, 167, 168, 169, 176, 178, 181, 210, 216, 223, 228, 242, 250, 256, 282, 307, 315, 368, 382, 388 craftsmen 66 Gregory I (Greek Orthodox patriarch of Alexandria) 196 Gregory I (Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem) 315 Gregory X (pope) 38, 315 Gregory VI Abirad (Armenian catholicus) 74 Gregory VII (Armenian catholicus) 52 Gregory the Illuminator see St Gregory Gruber, Johann Daniel 26 Gur, ascent of 273 Guy I Embriaco (lord of Jubayl) 66 Guy of Lusignan (king of Jerusalem) 1, 151 Habakkuk (prophet) 110, 126, 350, 351 see also St Habakkuk al-Habīs (Petra) 182, 183 Habīs Jaldak (‘Ayn al-Habīs, cave-castle in Yarmūq gorge or Cava de Suet) 184 Hachilah 304

439

al-Ḥaddar mills 168 Hadrian, Ælius (Roman emperor) 292, 297, 326, 327 Haggith 367 Håkon Paulsson (earl of Orkney) 12 Ham (son of Noah) 251, 252 Hama 140 Hamath 260 Hamathites 252 Hamburg MSS in 29, 48 church of St Peter 48 Hanbalis 103 Hanover, MSS in 26 Harbiyyā (la Forbie), battle (1244) 42, 215 Haran (Harran) 140 Ḥārim (Harrenc) 73, 76 Harvey, Paul D.A. 39–40, 48 Ḥaṭṭīn, Horns of 183 battle of 1, 97, 149, 169 identified with Bethulia 262, 268–9, 362 Saladin’s dome of victory (Qubbat alNaṣr) 97 Ḥawrān 28, 99 Ḥayfā (Haifa) 7, 8, 21, 84, 107, 167, 206, 209, 210, 211, 245, 272, 307, 319, 353, 365, 388 river of (Kishon) 210 Haylon 276 Hazor (Asor, Tall al-Qadaḥ, Tall Waqqas) 253–4, 255, 257, 262, 269 Heber the Kenite 257 Hebrews 342 Hebron (St Abraham, Kiriath-arba) 4, 5, 7, 41, 44, 109, 114, 139, 140–41, 171, 179, 182, 214, 223, 232–3, 242, 280, 287, 297, 304, 305–6, 309, 342–3, 380, 389 bishop 133 church 306, 342, 391 extraction of Adam’s earth from Field of Damascus 114, 306, 342, 343 patriarchs’ tombs 114, 191, 232–3, 306, 342 Helena (queen of Adiabene) 293, 300 Heliodorus 335 Henry VI (German emperor) 25, 74, 82, 86 Henry II (king of Cyprus) 52

440

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

Henry III (king of England) 206 Henry (count of Champagne) 86 Henry II (count of Oldenburg) 24 Henry (half-brother of Frederick I) 64 Henry of Brabant 65 Heraclius (Byzantine emperor) 156 Heraclius (patriarch of Jerusalem) 2 Hercules 237 Hermann of Lüchow 82 Hermann of Salza (grand master of the Teutonic Order) 25, 61, 78 Hermēneim (Hermon) 195 Hermopolis 349 Herod Agrippa see Agrippa I Herod Antipas (son of Herod the Great) 136, 148, 189, 269, 276–7, 304, 354 Herod of Ascalon (father of Antipater) 267, 350 Herod the Great (king of Judæa, son of Antipater) 77, 85, 109, 110, 136, 191, 261, 267, 281, 285, 304, 308, 349, 350, 351, 391 Herodias 136, 148 Herodium 304 Heshbon (Hisbān) 4, 120, 244, 281 Heth (son of Canaan) 252 Het‘um I (king of Armenia) 51 Het‘um II (king of Armenia) 52, 318 Hezekiah (king) 290, 291, 301 Hildersheim 24, 61, 79 bishop see Conrad of Querfurt canon see Wilbrand of Oldenburg Ḥimṣ, ‘amīr 200, 215 battle (1281) 50, 317 Hinnom valley (Gehenna) 48, 91, 191, 294, 299, 367, 384 Hiram (king of Tyre) 99, 354 Hispalis (Seville) 237 Hivites 252 Holland 18 Holofernes (Persian commander) 99, 148, 182, 268, 324, 355, 364 Holstein, Lucas 26 Holy Cross 89–90, 156, 159–60, 192, 194, 216, 337, 371, 378, 383, 391 icons 160 churches: Acre 16, 235; Tyre 15, 247

monasteries: Dayr al-Salīb (Umm alSalīb), near Jerusalem 7, 44, 159, 160, 172, 179, 192, 221, 223, 233, 338, 371, 380, 391; Stavrovouni, near Limassol 25, 83–4 relics 2, 30, 34, 169, 174, 214 Holy Fire, ceremory of 88–9, 381, 382 Holy Innocents 114, 171, 179, 191, 223, 232, 304, 342, 350, 379 Holy Spirit, hospital in Acre 16, 235 Holy Trinity 223 chapel in Jerusalem 153 church in Acre 16, 236 order of Holy Trinity and Captives 236 Honorius III (pope) 15, 27, 127 Horeb 108, 128, 129, 334, 348 Horites 265 Hospinel 65 Hospitallers of St John 6, 8, 35, 42, 43, 50, 53, 68, 70, 76, 87, 146, 151, 160, 183, 206, 211, 213, 226, 227, 239, 246, 251, 252, 271, 308, 309, 317, 349, 353 churches and hospitals: Acre 15, 16, 18, 45, 205, 236; Jerusalem 6, 92, 152, 153, 157, 159, 169, 174, 217, 230, 291 Hoyer II (count of Woldenberg) 73 Hubert Walter (bishop of Salisbury) 2 Hugh I (king of Cyprus) 83 Hugh I (king of Jerusalem, III of Cyprus) 8, 9, 50 Hugh III Embriaco (lord of Jubayl) 66 Hugh Laleman (heir of Cæsarea) 41 Hugh of St.-Omer (prince of Galilee) 136, 253 Ḥūla, Lake (Baḥrat al-Khayt) 99, 255 Humphrey III of Toron 37 Humphrey IV of Toron 37 Hungary 12, 313, 314 Hungarians 163, 235: count 112; Muslims 3, 112 Hunīn (New Castle) 5, 184 Huns 76 Hur 124 Ḥusām al-Dīn Lū’lū ibn ‘Abdallah alMu‘aẓẓamī (‘amīr) 97, 140

Index Iarchas 241 Ibelin (Yibnā) 350 family 29 see also Balian, John Ibiza 239 Ible-am 273 Ibn Jubayr (Andalusian pilgrim) 6 Idumæa (Edom) 98, 99, 103, 106, 131, 183, 245, 259, 324, 355, 356, 357, 358 Idumæans 100, 266–7, 304 Iecidani 72 India 123, 197, 198, 207, 241, 242, 306, 316, 328 Indians 163, 382 trade with Egypt 123 indulgences 11, 14–17, 21, 45, 234, 235–6, tables 1–2 ‘Indūr see En-dor Innocent III (pope) 13, 25, 62, 77 Iona abbey 22 Iotapata (Khirbat Shifāt) 263, 269 Irbid, Khirbat (Arbela) 268 Isaac 114, 141, 146, 171, 175, 179, 191, 232, 306, 336, 342, 380, 382 Isaiah (prophet), tomb 177, 220, 231, 294, 331, 382 Isabel of Toron 37 ‘Isdūd see Ashdod Ishmael 266, 373 Ishmaelites 262, 324, 375 Iskandarūn see Alexandretta Iskandarūna (Scandalion) 8, 246 Ismailis 68, 132, 316 see also Assassins Israel 253 children of 111, 116, 119, 120, 122, 124, 129, 140, 143, 177, 195, 243, 245, 265, 281, 282, 283, 310, 313, 320, 335, 346, 347 kingdom 243, 278 Issachar 141 tribe 257, 311 Italy 12, 13, 39, 54, 243, 314 Ituræa 244, 248, 249, 254, 258, 260, 270 Jaba‘ (Geba‘ of Benjamin) 280 Jabal al-‘Arab 255 Jabal al-Kabīr (Mountain of Abraham) 146

441

Jabal al-Rāma 305 Jabal al-Ṭūr see Mount Tabor Jabal al-Ṭūr (near Jerusalem), church of St Procopius 339, 344, 370 Jabal Anṣāriyya 68, 251, 252, 316 Jabal ‘Awf 141 Jabal Hārūn 4, 121, 347 Jabal Kassyun 103 Jabal Kātrīna (St Catherine’s Mountain) 125–6, 139–40, 347, 387 Jabal Turbul (Mount of the Leopards) 250–51, 375 Jabala 70, 239 Jabbok, River (Nahr al-Zarqā) 100, 119, 265, 266, 284, 347, 357 Jabin (king of Hazor) 253, 255, 257, 272 Jacob 100, 111, 113, 114, 115, 117, 141, 147, 171, 179, 217, 230, 232, 242, 265, 266, 284–5, 302, 306, 340, 342, 343, 346–7, 357, 380 footprint in the Dome of the Rock 169, 175 Jacob’s daughters, Cave of (Mughārat Banāt Ya‘qūb) 167, 227 Jacob’s Ford (Vadum Jacob) 4, 184 Jacob’s Well 94, 111, 147, 172, 179, 223, 233, 278–9, 325, 380 Jacobites (Syrian Orthodox) 2, 55, 56, 62, 131–2, 153, 161, 163, 242, 256, 315, 317, 382 Jacobus de Voragine 357 Jacoby, David 45 Jael (wife of Heber the Kenite) 257 Jaffa (Joppe), 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 21, 37, 41, 42, 53, 77, 86, 87, 110, 168, 173, 204, 205, 206, 213, 214, 229, 277, 287, 297, 301, 302, 305, 308, 309, 319, 328, 351, 388 castle 44, 168, 213, 351 church of St Peter 35, 168, 213 count 213 house of Simon the Tanner 213 stone of St James 35, 44, 168, 173, 213, 229, 351 tower of the Patriarch 42, 213 treaty of (1192) 2, 33 James of Verona (pilgrim, 1335) 10–11, 100, 337

442

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

James of Vitry (bishop of Acre, cardinal bishop of Tusculum) 11–12, 23, 50, 75, 118, 207, 245, 269, 296 Jamla 99, 255, 259, 260 Jamnia (Yibnā) 302, 305, 319 Janīn (le Gerin, grande Gerinum) 7, 99, 146, 182, 268, 276 Janoah 281 Japhet 247 Jaspar 223, 232, 340 al-Jawlān (Golan) 255, 260, 274 Jazirat Fara‘ūn see Pharaoh’s Island Jebusites 252, 326 Jehoshaphat (king of Judah) 178, 304 see also Jerusalem: tomb, valley of Jehu (king of Israel) 273, 275 Jephonias 194, 330, 378 Jereboam (king of Israel) 278, 325 Jeremiah (prophet) 120, 191, 285, 320, 334, 349, 354, 388, 392 Jericho 3, 4, 7, 10, 25, 38, 41, 44, 55, 93, 115–16, 118, 143, 145, 171, 172, 178, 181, 184, 195, 198, 222, 232, 267, 281, 282, 283, 285, 287, 296, 299, 347, 348, 367–8, 379, 386, 389 Elisha’s spring (‘Ayn al-Sulṭān) 116, 144, 282, 283, 284, 348, 379, 389 garden of Abraham 178, 222, 232, 242, 348 Jerome see St Jerome Jerusalem 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 21, 22, 25, 28, 34, 37, 38, 41, 43, 44, 55, 83, 84, 87–93, 103, 109, 111–13, 115, 131, 141, 148, 151–63, 169– 71, 173, 189–90, 192–4, 203, 209, 215–20, 222, 223, 224, 230–31, 242, 244, 277, 284–5, 287–300, 311, 325–30, 357, 365, 366–7, 371–4, 377–9, 381–5, 388–9, 392 Acra 289, 300 Akeldama (Potter’s Field, Field of Blood) 91, 112, 159, 171, 177, 190–91, 220, 231, 291, 293, 299, 330, 367, 378, 385 Antonia fortress 297 Asnerie (donkey-house) 3, 28, 33, 87, 111–12, 157

baths of the Patriarch (Ḥammam alBaṭrak) 291 churches, chapels and religious houses: Condemnation 388; Dominicans, 48, 367; Flagellation 161, 337, 388; Franciscans, 48, 58, 373; Gethsemane cave-church (where Jesus left the disciples and was arrested) 90, 162, 171, 177, 190, 220, 231, 292–3, 333, 385; Repose (prison of Christ) 161, 337, 378; Holy Sepulchre and associated chapels 2, 3, 7, 9, 13, 15, 32, 53, 58, 59, 88–90, 112, 133, 152, 153–5, 157, 159, 169, 173–5, 192–3, 203, 215–16, 230, 241, 270, 280, 287, 288, 294–6, 327–8, 366, 373–4, 377, 381–3, 388; Holy Trinity 153; St Anne (Benedictine, then Madrasa al-Ṣalāḥiyya) 162, 170, 175, 194, 218, 231, 290, 337, 372, 379, 388; St Anne (Greek) 384; St Basil 384; St Catherine 384; St Chariton 169, 174, 216, 230, 307; St Demetrius 383; St Euthymius 384; St George 384; St George (Anglican) 293; St George (in the Market) 383; St Giles 155; St Helena (where the Holy Cross was found) 89, 154, 169, 174, 192, 216, 230, 295, 374, 383; St James (Armenian) 152, 170, 176, 231, 296, 328, 366, 377, 384; St James (Jacobite) 153; St James the Less (Qubbat al-Silsila) 156, 157, 176, 217–18; St John the Baptist 383; St John the Evangelist (Latin) 161; St John the Evangelist/Theologian (Greek, Mount Sion) 194, 329, 384; St Mamilla (Babyla) 159, 391; St Martin 158; St Mary (Cradle or Bath of Christ, Miḥrab Maryam, Masjid Mahd ‘Īsā) 156, 170, 175, 218, 231, 336; St Mary (Hodegetria) 193, 383; St Mary Latin 43, 87, 133, 153, 169, 174, 216, 230; St Mary of Mount

Index Sion (including chapel of Holy Spirit: site of Last Supper, Jesus’ post-Resurrection appearance, doubting of Thomas, Dormition of the Virgin Mary, Pentecost) 32, 34, 36, 42, 47–8, 92–3, 112, 151–2, 158, 159, 170, 176, 194, 219, 231, 296, 328–9, 366, 377, 384; St Mary of the Spasm 193–4, 338, 372; St Mary of the Valley of Jehoshaphat (tomb of the Virgin Mary) 32, 91, 133, 152, 162, 171, 176, 177, 190, 203, 220, 292, 293, 298, 333, 372, 379, 385; St Mary the Great (or nuns or sisters of Tyre) 34–5, 36, 153, 169, 174, 235; St Mary Magdalene 161, 218; St Michael 384; St Nicolas 384; St Onuphrius 367; St Paul (spurious) 32; St Peter in Fetters 158; St Peter of the Cock-crow (where Peter denied knowing Jesus) 113, 159, 170, 177, 219, 231, 330, 367, 378; St Procopius 338, 344, 370; St Sabas 170, 176, 231; St Saviour in Gethsemane (where Jesus prayed and sweated blood) 34, 91, 113, 162, 171, 177–8, 220, 231, 293, 333, 385; St Saviour on Mount Sion (house of Caiaphas, associated with Jesus’ trial and flagellation) 113, 158, 170, 176, 194, 219, 231, 295, 296, 328, 366–7, 377, 379, 384; St Simeon the Just (tomb) 175, 218, 336; St Stephen 3, 28, 33, 87, 111–12, 157, 173, 330; St Thecla 384; SheepPool 162; see also hospitals Calvary and Golgotha 58, 88, 89, 152, 153–4, 169, 173, 192, 216, 230, 241, 294, 327, 338, 373, 377, 382–3 Charnel Pit (Cave) of the Lion 113, 159, 338, 368 Citadel (David’s Tower) 5, 53, 88, 152, 170, 176, 193, 231, 288, 289, 290, 296, 297, 338, 366, 384 Ecce Homo arch 337

443 exchanges: Latin 152, 153, 155, 158; Syrian 158 Fuller’s Field 291, 293, 300 gates: Belcaire (postern to Mount Sion) 152; Corner (Benjamin) 289, 298, 300; David (Fish, Hebron, Jaffa, Merchants, Bāb al-Khalīl) 3, 88, 90, 152, 153, 157, 297, 300, 338, 339; Herod 298; Jehoshaphat (Sabbath, Sheep, Dragon’s Spring, Valley) 156, 161, 162, 290, 292, 298; Judgement (Fish, Old) 241, 289, 297, 338; Mount Sion 153, 158; St Lazarus 3, 33, 157, 298; St Mary Magdalene 161, 298; St Stephen (Damascus, Ephraim, Bāb al-‘Amūd) 7, 90, 157, 158, 161, 169, 215, 230, 289, 298, 325, 337–8; Tannery (Dung) 158, 161, 289, 298, 299; Tiberias 32; Waters (Spring of Siloam) 288, 289, 299; see also Temple gates below Gethsemane 161, 190, 241, 293, 333, 372, 378, 385 see also churches hermits 162 Hezekiah’s tunnel 290 hospitals: St John 6, 92, 152, 153, 157, 159, 169, 174, 216–7, 230, 291 see also Hospitallers; St Lazarus (leper-house) 157; St Mary of the Germans 7, 155 houses of: Annas, 337; Caiaphas 113, 158, 170, 176, 194, 219, 379, 388; Herod 338, 372, 379; Judas 338, 372; Pilate see Prætorium; Dives (the rich man) 379; Uriah the Hittite 193 hydraulic works undertaken by Germain 148–9, 159 indulgences 15 ‘Jewry’ (Syrian quarter) 161 kings: tombs 89, 174, 230; see also Aimery of Lusignan, Baldwin I, Baldwin II, Baldwin III, Baldwin IV, Badwin V, Hugh I, John of Brienne markets 155: candles 158; cheese 153; cloth 158; corn 152; eggs 153; gold

444

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291 153; herbs and spices 153, 158; fish 153, 158; meat (butcher’s) 155; palms 153; poultry 153 Mamilla, Ṣūfi zāwiyya 370 Millo 288, 367 Mount Moriah 284, 288, 289–90, 292, 334 Mount Sion (city of David) 47–8, 87–8, 92–3, 108, 112, 151–2, 158, 159, 170, 176, 193, 194, 203, 219–20, 231, 241, 288–9, 291, 293, 296, 297, 299, 326, 328–30, 366, 371, 379 patriarchate 152, 157, 193, 249, 253, 383 patriarchs 133 see Athanasius II, Albert of Vercelli, Gerold of Lausanne, Gregory I, Heraclius, Nicolas of Hanapes pinnacle of the Temple 138, 156, 336, 348, 367, 385 pools 290–91: Almond (Tower) 291; Birkat Banī Isrā’īl 170, 175, 218, 290, 337; of Germain (Birkat alSulṭān) 159; Mamilla (Patriarch) 113, 159; Patriarch (Hezekiah) 291; Sheep-Pool (Bethesda) 7, 92, 162, 170, 175, 194, 218, 231, 290, 291, 298, 337, 372, 379, 388; Siloam 149–50, 158, 159, 162, 171, 177, 203, 220, 231, 288, 290–91, 293, 294, 299, 326, 330–31, 371, 385, 392 Prætorium or house of Pilate 7, 161, 170, 194, 219, 231, 337, 372, 379, 388 Roman siege (ad 70) 289, 291, 292 Sabīl Ṭarīq Bāb al-Nāẓir 161 springs and wells: Dragon (or Jackal, Birkat Sittī Maryam) 292, 298; Gihon 290–91, 293; Siloam see pools streets: Arch of Judas 158; Bad Cookery 155, 158; Covered 155, 158; David 152, 158; Germans 155; Herbs 153, 155, 158; Jehoshaphat 161; Mount Sion 158; Patriarch 3, 152, 157, 169; St

Stephen 158, 338; Sepulchre 158, 161; Tannery (Tariq al-Wād) 32, 194; Temple (Tariq Bāb al-Silsila) 32, 155, 158 taken by Saladin (1187) 29–30, 32 tannery 149, 158 Temple of the Lord (Dome of the Rock, Qubbat al-Sakhra) 1, 7, 36, 42, 43, 112, 133, 155–7, 169–70, 174–5, 194, 203, 217–18, 230, 241, 279, 284, 287, 288, 289, 292, 334–7, 367, 379, 388 Temple (or Palace) of Solomon (alAqsa mosque) 112, 156, 159–60, 170, 175, 203, 218, 231, 288, 289–90, 293, 336–7, 367, 379 Temple precinct (Haram al-Sharīf) 5, 7, 58, 92, 155–7, 194, 289–90, 298, 299, 300 Temple gates: Bāb al-‘Atm 161; Beautiful (Precious, Bāb al-Silsila) 155, 170, 175, 218, 230, 298, 335; Golden (Mercy, Bāb al-Raḥma) 90, 152, 155, 156, 157, 158, 162, 170, 171, 175–6, 177, 194, 218, 220, 231, 298, 333, 369, 379; Jerusalem 170, 175, 218, 230; Paradise 170, 175, 218, 230; Sorrowful (Bāb alNāẓir) 7–8, 161 Third Wall 289 tombs: Pharaoh’s daughter 365; King Jehoshaphat (or Absolom), St James the Less, and St Simeon (or St Zacharias) 177, 203, 217, 220, 293, 333, 378, 385; Queen Helena of Adiabene 293, 300 towers: Cloudy 289, 290, 297; David see Citadel; Hananel 290; Phasael 290, 298; Psephinus 289; Tancred, or Goliath (Qal‘at Jālūt) 289, 297 valleys: Jehoshaphat (valley of Tears) 90, 93, 135, 149, 152, 159, 191, 219, 231, 288, 290, 292, 298, 326, 332–3, 343, 367, 371–2; Tyropœon (al-Wād) 158; see also Hinnom, Kidron walls 3, 88, 89, 90, 92, 112, 152, 155, 158, 162, 288–9, 296–9, 300, 317

Index Way of the Cross (Via Dolorosa) 7–8, 194, 241, 337–8, 372–3 see also Mount of Olives Jesse 320 Jesus Christ nativity see Bethlehem flight to Egypt 203–4, 342, 349, 361, 387 childhood 85, 96, 98, 167, 271, 324, 354, 374 presentation in Temple 169, 174, 217, 230, 336 baptism 172, 178 see also Jordan, St John the Baptist calling of the Apostles 98, 233 temptation in wilderness see Mount of Temptation miracle of water into wine 96, 137 see also Cana walking on water 98, 136–7, 166, 227, 354, 380 miraculous catch of fish 137, 166, 227 miracle of the Gadarene swine 137–8, 356 sermon on the Mount 166, 258, 325, 355, 362 feeding of five thousand 98, 137, 166, 180, 191, 224, 227, 233, 258, 325, 355, 363, 380 paying of tribute money 166, 224, 227 in region of Tyre and Sidon 63, 205, 358 Transfiguration 97, 139 see also Mount Tabor cures blind man in Jericho 116, 144, 379 raising of Lazarus see Bethany entry into Jerusalem 156, 175, 287, 331–2, 333, 369 cures man blind from birth 150, 158, 171, 177, 371, 385 forgives woman caught in adultery 156, 170, 175, 217, 230, 336 Last Supper see Jerusalem: churches: St Mary of Mount Sion trial, flagellation and condemnation 85, 89 see also Jerusalem: churches Crucifixion and burial see Jerusalem: churches: Holy Sepulchre

445

post-Resurrection appearances see Jerusalem: St Mary of Mount Sion, Emmaus, Mount Galilee, alṬabgha Ascension see Mount of Olives Jethro 124 Jews 56, 62, 67, 72, 132, 197 Jewish travellers 268 Jezebel (queen) 108, 355 Jezreel (Zir‘īn) 108, 271, 273, 274–5, 276, 355 spring of 274 valley 146, 275 Jidda 140 Jiddin Castle (Iudin) 257 Jisr Damiyya (bridge over Jordan) 183 Joachim (father of St Mary) 270, 337 Job 99, 100, 103, 151, 261, 264 see also St Job Job’s well (Bi’r Ayyūb) 149, 385 John XXII (pope) 52, 54 John (abbot of Raythou) 387 John (bishop of Jerusalem) 112 John (lord of Arsūf) 109 John Climacus 387 John III Doukas Vatatzes (emperor of Nicæa) 39, 196 John de Holegh (London hosier) 14 John Laleman (lord of Cæsarea) 41, 211 John of Brienne (king of Jerusalem) 62 John of Ibelin (count of Jaffa) 199 John I of Ibelin (lord of Beirut) 30, 65, 109–10 John of Quedlinburg (knight) 102 John of Würzburg (pilgrim) 22, 36, 50, 54, 163, 176 Joinville, John of 38 Jonah 110, 198, 302, 358 tomb 268, 343 Jonah’s Pillar (Bāb Iskandarūn) 75–6 Jonathan (son of Saul) 99, 356 Jonathan (brother of Judas Maccabeus) 96, 248 Joppe see Jaffa Joram (king of Israel) 273, 355 Jordan, River 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, 28, 41, 49, 55, 79, 94, 98, 116, 117, 118, 135, 139, 142, 148, 157, 171, 172,

446

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

178, 183, 189, 195, 198, 222, 232, 244, 259, 260, 261, 267, 272, 274, 275, 276, 281, 282, 284, 289, 296, 298, 299, 305, 311, 312, 315, 333, 345–7, 356, 389 chapel and place of Baptism 44, 94, 144, 148, 195, 222, 232, 345–6, 368, 389 formed by confluence of Jor (Nahr Bāniyās) and Dan (Nahr Laddān) 68, 94, 99, 135, 136, 198, 254, 345, 356, 364 Mounds of 117 Joseph 99, 141, 146, 147, 166–7, 242, 279, 324 Joseph’s pit (variously located near the sea of Galilee or s of Janīn) 99, 146, 166–7, 189, 227, 262, 363 see also Jubb Yūsuf tomb: in Hebron 342; in Shechem 279, 325 well 149 Joseph of Arimathea see St Joseph of Arimathea Josephus Flavius 50, 122, 254, 259, 260, 263, 267, 274, 276, 289–90, 292, 293, 296, 300, 304, 308, 311 Joshua 111, 195, 253, 255, 279, 284, 300, 309, 343, 346, 347, 389 tomb 250–51 Josiah (king of Judah) 108, 273, 334 Juan Martinez (bishop of Cadiz) 237 Jubayl (Gibelet, Byblos) 30, 66 bishop 66 lords see Guy I, Hugh III Jubb, Margaret 31, 33 Jubb Yūsuf (Joseph’s Pit, nw of the sea of Galilee) 99, 166, 227, 262, 363 Judæa 5, 110, 111, 277, 282, 308 lake of (Dead Sea) 284 Judah 141 kingdom 243 tribe 243, 279, 311, 342 Judas 77 Judas (later St Cyriacus, brother of Stephen) 90 Judas Iscariot 90, 158, 159, 189, 190, 292, 293, 297, 329, 333, 338, 385

house see Jerusalem Judas Maccabeus 96, 302 Jude Thaddæus (Apostle) 66 Judith 99, 148, 268–9, 324, 355, 364 Julian the Apostate (Roman emperor) 148 al-Junayna 332, 344, 369 Jupiter 110, 279 Justa 240 Justinian I (Byzantine emperor) 71 Kābūl 257, 311 Kadesh 93, 109 Kadesh-barnea 122, 244, 245, 265, 267, 282, 305 Kafr (Kephar, El Phar) 225 Kafr Jinnis, abbey of St Habakkuk 214, 229, 350, 351 Kafr Kanna 187, 268 al-Kāmil I Nāṣir al-Dīn, al-Malik (Ayyubid sultan) 5, 7, 35, 37, 120 Kantara Castle (Cyprus) 82 Kappler, René 57 al-Karak (le Crac de Monréal, civitas Petracensis, Petra of the Desert, alKarak al-Shawbak) 4, 37, 120, 135, 139, 145, 182, 244–5, 267, 282–3, 296, 341, 348, 369 ‘amīr 215 archbishop (of Petra) 133, 139, 182, 198–9 lords (or of Montreal/al-Shawbak) 139, 141 see also Philip of Milly, Reynald of Châtillon plain 142 al-Karmil, Khirbat (Carmel) 109, 305 Karnaim 347 Kathisma (Bi’r al-Qadismū), chapel where St Mary rested 223, 341, 370–71, 392 Kawkab (Kuwaykat) 234 Kayseri (Cæsarea) 55 Kedar (tribe of Idumæa, mistakenly identified as a city) 98–9, 255, 258, 259, 260, 261, 325, 355 Kedar, Benjamin Z. 36 Kedesh in Naphtali (Khirbat Qadīsh, Qadas) 258, 260, 262, 263, 269 Kenaz 306

Index Kerraza, Khirbat (Chorazin) 255 Khalda 65 khamsīn (hot east wind) 117–18 al-Khiḍr, church of St George 191, 391 Khisfīn 28 Khumartekin (lord of Abū Qubays) 70 Khwarizmian Turks 5, 7, 53, 194, 215, 328 Kibbutz Bet ha-Emeq 234 Kidron brook and valley 90, 91, 149, 177, 220, 288, 289, 290, 292, 293–4, 298, 299, 300, 371 see also Jerusalem: valley of Jehoshaphat King’s Highway 4 Kiriath-arba (Hebron) 305, 341 Kiriath-jearim (Cariathiarim, Tall alAzhar) 301 Kiriath-sepher (Khirbat Rabūd) 306 Kish (father of Saul) 280 Kishon brook (Nahr al-Mukatta) 49, 97, 210, 225, 245, 271, 272–3, 274, 323, 365 Kiswa (or Kuswa) 100 Kitbuqa (Mongol leader) 275 Klosterneuberg, MSS in 51 Korah 122 Korykos (Cilicia) 25, 81 Külzer, Andreas 38 Kurdāna (Ricardane), Hospitaller mills 225, 226 Kurds 55 Kursi (Chorsia, Gergesa, also mistaken for Chorazin) 255, 259, 324, 355, 356 Kuwaykat (Kawkab) 234 Kyrenia 25, 82, 83 Laban 266 Lachish (Tall al-Duwayr) 301, 309 Laish 254 Lamech (father of Noah) 353–4 Lamech (father of Tubal-cain) 273, 354 Languedoc 12 Lappidoth 285 Larnaca 232 Larnax 195 Latakia (Laodicea) 70–71, 240, 243 Latins 123, 131, 250 see also Franks Laṭrūn (Toron) 110, 350 Laurent, J.C.M. 26–7, 29, 47, 48, 50, 56

447

Leah 111, 306, 342 Lebanon forest of 270 plains of 155, 160 see also Mount Lebanon Lebona (Lebna, al-Lubbān) 279, 280 Leiden, MSS in 37 Leo (Templar sergeant) 257 Leopold V (duke of Austria) 64 Leopold VII (duke of Austria) 25, 61, 63 Leopold of Hallermund 73 Leshem Dan 254 Levi 141 Levon I (king of Armenia, former Baron Levon II) 25, 35–6, 74, 76, 77–80 Levon II (king of Armenia) 50–51, 317 Libnah (Tall Burnāt?) 309 Limassol 25, 83 Lisbon 238 Lombardy 65, 243, 256 London 39 British Library 37, 39, 44, 49 Lord’s Leap see Mount of Precipitation Lot 118, 142–3, 191, 343, 389, 391 tomb (Banī Na‘īm) 342 wife turned to pillar of salt 118, 142, 195, 283 Louis VII (king of France) 69 Louis IX (saint, king of France) 8, 17, 21, 38, 187 Lucian (priest of Caphar Gamala) 112 Lübeck 47 Lüchow (Lower Saxony) 82 Luz of Benjamin 284 Lydda (St George, Diospolis) 37, 38, 86–7, 110, 195, 229, 236, 297, 301, 309, 350–51, 365 bishop 133 church and tomb of St George 87, 214, 350–51 Lyons 82 second council of 50, 236, 315 Ma‘ale Adumim (Ascent of Blood, Tal‘at al-Damm) 115–16, 145, 286, 368 Ma‘an 264 Maaschius, Andreas Theophilus 29 Maastricht 76

448

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

Maccabees 92, 339 tombs 309, 350 Machærus (al-Mukawar) 276–7, 278, 325 Madaba 4, 119 Magadan 255 Magdala (al-Majdal) 63, 233, 263, 324, 354, 363 church 263, 363 Magdalenes (Repentite or Convertite Sisters) 16, 45, 236 Magdeburg 47 Magi (Three Kings) 77, 86, 179, 222, 232, 340, 344, 370 Magog 197 Mahalath 266 Mahanaim 266 Maḥmūd Ghazan (Mongol il-khan) 52, 55 Majorca 238, 239 Makkedah 309 Málaga 238 Malchus 385 Maliḥa 3, 100 Mamilla 370 Mamistra (Mopsuetia, al-Massisa, Misis) 55, 76, 78, 375 Mamluks 8, 9, 10, 40, 51, 52, 55, 200, 255, 275 hunting parks 255, 271 Mamre (Tall al-Rumayda) 114, 142, 179, 191, 305, 343, 391 Manacusine 68 Manasseh (son of Joseph) 141, 279 tribe 117, 119, 256, 257, 264, 276, 277, 278, 311 Manasseh (king of Judah) 331 al-Manṣūra 204, 388 battle (1250) 40 Maon (Tall Mā‘īn) 305 maps of the Holy Land 23–4, 39–40, 49–50 al-Maqrīzī 316 Maraclea (Khrab Marqiyya) 69, 253 lords see Peter Ravendal, Raymond Marco Polo 9, 21, 51, 56 Marescalcia (Khirbat Maskana) 183 Marescalcia (royal castle, Qarn Ṣarṭaba?) 183 Marescalcia (village near Mirabel) 183 Margaret (queen of Denmark) 14

Margaret (lady of Tyre) 8 Margaret (princess of Scotland) 46 Maria (daughter of Raymond Rupen) 37, 183, 184 Maronites 163, 242, 250, 256, 317, 375 Marqab (Margat) 50, 69–70, 71, 240, 243, 249, 252–3, 313, 316 Marrakesh 207 Mars 82 Marseilles 6, 9, 46, 232, 238, 239 church of St.-Victor 232, 344 Martha of Bethany 93, 221, 232, 286, 332–3, 344, 379 Martyrius, monastery of 286 Mary Clopas 89, 216–17 Mary of Bethany 93, 286, 332–3, 344, 391 de Mas Latrie, L. 33 Masada (Herod’s castle) 304 al-Mash-had 268 Maskana, Khirbat (Marescalcia) 183 Maskara, Khirbat 183 Massegatæ 241 Mataria (near Cairo) 387 Mattathias (father of Maccabees) 350 Matteo (father of Marco Polo) 9, 21 Matthew Paris 23, 39–40, 197–208 Mattidia (mother of St Clement) 240, 252 Mauretania 207 Maurice, Friar (Norwegian Franciscan) 21, 46, 237–40 Maxentius (Roman emperor) 196 al-Mazra‘a (casale Mesrha, Mesara) 274 Mecca 130, 200, 245 Medan (Phiala, Magedan, Dalmanutha) (supposed source of the Dan) 254–5, 260 Medea 78 Medes 243 Christians 315 Media 242 Mediterranean Sea 5, 49, 129, 131, 238, 357 see also Great Sea Megiddo (Tall al-Mutasallim) 273 plain of 108, 262, 273, 355 Melchior 223, 232, 339 Melchisedek 189, 271, 284, 323, 364, 386 Melisende (queen of Jerusalem) 184 Melisende of Arsūf 109

Index Melk (Austria), MSS in 47, 51 Memnon (king of Ethiopia) 107 Memphis 241, 320 Mercury 199 Mérigoux, J.M. 56 le Merle (Dor, Ṭanṭūra) 352 Merom, waters of 254, 255, 257, 260 see also Ḥūla Lake Mesopotamia 106, 243, 260, 265, 266 Messina 6, 9 Meyer, Paul 34 Michael II (Byzantine emperor) 196 Michelant, Henri 33, 34, 40, 42, 46 Michmas (Michmash, Mukhmās) 280 Michmethath (Khirbat Makhna al-Fawqā?) 308 Midian 119, 272, 275 Midianites 251, 315 al-Midiyya (Modein) 309, 350, 353 Milan, MSS in 36 Mill of the Towers (Molin des Turs) 168 mills 64, 71, 205, 225, 226, 246, 282, 368 Milvian Bridge, battle (312) 196 al-Mīna Kabūsi 68 Minos (king of Crete) 63 al-Minya, Khān 262, 263 Mirabel (Majdal Yāba) 183 Miriam (sister of Moses and Aaron) 122 Misis see Mamistra Misrephoth 255 Mīt Khanāzīr (Chaneci, Menyet el Chanazir) 387 Moab 4, 119, 245, 256, 260, 267, 281, 282, 283, 284, 347 Moabites 143, 283, 300 Modein 309, 339, 350–51, 353 Moloch 115, 299, 343 Mongols (Tartars) 8, 9, 40, 44, 50, 51, 55, 56, 200, 239, 275, 317 Monte Croce (Tuscany) 55 Montfort Castle 8, 37, 50, 253 Montgisart (Tall al-Jazar, Tel Gezer) battle of (1177) 87, 214–15 hospital of St Catherine 236 Montreal see al-Shawbak Moreh 283 Morocco 207, 238 Moserah 121

449

Moses 97, 119, 120, 121, 122, 124–9, 139, 140, 172, 178, 195–6, 222, 230, 300, 305, 323, 334, 347, 348, 380, 386–7 Ethiopian campaign 122 tomb 195 Mosul (al-Mawṣil) 5, 55 Mount Abarim 119, 267, 281, 296, 305, 311, 348 Mount Bethel 278 Mount Cain 273, 311 see also Caymont Mount Carmel 8, 54, 85, 107–9, 191, 195, 244, 245, 272–3, 274, 275, 277, 307, 311, 319, 365 chapel and spring of St Denys 167, 209 monasteries: St Elias of Carmel and cave of Elijah (Mar Elias, al-Khiḍr) 17, 85, 108, 167, 173, 210, 229, 307, 353; St Margaret of Carmel 108, 167, 168, 209–10, 228, 307, 353; St Mary of Carmel (Carmelite friars) 17, 34, 53, 167–8, 210–11, 229, 307, 353 Mount Ebal (Mountain of Abel) 146, 278–9 Mount Ephraim 251, 262, 273, 275, 276, 277, 298, 301 Mount Galilee (Karm al-Sayyad) 177, 190, 220, 232, 300, 343–4, 369, 378, 386 Mount Gerizim (Mountain of Cain) 146, 147, 278–9 Mount Gihon 112, 220, 288, 289, 300, 339 Mount Gilboa 99, 146, 244, 267, 274, 275–6, 345, 356, 364 Mount Gilead 244, 256, 265, 266, 267, 275, 284 Mount Hermon 103, 255, 256, 258, 260, 261, 264, 271, 357 Mount Hermon, Little (Jabal Duhy, Giv’at ha-More) 97, 166, 179, 224, 227, 233, 271, 272, 274, 275 Mount Hor (Jabal Hārūn) 4, 121, 347 Mount Joy (Mountjoy) see Nabi Ṣamwīl Mount Joy (near Nazareth) 225 Mount Judah 305 Mount Lebanon 63, 64, 68, 94, 99, 135, 136, 160, 198, 244, 250, 251, 254,

450

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

255, 256, 258, 261, 270, 273, 281, 310, 313, 345, 357, 358, 375 Mount Modein 308 Mount Moriah 284, 288, 289–90, 292 Mount Nebo 4, 119, 281, 296 Mount of Offence 115, 294, 299, 343 Mount of Olives 3, 7, 87, 90, 91–2, 113, 151, 152, 163, 177, 190, 198, 220–21, 231, 241, 287, 291, 292, 293, 298, 299, 300, 326, 331–3, 343, 369, 371, 372, 378–9, 386 churches: Ascension 58, 91–2, 113, 163, 171, 177, 190, 220, 231, 299, 331, 378, 386; Lord’s Prayer (house of Bread) 90, 91, 163, 171, 178, 221, 231–2, 299, 331, 379; St Pelagia (or St Mary the Egyptian) 171, 177–8, 190, 221, 231, 299, 331, 378, 386 tomb of St Mary the Egyptian 331 Mount of Precipitation (Lord’s Leap, Precipice, Jabal al-Qafza) 96, 138, 165, 226, 233, 271, 322, 364, 380 Mount of Temptation (Quarantine, Jabal alQurunṭul) 3, 25, 94, 116, 138, 144, 171, 178, 195, 222, 225, 232, 281, 282, 284, 348, 368–9, 379, 389 church 366 Mount of Temptation in Galilee 116, 138, 139 Mount of the Leopards (Jabal Turbul) 250–51, 375 Mount Peor (Phagor, Phegor) 119, 281 Mount Pilgrim (near Tripoli) 67 Mount Pisgah 119, 281, 296 Mount Quarantine see Mount of Temptation Mount Scopus 307 Mount Seir, or Senir 103, 245, 255, 256, 258, 259, 264–7, 275, 282, 284, 305, 356 Mount Sharon (Ladder of Tyre) 107, 246, 257 Mount Silpius 71 Mount Sinai (Ṭūr Sīna) 10, 21, 28, 121, 123–9, 131, 139–40, 172, 178, 222, 223–4, 234, 329, 334, 346, 377, 380, 385, 386–7

abbey church of St Mary (or St Catherine) containing tomb of St Catherine 4, 14, 19, 38, 107, 124–9, 131, 139–40, 172, 178, 196, 222, 223–4, 346, 380, 386 chapels: St Elias 128, 387; St Mary of the Pledge 127–8, 386–7; St Moses 128–9, 387 monastery of Forty Martyrs 387 Mount Sion see Jerusalem Mount Tabor (Itabyrion, Jabal al-Ṭūr) 3, 5, 7, 37, 38, 41, 44, 139, 166, 172, 179, 180, 187, 189, 198, 223–4, 227, 258, 262, 271, 272, 275, 285, 311, 323, 364, 369, 380 abbey and church of the Transfiguration 7, 8, 9, 35, 43, 50, 53, 97, 133, 166, 183, 227, 233, 323, 355, 364 Ayyubid castle 28, 97, 271 cave of Melchisedek 189, 271 chapel where Jesus said, ‘Tell no one’ 271 Mount Taurus 243 al-Mu‘aẓẓam Sharaf al-Dīn ‘Īsā (Ayyubid) 3, 32, 34, 97, 105, 157, 271 Münster 24 Mughārat Banāt Ya‘qūb (cave of the Daughters of Jacob, cave of Tobias) 167 Muḥammad 130, 201, 245, 276, 314 footprint in Dome of the Rock 169 image in Dome of the Rock (alleged) 334 sister buried in Tarsus 77 tomb 130 al-Mu‘izz ‘Izz al-Dīn ‘Alī (Mamluk sultan) 196 Mujīr al-Dīn 370 Mumelin (Murmelin, Almohad) ‘amīr 207 Munich, MSS in 29, 35, 51–2 Munio de Zamora (master general of the Franciscan order) 362 al-Muqaddasī (geographer) 181 al-Muraṣṣaṣ, Khirbat 286 Murcia 239 Muslims (Saracens) 49, 55, 67, 68, 72, 86, 87, 92, 93, 95, 96, 98, 99, 100, 107,

Index 113–15, 121, 123, 201, 237, 242, 248, 251, 259, 260, 264, 283, 284, 306, 315–16, 357, 365, 366, 388 craftsmen 66 Hungarian 112 pilgrimage to Mecca 130 praying in Haram al-Sharīf 36, 176, 217 religious and social beliefs and customs 100, 101–2, 106–7, 130–31, 199, 201, 276, 313, 314–15, 334 Ṣūfi zāwiyya in Mamilla 370 trade with 13 veneration of: Adam 342; the Burning Bush 125; Jesus 131, 276; John the Baptist 276; Joseph 342; tomb of Joshua 259–51; tomb of Lazarus 286–7; tomb of Muḥammad 130; tomb of Muḥammad’s sister 77; Virgin Mary 69, 106, 131, 276, 303, 372 al-Musta‘ṣim, (Abbasid caliph) 200 al-Mutawakkil (Abbasid caliph) 129 Muzayrib 255 Na‘ama 103 Naaman (commander of Syrians) 94, 346 Naason 262, 263, 311 Nabal the Carmelite 109, 305 Nabatæa 242, 260 Nabi Ṣamwīl (St Samuel, Mount Joy) 7, 44, 111, 169, 191, 215, 221, 229, 235, 280, 296, 297, 300, 350, 365 Nāblus (Flavia Neapolis) 5, 7, 34, 94, 103, 111, 146–8, 172, 179, 181, 183, 184, 223, 233, 276, 278–9, 280, 285, 298, 325 Naboth the Jezreelite 108, 273, 275, 277, 355 Nadab 124 Nahr al-‘Aṣi (Orontes) 71, 357 Nahr al-A‘waj (Pharpar) 103, 198, 357 Nahr al-Awalī 185 Nahr al-‘Awja (Yarqon) 168 Nahr al-Baradā (Abana) 103, 198, 357 Nahr al-Bārid 357 Nahr al-Damūr (Flum Damor, River of Love) 65, 185

451

Nahr al-Faliq (Roche taillie) 168, 213 Nahr al-Kabīr (River Eleutheros) 68, 248, 357 Nahr al-Kalb (Dog River) 185, 249 Nahr al-Litāni (Nahr al-Kāsimīja) 248, 249 Nahr al-Mukatta see Kishon Nahr al-Zarqā see Crocodile River, Jabbok Nahr Bayrūt 185 Nahr Na‘mayn (Belus) 107 Nahr Yarmūq 100, 184 Nain (Na‘im, where Jesus revived the widow’s son) 3, 97, 137, 166, 179–80, 183, 224, 227, 233, 271, 272, 323, 364 Naomi 341 Naples, MSS in 38 Naphtali 141 tribe 27, 96, 98, 257, 258, 263, 311, 354 al-Nāṣir (Abbasid caliph) 106–7 al-Nāṣir al-Dīn Manguwirish (‘amīr) 70 al-Nāṣir al-Nāsir al-Dīn Muḥammad (Mamluk sultan) 53, 58, 338, 366 al-Nāṣir Dā’ūd, Malik (Ayyubid) 5, 53, 193, 338, 366 Nathaniel (pope) 58 Navarese 163 Nawā 3, 28, 99, 100 Nazareth 3, 5, 7, 8, 22, 27, 34, 37, 38, 44, 49, 55, 85, 96, 138, 145, 148, 165, 179, 183, 187, 189, 198, 226, 228, 233, 268, 270–71, 287, 321–2, 354, 362, 364–5, 380 archbishop and chapter 7, 133, 235, 356 churches: Annunciation 2, 8, 9, 10, 17, 35, 42, 53, 165, 187, 224–5, 226, 233, 270, 362; St Gabriel (enclosing spring) 165, 225, 226, 233, 270–71, 322, 365; St Zacharias 138, 165, 225, 226, 267, 270; synagogue-church 270, 365 Nebaioth 266 Nebat 278 Nebuchadnezzar (king of Persia) 32, 106, 148, 191, 247, 382 Neco (pharaoh) 273 Nephin see ‘Anfa

452

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

Nestorians 55, 56, 132, 163, 242, 250, 251, 256, 315, 317, 375, 382 Nestorius 375 Neumann, W.A. 35, 47, 51–2, 53, 54, 57 New Castle see Hunīn Nicæa 181 Niccolò (uncle of Marco Polo) 9, 21 Niccolò da Poggibonsi (pilgrim, 1349) 11, 370 Nicephorus (patriarch of Constantinople) 196 Nicetas (Faustinus, Nicæa) 240 Nicolas IV (pope) 13, 14, 15, 362 Nicolas de Beaufort (canon of Soissons) 26 Nicolas Laleman (lord of Cæsarea) 41 Nicolas of Hanapes (Latin patriarch of Jerusalem) 55 Nicolas of Lyra 52 Nicopolis (‘Amwās) 111, 301, 310, 338, 354 Nicosia 25, 82–3, 211, 353 archbishop 83, 84 houses of Franciscans and Poor Clares 15 Nigrin (Mancilik Kalesi) 76 Nile, River 123, 129, 140, 198, 258–9, 310, 320, 387 Nimrod, tower of 196 Nineveh 198, 343 Noah 251, 353–4 ark 68, 75, 135, 197–8, 375 tomb 68 Nob 110, 307, 309 Normandy, dukes 26 Nubia 242 Nubians 315 Numidia 131 Nun 195 Nūr al-Dīn 102 nuria (sāqiya, antiliya) 149 Nuṣayrī mountains see Jabal Anṣāriyya Obadiah 111, 276, 325 Odoric of Friuli (or Pordenone) 54, 56 Og (king of Bashan) 244, 256 Oholibamah 266 Old Man of the Mountain (leader of the Assassins) 68–9, 70, 200, 316

Oliver of Paderborn (or Cologne) 23 Olybrius (prefect) 358 Origen, tomb 53, 247, 357 Ornan (Araunah) the Jebusite 334 Orontes, River (Nahr al-‘Aṣi) 71, 358 Oslo, MS in 46 Osnabrück 24 Osney Priory 12 Othoniel 306 Otto IV (German emperor) 25, 62, 63, 74, 79, 395 Oudenarde 14 Ovid 78 Oxford 12 MSS in 48 Paderborn 24 see also Oliver of Paderborn Padua 54 Pain Perdu 168, 211, 212 Palæstina I 308 Palæstina III 199 Palestine 109, 243, 244, 261, 319 Palm, town of the see Zoar Palm Grove (la Palmére) 210 Panella, E. 56 Papadopoulos-Kerameus, A. 38 Paphos 84 Paran desert 122, 265, 266, 267, 281, 282, 283, 315 Paris 52 Bibliothèque Nationale, MSS in 26, 37, 43 church of St.-Denis 357 Parthians 100, 243 Payas 76 Pella (Fiḥl) 264 Peniel 266 Pennino family 55 Penuel (Tall al-Dhahab al-Sharqiyya) 265, 266 Perseus 110 Persia 106, 131, 156, 200, 242 Persian sack of Jerusalem (614) 113, 159, 338 Persian Christians 315 Persian Gulf 5 Peter of Limoges (archbishop of Cæsarea) 133

Index Peter of San Marcello (papal legate) 76 Peter Ravendal (lord of Maraclea) 69 Peter the Deacon 22 Petra (Reqem, in Wādī Mūsa) 4, 121, 244, 245, 264, 283 archiepiscopal see transferred to alKarak 139, 182, 199, 347 see also al-Karak, al-Shawbak Petra incisa (le Detroit, Dustray) 244, 245, 247, 352 Pharaoh 132, 140, 273, 320, 349 Pharaoh’s Island (Jazirat Fara‘ūn) 4, 123 Pharpar, River (Nahr al-A‘waj) 103, 198, 357 Phasael (brother of Herod) 281 Phasælis (Faṣayil) 281 Phiala (Medan ) (supposed source of the Dan) 254–5, 260 Philip (son of Herod the Great) 136, 254, 261 Philip II Augustus (king of France) 3 Philip of Milly (lord of al-Shawbak/ Montreal) 4 Philip of Montfort 37, 183 Philip (Busserius) of Savona (Franciscan) 23, 51–4, 194, 211, 321–58, 370 Philistia 96, 110, 131, 243, 244, 319 Philistines 274, 275, 302, 305, 309, 342, 349, 350 Phillips, Sir Thomas 34 Phinehas 119 Phœnicia 99, 133, 245, 248, 261, 273, 275, 358 Phœnician Syria 244 Phœnix (son of Agenor, king of Tyre) 244, 247 pilgrim tokens 18–19 Pilgrims’ Castle (‘Atlīt) 8, 9, 17–18, 41, 42, 53, 105, 168, 206, 210, 229, 244, 245, 247, 307, 308, 352–3, 365, 374 Pisa 55 Pishon (river of Pardise) 140 Plato 241 Pliny 259 Pompey 269 Pontius Pilate 112, 169, 277, 328 Porphyreon (Porphyria) 107, 353

453

Port St Symeon (Suwaydiyya) 46, 71, 357 Portella (Bāb Iskandarūn, Jonah’s Pillar) 75–6 portolan charts and guides 24 Prato 55 Premonstratensians 26, 214 Priam (king of Troy) 107 Prodromos see St John the Baptist Promised Land 135, 140, 143, 201, 210 Provence 9 Ptolemaïs see Acre Ptolemy (son of Abubus) 281, 367 al-Qadismū, Bi’r (Kathisma), chapel where St Mary rested 223, 341, 370–71, 392 Qal‘at Ibn Ma‘an (Mamluk cave-castle) 268–9 Qal‘at Ṭanṭūra 103 Qalā’ūn, al-Manṣūr Sayf al-Dīn (Mamluk sultan) 8, 10, 13, 50, 253, 282, 303, 317 al-Qalqashandī 99 Qana, Khirbat 96, 165, 187, 224, 226–7, 267 Qāqūn (Chaco) 308, 365, 374 Qarn Ṣarṭaba (Marescalcia?) 183 Quarantine, wilderness 285 see also Mount of Temptation Quedlinburg 102 al-Qubayba (Parva Mahumeria) 44, 229, 301, 310, 339 Qulay‘āt 68 Qutuz, al-Muẓafar Sayf al-Dīn (Mamluk sultan) 9, 275 Rabbath Ammon (Philadelphia, ‘Ammān) 120, 199, 244, 348 Rabbath Moab (Ar Moab, Areopolis, alRabba) 4, 120, 199, 244, 245, 283, 348 Rabshakeh 293 Rachel’s tomb (Qubbat Rāhīl) 113, 171, 178, 191, 221, 222, 232, 302, 339, 340, 370, 380, 390 Rages in Media (al-Raqqa) 243 Rahab the harlot 116, 347 al-Rāma (Khirbat al-‘Anāqīr) 280

454

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

Ramah 248 Ramah (Ramathaim-zophim, Ramatha) 111, 262, 272, 280, 301–2, 365 Ramah of Judæa or Benjamin (al-Rām) 25, 87, 110, 280, 285, 293, 354 Ramah of Naphtali 280 Ramallah 117 Rāmat al-Khalīl 280, 305 Ramat Rahel (Khirbat Ṣāliḥ) 305 Ramathaim-zophim 111, 262, 272, 277, 280, 301–2, 305, 365 see also Arimathea, Ramah, Rantis Ramla 3, 4, 7, 41, 44, 86–7, 110, 169, 214, 229, 262, 272, 302, 305, 350–51, 374 White Mosque 42, 214 Ramoth-gilead 275 Rantis (Arimathea, Ramathaim-zophim) 110, 111, 262, 302 al-Raqqa 243 Ra’s al-‘Ayn (Antipatris) 110, 277, 308, 319, 352 Ra’s al-‘Ayn (Puteus aquarum, source of Tyre aqueduct) 64, 234, 246, 358 Raymond II (count of Tripoli) 68 Raymond III (count of Tripoli and prince of Galilee) 151 Raymond (lord of Maraclea) 69 Raymond (son of Bohemond III, prince of Antioch) 74 Raymond (son of Bohemond IV, prince of Antioch) 68 Raymond of St.-Gilles (Raymond I, count of Tripoli) 67 Raymond Rupen (prince of Antioch) 25, 37, 74, 79, 183, 184, 239 al-Rayna (Raymes) 145 Raynaud, Gaston 33, 34, 40, 42, 46 Raythou (al-Ṭūr) 10, 38, 195, 386, 387 monastery of St John the Baptist 387 John, abbot of 387 Rebekah 285, 306, 342 Red Cistern (Inn of the Good Samaritan) 145 see also Ma‘ale Adumim Red Sea 4, 122–3, 129, 139, 140, 195, 243, 245, 264, 267, 281, 380, 387 Red Tower (Qal‘at al-Damm, Ma‘ale Adumim) 368

Regensburg (Ratisbon), MSS in 47 Rehob 248, 270 relics 18, 79 see also Holy Cross, St Euphemia, St Mary the Egyptian Rephaim valley 304, 310, 313 Reqem (Petra in Wādī Mūsa) 121 Reuben 141, 167 tribe 117, 110 Rey, E.G 239 Reynald of Châtillon (lord of KarakMontreal) 37, 140 Rhodes 46, 81 Riant, Count 31, 34, 41, 43, 45 Richard I (king of England) 86 Richard (earl of Cornwall) 5, 206 Riccoldo of Monte Croce (Franciscan) 13, 23, 48, 55–7, 263, 361–75 Robert of Nantes (Latin patriarch of Jerusalem) 7 Robert of Rouen (bishop of Ramla-Lydda) 214–15 Robinson, E. 33 Roche taillie (Nahr al-Faliq) 168, 213 Roderic (Visigothic king) 238 Röhricht, Reinhold 28, 29, 35, 47, 51, 52, 56, 58 Rogel oak 331 spring see En-rogel Rome 18, 27, 43, 77, 234, 240, 352, 358 churches: S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura 330; S. Maria Maggiore 54, 340; St Peter (S. Pietro) 14; S. Stefano fuori le Mura 54 Lateran palace 234, 358 Vatican Library, MSS in 40, 47, 57, 58 Rorgo Fretellus see Fretellus Rostock, MSS in 29 Rudolph I (king of Germany) 47 Rufinus of Aquilæa 240 Rūma (Romī) 268 Rupen III (prince of Armenia) 37, 74 Rushmiyya, Khirbat (Franche vile) 167, 209 Russia 1 Ruth the Moabite 341 Ruthenians 163 al-Ruwād island (Aradus) 240, 251–2

Index Saba (in Ethiopia) 122 Sabastiyya see Sebaste Sabbath river 99 Sabian sect 55 Sa‘d al-Dīn Kamshabah al-Asadī (‘amīr) 182 Sadducees 132 Ṣafad 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 37, 50, 136, 166–7, 184, 200, 227–8, 257, 258, 261, 262, 263, 269, 280, 363 cave of Tobias (Mughārat Banāt Ya‘qūb) 167, 227 Saffūriyya (Sepphoris) 5, 7, 27, 96, 145–6, 165, 179–80, 183, 187, 225, 226, 233, 268, 270, 322, 365 springs of 145–6, 225, 322 Ṣafīta (Chastel Blanc) 68 Ṣafṭa ‘Ādi, Khirbat see Saphet of the Germans Sahl ‘Arrāba 146, 148, 151 Ṣaḥyūn 70 St Albans (England) 40, 198 St Andrew 98, 137, 166, 183, 224, 229, 263, 324, 352, 355, 362 church in Acre 16, 18, 235 St Anne 27, 96, 145, 165, 180, 194, 233, 322 church in Acre 16, 235 see also Jerusalem St Anna 336 St Antony, church in Acre 16, 45, 236 St Arsenius, monastery 195, 387 St Babylas (archbishop of Antioch) 189 St Barbara 73 churches: Antioch 73; Cairo 349, 380 St Bartholomew, church in Acre 16, 236 St Brigid (or Bride), church in Acre 16, 45, 236 St Catherine 107, 215, 347, 349 churches in Acre 16, 236 see also Jabal Kātrīna, Mount Sinai St Chariton church in Jerusalem 169, 174, 216, 230, 307 monastery near Bethlehem (Khirbat Kuraytūn) 114–15, 307, 342, 389 St Clement 240, 252

455

St Cornelius 18, 109, 173, 212, 213, 308, 351 church in Cæsarea 173, 212 St Cyprian 344 St Cyriacus 90 St Cyril of Alexandria 319 St Demetrius church in Jerusalem 383 relics 170, 176 St Denys (Dionysius) (pope) 167, 209 chapel and spring on Mount Carmel 167, 209 church in Acre 16, 45, 236 St Elias 234 see also Elijah castle (al-Ṭayyiba) 150–51 chapel on Mount Sinai 128, 387 monastery near Bethlehem 141, 171, 178, 191, 221, 222, 232, 339, 370, 380, 390 see also Mount Carmel St Elizabeth 137, 191, 221, 223, 225, 338, 380, 389 St Epiphanius 84 St Euphemia, relics 17, 41, 53, 211, 229, 352–3 St Eustachius 357 St Eustochium (companion of St Jerome) 22, 114, 304, 341 see also Bethlehem St Euthymius church in Jerusalem 384 monastery (Khān al-Aḥmar) 195, 389 St Gabriel, church and spring see Nazareth de Saint-Génois, J. 28–9 St George 80, 86–7, 132, 195, 214–15, 261, 351, 392 churches: Acre 16, 45, 236; al-Khiḍr 191, 389 see also al-Ba‘ina, Jerusalem, Lydda St Gerasimus, monastery 59, 195, 346, 379, 389–90 St Giles, churches in: Acre 16, 45, 236; Jerusalem 155 St Gregory of Nazianzus 319 St Gregory the Illuminator 74, 80 St Habakkuk, chapel (Kafr Jinnis) 213, 229, 350, 351 St Helena (mother of Constantine I) 83, 89–90, 194, 373, 381

456

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

chapel see Jerusalem St Hilarion Castle (Cyprus) 82 St Isaias 220 see also Isaiah St James the Apostle (son of Zebedee) 97, 98, 139, 165, 180, 213, 221, 231, 234, 296, 322–3, 333, 355, 365 churches see Jerusalem, Shafa ‘Amr stone in Jaffa 35, 44, 168, 173, 213, 229, 351 St James the Less (Adelphotheus) 330, 333, 336, 367, 383 chapel and tomb see Jerusalem St Jerome 22, 50, 114, 171, 178, 223, 241, 304, 340, 343, 371, 379 St Joachim 194 St Job 103 see also Job castle of (Khirbat Bal‘ama) 146, 151 tomb 99, 100, 255, 260 St John Chysostom 73, 319 relics 170, 176, 231 St John of Damascus 390 St John of the Woods see ‘Ayn Karim St John the Apostle/Evangelist/Theologian (son of Zebedee) 92, 97, 98, 112, 139, 152, 178, 201, 230, 232, 233, 234, 322–3, 328, 333, 358, 365, 377 churches in Jerusalem 161, 194, 384 St John the Baptist (Prodromos) 80, 94, 116, 136, 138, 168, 172, 179, 189, 191, 210–11, 217, 221, 223, 223, 232, 233, 275, 276–7, 307, 338, 346 churches: Jerusalem 383; Sebaste 111, 133, 148, 224, 276, 325; Tyre 72 see also ‘Ayn Karim desert and spring near Hebron (‘Ayn al-Ma‘mudiyya) 380 desert beyond the Jordan 144, 195, 389 hospital in Acre 15, 16, 18, 45, 205, 236 see also Jerusalem monasteries: Ṭīra 168, 210 – 11, 229, 353; Qasr al-Yahūd, near Jericho 94, 116, 144, 195, 282, 346, 368, 379, 389 tomb 111, 148, 224 St Joseph 203, 321, 349, 370–71, 374, 390 St Joseph of Arimathea 110, 169, 173, 192, 197, 215, 301, 327, 338, 382 St Jude, church in Beirut 66

St Laurence churches: Acre 16, 45, 235; Burj alMaliḥ 168 tomb in Rome 330 St Lazarus 93, 171, 178, 232, 344, 379 churches: Acre 16, 45, 205, 235, 236; see also Bethany hospital in Jerusalem 157 later bishop of Larnaca or Marseilles 232, 344 order of 168, 211, 236 St Leonard, church in Acre 16, 235 St Louis see Louis IX St Louis of Toulouse 52 St Luke 221 St Magnus 12 St Mamilla (Babyla), church in Jeruslaem 159, 389 St Margaret (Marina) 73, 358 abbey see Mount Carmel Ste.-Marie de la Mer 232 St Mark 88, 349 church in Acre 16, 45, 235 St Martin churches: Acre 16, 45, 236; Jerusalem 158 relics 170, 176 St Mary (Our Lady) 27, 69, 89, 91, 128, 167, 169, 229, 233, 239, 327, 375, 377 presentation in Temple 335 Annunciation 138, 180, 321 see also Nazareth churches and chapels: Gaza 388; Tyre 247, 358; see also Acre, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Kathisma, Mount Carmel, Mount Sinai, Saydnaya, Ṭarṭūs dormition, burial and assumption 91, 93, 112, 190, 194, 204, 219, 328–9, 330, 348, 349, 378, 384 see also Jerusalem flight to Egypt 203–4, 342, 348, 361, 387 hospital of St Mary of the Germans in Jerusalem 7, 155 icons of 3, 72, 77, 103–6, 169, 174, 202, 216, 228, 230, 382

Index visitation of St Elizabeth 138, 191, 223, 225, 242, 307, 338, 371, 380, 389 St Mary of Kalamon, monastery (Dayr Hajla) 282, 379, 389, 390 St Mary of the Marshes 18, 168, 211, 229, 352, 374 St Mary Magdalene 63, 73, 89, 93, 171, 178, 216–17, 221, 232, 233, 263, 324, 327, 343, 354, 363, 374, 377, 379, 382, 389 churches and chapels: Acre 16, 236; Cæsarea 212–13; Jerusalem 161, 219 St Mary the Egyptian 169, 174, 216, 230, 295, 328, 346, 382 tomb in the wilderness 389 translation of body from Mount of Olives to Blois 54, 331 St Matthew (Apostle) 86, 320, 363 St Matthias 296, 329, 377 St Michael 377 churches: Acre 15, 16, 45, 226, 235; Jerusalem 384 St Moses, chapel on Mount Sinai 128–9, 387 St Nathaniel (Apostle) 322 St Nicanor 329 St Nicodemus 112, 169, 173, 192, 215, 327, 382 St Nicolas, churches: Acre 16, 45, 205, 226, 234, 235; Jerusalem 384 see also Bethlehem St Nicolaus of Antioch 329 St.-Omer, MSS in 33 St Onuphrius, church in Jerusalem 367 St Pantaleon icon 328 tomb 76 St Parmenas 329 St Paul 69, 76, 77, 109, 198, 308, 352, 375 churches: Antioch 72; Ascalon 241; Damascus 101; Jerusalem (spurious) 32 conversion from Saul 100, 198, 357, 380 St Paula (companion of St Jerome) 22, 114, 304, 341, 371 see also Bethlehem

457

St Pelagia, tomb and chapel see Mount of Olives St Peter 69, 71, 72, 77, 86, 97, 98, 109, 136–7, 139, 159, 166, 178, 183, 194, 204, 212, 213, 214, 219, 221, 224, 230, 233, 239, 240, 252, 263, 271, 308, 323, 324, 326, 328, 329, 330, 332, 333, 338, 344, 350, 351–52, 354, 355, 356, 358, 362, 378, 385, 388 churches: Acre 16, 45, 235; Antioch 72; Cæsarea 18, 109; Jabal al-Ṭūr 339; Jaffa 35, 168, 213; Jerusalem 113, 158, 159, 170, 177, 220, 231, 330, 367, 378; Tarsus 77 St Peter’s Island (Isola di S. Pietro) 239 St Petersburg 58 St Philip the Apostle 232, 263, 322, 332, 355 St Philip the Evangelist 109, 173, 212, 306, 308, 329, 338, 351–2, 371, 388 see also Cæsarea St Porphyrius, church in Gaza 388 St Prochorus 329 St Procopius, church on Jabal al-Ṭūr 339, 344, 370 St Romanus, church in Acre 16, 235 St Sabas church in Jerusalem 170, 176, 231 monastery (Dayr Mār Sābā) 59, 390 St Samuel 339 church in Acre 16, 235 see also Nabi Ṣamwīl St Saviour, church near Tyre 247–8, 358 see also Jerusalem St Servatius (Aravatius, Servaas) 76 church in Utrecht 24 St Simeon the Just 175, 336, 378, 385, 388 tomb in Jerusalem 175, 218, 336 St Simon the Zealot (Apostle) 66, 322 ‘St Soffroun’ 234 St Sophia 77 church in Tarsus 77 St Stephen 112, 173, 190, 230, 329, 337, 370, 379 church in Acre 16, 235 see also Jerusalem gate and street see Jerusalem

458

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

tomb 330, 378, 385 St Thecla, church in Jerusalem 384 St Theodore 77 Churches: Jerusalem 383; Tarsus 77 St Theodosius the Abbot, monastery 390 St Thomas 123, 151, 190, 219, 231, 329, 330, 378 St Thomas of Canterbury (Thomas the Martyr) church and hospital in Acre 16, 45, 205, 236 order 235, 236 St Timon 329 St Vincent 237 St William 226 St Zacharias (Zechariah, father of St John the Baptist) 137, 170, 175, 191, 217, 223, 225, 230, 307, 335, 339, 388 church see Nazareth house of see Ayn Karim St Zozimas (Zozimus) 389 monastery 346 Saladin (al-Nāṣir I Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn) 1, 2, 17, 29, 30, 32, 42, 69, 70, 74, 86, 88, 102, 105, 112, 115, 145, 146, 157, 162, 182, 214, 239 Salamis (Cyprus) 84 Ṣāliḥ, Khirbat (Ramat Rahel) 305 al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn (Ayyubid) 5 al-Ṣāliḥ Walī al-Dīn (‘amīr) 92 Salim 275, 282 Salome (who doubted Mary’s virginity) 390 Salt Sea see Dead Sea saltings 168 of the Hospital of St John 211 Saltus Hieraticus 264 Salzburg, MS in 35 Samaria 5, 7, 38, 41, 44, 110, 181, 189, 222, 273, 276, 277, 298 city see Sebaste confused with Nāblus 224 kingdom 243 woman of 147, 172, 179, 189, 223, 233, 278, 269, 325 Samaritan, Good 115, 145 Samaritans 132, 147–8 Samson 110, 195, 214–15, 349

Samuel 111 tomb 272, 301 see also Nabi Ṣamwīl Ṣanamayn (Aere) 3, 100 Sanballat 279 de Sandoli, Sabatino (Franciscan) 26–7, 28, 33, 36, 51 Sanudo, Marino 23, 50, 54 Saphet of the Germans (perhaps Khirbat Ṣafṭa ‘Ādi) 42, 225 sāqiya (nuria, antiliya) 149 Saracens see Muslims Sarah 306, 342 Sardinia 46, 238, 239 Sarepta of Judæa (Zarephath, al-Ṣarafand) 64, 85 Sarepta of the Sidonians (Zarephath, Ṣarafand) 64, 65, 85, 234, 248, 358 Saul (king of Israel) 99, 109, 119, 272, 274, 275, 280, 285, 304, 356 Saul see St Paul Savona 52–3 al-Sawād (Bilād al-Suwayt, Suetha, Terre de Suethe, Black Country) 103, 141, 255, 260, 264, 356 gorge of (Cava de Suet, Yarmūq) 184 Saxony 243 Saydnaya (Sardenay), abbey and icon of the Virgin Mary 3, 4, 10, 11, 21, 28, 41, 44, 54, 103–6, 198, 202, 228, 234, 357, 380 Saylūn 111, 280 Scotland 46 Scots 163 Scylla and Charybdis 70, 111 Scythians 241 Scythopolis 266, 356 see also Beth-shean Sebaste (Samaria, Sabastiyya) 7, 111, 147, 148, 172, 179, 181, 189, 223, 233, 243, 263, 273, 276–7, 278, 287, 325, 380 bishop 133, 181 church and tomb of St John the Baptist 111, 133, 148, 224, 276, 325 Greek church of St John the Baptist 276–7 Seir (Esau) 256, 265, 356 Seleucia (Soldinus, Solinus, alSuwaydiyya) 357

Index Seleucia Maritima 319 Seleucids 300 Selsey 46 Sennacherib 301, 309 Sepphoris see Saffūriyya Serpent’s Stone 294 Sespin (Cilicia) 80 Seth 342, 354 Seville (Hispalis) 237 Shafa ‘Amr 7, 165, 180, 225, 226, 322–3 church of St James 165, 225, 226, 234 Sharon Plain 41, 107, 308 see also Mount Sharon al-Shawbak (Montreal, Mons regalis, Petra) 4, 120–21, 127, 182, 264, 282–3, 348 lords 126–7, 141, 183, 244–5 see also Philip of Milly, Reynald of Châtillon possibly site of Theman 264 Shaykh Shibal (Bethulia) 268 Shem (son of Noah) 323 Sheba, queen of 160 Shechem (son of Hamor) 325 Shechem (Balāṭa) 111, 147, 251, 278, 279, 281, 285, 287, 325 Shepherds’ Fields (‘Glory to God in the Highest’) 115, 141, 171, 178–9, 232, 302, 341, 380, 389 ruined churches 368 Shiloh 111, 280, 285, 296, 297, 300, 365 Shimei (son of Gera) 286 ships, capacities 5–6, 9 Shirley, Janet 34 Shittim 119, 267, 305 Shunem 274, 275 Shur 305 Sibyl (Sibylla) 160, 378 Sicily 46 Siddim, valley of 284, 345, 356 Sidon (son of Canaan) 252 Sidon 8, 37, 44, 53, 64–5, 66, 185, 205, 234, 244, 248–9, 252, 254, 255, 257, 261, 269, 270, 311, 313, 358, 375 bishop 133, 185, 247, 249 castles 249 church of the Saviour 234, 249

459

Sihon (king of the Amorites) 244 al-Sila‘ (Celle, Sela) 182–3 Silenus 84 Silifke (Seleucia) 72, 81 Hospitaller castellan 78 Silves 237 Silwān (Siloam) 298, 330, 367 Simeon 141 tribe 311, 349 Simeon (abbot of St Catherine, Sinai) 127 Simeon the Just see St Simeon Simon Maccabeus 281 Simon Magus 73 Simon of Cyrene 241, 338, 372–3 Simon the High Priest 366–7 Simon the Leper 93, 171, 178, 221, 232, 344, 379, 389 Simon the Tanner 213, 388 Sin (Syneus, son of Canaan) 251, 252 Sinites 252 Sin (Synochim, Shayn) 251, 252 Sinai 7, 10, 28, 38, 41, 44, 51, 108, 195, 267 see also Mount Sinai Sinn al-Nabra, Jisr (Pont de Sinnabra, bridge of Tiberias) 136 Sirin, Khirbat (Syrin) 263 Sis (Cilicia) 49, 51, 78–80 Sisera 97, 257, 258, 271, 272, 285 Sivas (Sebasteia) 55 Smyrna (Izmir) 39 snakes 80, 143–4 Socoh of Judah (Khirbat Shuwayka) 309 Sodom 94, 115, 117, 118, 142, 183, 184, 195, 275, 283, 347, 369, 379, 389 Soissons 26 church of St John 26 Solomon (king of Israel) 99, 115, 160, 193, 202, 203, 219, 291, 299, 300, 330, 334, 335, 339, 343, 354, 367, 378, 384, 385 Sophar, meadows of (Marj al-Ṣuffar) 100 Spain 12, 46, 207, 237–9, 314 Spinola, Porchetto (archbishop of Genoa) 52 Sprecher von Bernegg, J.A. 28 Spring of the Lion (Fontaigne de Leon) 225 Star, church of the 370, 380

460

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

Stavrovouni (Holy Cross monastery) 25, 83–4 Stephanie of Milly 37 Stewart, Aubrey 49 Storm, Gustav 46 Strato’s Tower 85, 109, 307–8, 351 Ṣūba (Belmont Castle) 309, 310, 339, 350 Succoth (Tall Aḥṣāṣ) 265 Suetha (Terre de Suethe, Sueta) see alSawād Suez, gulf of 10, 195 Sulaymān ibn ‘Abd al-Malik (Umayyad caliph) 110 al-Suwaydiyya (Seleucia) 357 see also Port St Symeon Swabia 102 Sychar (‘Askar) 146, 147, 279, 325 Syneus (son of Canaan) 251, 252 Syria 131, 240, 242, 243, 315, 319, 356 Syria Cœlia 99, 243, 261 Syria of Damascus (Lebanese Syria) 244 Syria Palæstina 308 Syria Sobal 245 Syrian Orthodox Christians (Malkites) 2, 7, 49, 62–3, 67, 72, 74, 79, 87, 89, 91, 92, 96, 100, 108, 116, 124, 130, 131, 163, 167, 242, 315 craftsmen 66 Syrians (ancient) 263, 274, 275 al-Tābgha (the Table, site of Jesus’ postResurrection appearance) 3, 49, 137, 224, 258, 259, 325, 355, 363 church 8, 9, 53, 98 Tabitha 214, 350 Tabriz 55 Ṭafīla 182, 183 Tahpanhes (Daphnæ, Tall Dafanna) 349 Tal‘at al-Damm see Ma‘ale Adumim (Ascent of Blood) al-Tall (Bethsaida) 262, 362 Tall al-Biba (al-Bābiyya) 68 Tall al-Fār‘ah, Khirbat 277–8, 279 Tall al-Fūl 280 Tall al-Jazar (Montgisart, Tel Gezer) 87, 214–15 Tall al-Karra (Lūtūrūs, Eleutheros) 68

Tall al-Rumayda (Mamre) 114, 142, 179, 191, 305, 342, 389 Tall al-‘Urayma (Chinnereth, Tel Kinrot) 98, 269, 354 Tall Burnāṭ 279 Tamna 349 Ṭanṭūra see Dor, al-Burj Tappuah (Shaykh Abū Zarad) 276, 277, 281 Ṭaraf al-Gharb (Trafalgar) 238 Ṭaraf al-Ghurāb (Cape St Vincent) 237 Ṭaraf al-Naba’a 237 Tarifa (Jazirat Arfa‘) 238 Tāriq (Muslim conqueror of Spain) 238 Tarshish (Tartessos) 77, 302 Tarsus (Cilicia) 25, 55, 77–8, 81, 86, 375 churches of St Theodore and Sts Peter and Sophia 77 Tartars 197, 275 see also Mongols Tartarus 190–91 Ṭarṭūs (Tortosa, Antaradus) 41, 46, 53, 69, 70, 99, 239–40, 244, 251, 252, 256, 313, 315, 358, 375 castle and its chapel 69, 239–40 church of St Mary 10, 17, 68, 69, 228, 239, 252, 358–9 tombs of the sons of Canaan 252 viticulture 313–14 Tayāsīr (Ta’āsīr) 277 al-Ṭayyiba (Forbelet) 145 al-Ṭayyiba see St Elias, Castle of Tekoa (Tuqū‘) 115, 280, 285, 287, 304, 305, 307, 341–2 Teman 103, 264 Templars 6, 8, 9, 25, 42, 53, 69, 74, 82, 109, 132, 136, 145, 146, 181, 182, 184, 206, 211, 226, 229, 236, 239, 244, 246, 248, 249, 257, 280, 286, 307, 316, 348, 353, 364, 368 association with Saydnaya 105 house in Acre 8, 16, 45, 205, 235 Terebinth, valley of (Elah, Wādī al-Sanṭ) 310 Tertullus 308 Teutonic Knights 7, 25, 53, 77, 80, 109, 235, 246, 253, 257, 349 church in Acre (St Mary of the Germans) 16, 205, 235

Index grand master see Hermann of Salza Thebez 279 Theman (Roman fort) 264 Theobald (bishop of Acre) 226 Theoderic (pilgrim) 4, 22, 24, 50 Theodolus 118 Theodora Comnena 64 Theodore II Doukas Laskaris (emperor of Nicæa) 39, 196 Theodore of Mopsuetia (heretic) 375 Theodosius I (Roman emperor) 343 Theodosius (pilgrim writer) 182 Theophilus 77 Theophilus (Byzantine emperor) 196 Thierry of Orca (lord of Arsūf) 109 Thietmar 3–4, 10, 11, 21, 27–9, 33, 34, 50, 51, 95–133, 157 Thisbe 262, 263, 311 Thomas, Master (Templar) 105 Thomas Laleman (lord of Cæsarea) 41 Three Kings see Magi Tibald (count of Champagne and king of Navarre) 5, 37 Tiberias (Chinnereth) 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 37, 38, 44, 55, 98, 146, 166, 184, 224, 227, 233, 268, 269, 270, 323–4, 353, 363 baths of Our Lady 167, 228, 324 bishop 98, 133 see also Geoffrey bridge of (Jisr Sinn al-Nabra, Pont de Sinnabra) 136 firebrand tree (Zaror) 167, 228, 324, 355 Jesus’ miracle of wine into water 137 lake or sea of see Galilee, sea of lord 253 Tiberius (Roman emperor) 269 Tibnīn (Toron) 5, 37, 136, 183, 253, 262 lady see Maria lord 184 see Humphrey III, Humphrey IV Tigris, River 243 Timnath-heres 251 al-Tin‘ama, Khirbat (Tymini, Galgala, Galilea) 85 Tineius Rufus (legate of Judæa) 326 Ṭīra, abbey of St John (the Baptist) 168, 210–11, 229, 353

461

Tiras (son of Japhet) 247 Tirzah 277–8, 279 Titus 88, 117, 297, 326, 327, 332, 338 Tivoli 357 Tobias, cave of (Mughārat Banāt Ya‘qūb) 167, 227 Tobit 262, 263 Tobler, Titus 28, 31, 33 Tongres (Tongeren) 76 Topheth 294, 299 Toprak Kale (Thila) 76, 80–81 Toron see Laṭrun, Tibnīn T‘oros (brother of Levon II) 51 Tortosa see Ṭarṭūs Tower of Eder 115, 302 Trachonitis 244, 254, 255–6, 260, 261, 270, 275 Tractatus de locis 35–6 Trajan (Roman emperor) 4 Transjordan 10, 28, 37, 44, 139, 183, 264, 275 Trdat (Tiridates) III (king of Armenia) 80 trees 81, 101, 119, 251 balsam 83, 118, 285–6, 342, 380 balsam of Jesus (Balsama momordica) 73 cedar of Lebanon 64, 133 cypress 83 holm oak 343 olive 367 palm 269, 368 stone pine 133 zaror 355 see also Tiberias see also fruits Tree of Obedience (which inclined to the Virgin Mary) 203–4 Tripoli 5, 19, 50, 53, 55, 64, 67–8, 69, 135, 244, 249, 250, 315, 357, 358, 375 bishop 68, 253 counts see Bohemond IV county 46, 249, 253 Troppau (Silesia), MSS in 51 Trypho 96 Tubal-cain (son of Lamech) 354 Ṭūbas 279 Tuba‘ūn (Tubanie), springs see ‘Ayn Tuba‘ūn

462

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291

al-Ṭubayqa, Khirbat 310 al-Ṭūr see Raythou Turin, MSS in 48, 57 Turkey 375 Turkomans 55, 251, 315, 316 Turks 55, 71, 74, 100, 132 Tuscany 243 Tyre (Ṣūr) 1, 2, 44, 63–4, 65, 68, 135, 136, 184, 205, 234, 244, 245, 246, 247–8, 252, 253, 256, 257, 261, 319, 375 archbishop 64, 133, 247, 253 churches and religious houses: Franciscans (Friars Minor) 15; Holy Cross 15, 247; St John the Baptist 72; St Mary (Holy Sepulchre) 247, 358; St Saviour (site of) 247–8, 358 market 6 sisters or nuns of Tyre see Acre, churches; Jerusalem, churches tomb: Frederick I 72; Origen 53, 247 Umm al-Salīb see Holy Cross, monastery Uppsala, MSS in 47 Ur of the Chaldees 141 Urban IV (pope) 13 Uriah the Hittite 193 Utrecht, church of St Servaas 24 Uz 103, 261, 356 Uzziah (king) 304 Valania (river) 243, 253 Vannini see Alawites Venantius Fortunatus 63 Venice 11, 59, 390 church in Acre 16, 45, 235 MSS in 57–8 Venetians 2, 6, 9, 10, 13 Venus 82, 84, 107 Verona, MSS in 35 Vespasian (Roman emperor) 88, 146, 263, 326, 327, 332, 338 Via Nova Traiana 4 Vienna, MSS in 43, 47, 51, 57–8 Vincent, H. 58 Virgil 65 de Vogüé, Melchior 43

Vulan 238 Wādī al-Hamām 268 Wādī al-Ḥasa 120, 284 Wādī al-Khalladiyya (Kaladie) 225 Wādī al-Mūjib see Arnon Wādī al-Naṭrūn 195 Wādī al-Sanṭ 310 Wādī al-Shāghūr (Biq‘at Bet Kerem) 261 Wādī al-Siyaḥ 307 Wādī ‘Araba 4, 10, 305 Wādī Nusāriyyat 119 Wādī Mūsa (Valley of Moses) 121, 127, 182, 183, 283, 348 al-Walīd I (Umayyad caliph) 110 Walter (bishop of Worcester) 13 Walton (Yorks) 12 Warmund (patriarch of Jerusalem) 6 Waters of Contention, or Strife (Meribah) 121, 129, 245 Way of the Sea (between Egypt and Syria) 146, 259, 260–61, 262, 268, 271, 374 weavers of silk and camlet 250 Wernigeroda 102 Westphalia 27 Wilbrand II (count of Hallermund) 73 Wilbrand of Oldenburg 3, 10, 13, 21, 24–7, 33, 61–94, 157 wild animals 74, 82, 103, 108, 123, 222, 223, 255, 271, 306, 314 see also crocodiles, snakes William (bishop of Acre) 226 William V (marquis of Montferrat) 150 William de Solagna (Franciscan) 54 William of Boldensele 56 William of Chartres 38 William of Tyre 199, 262, 316 chronicle 31 continuation of chronicle 23, 31–4, 43 Wolfenbüttel, MSS in 29, 56–7 Worcester 12, 13 Wroclaw (Breslau), MSS in 29, 47, 48 al-Wu‘ayra (castle in Wādī Mūsa) 183 Yanūn (Iano) 281 Yarmūq, River 100, 184 Yarqon, River (Nahr al-‘Awja) 168

Index Yazūr (castrum Planorum) 182 Yehu (king of Israel) 355 Yibnā (Jamnia, Ibelin) 302, 309, 319–20 Zaanannim 257, 258 Zābud, Khirbat (Zabul) 257 Zaccaria, Benedetto 53 Zacchæus 93, 116, 144, 347, 389 al-Ẓāhir Ghiyāth al-Dīn, al-Malik (Ayyubid sultan of Aleppo) 69 Zarephath see Sarepta al-Zarqā, Nahr see Jabbok, River, Crocodile River Zaytūn al-Rāma, Khirbat (Khirbat Jūl) 280 Zebedee (father of St James and St John) 194 Zeboi’im 117, 347 Zebulun 141 tribe 27, 96, 98, 257, 258, 311, 354

463

Zechariah (father of John the Baptist) see St Zacharias Zechariah (prophet) 217 Zechariah (son of Barachiah) 36, 176, 218, 388 Zedekiah (king) 191, 392 Zemarites 252 Zered, River (Wādī al-Ḥasa?) 284 Zibeon the Hivite 266 Ziph (Tall Zīf) 304, 305 Zir‘īn (parva Gerinum) 182 see also Jezreel Zoar (Town of the Palm) 4, 118, 142, 283, 285, 343, 347 Zohelet, stone of 294 Zophar the Na‘amathite 100, 103 Zorzi, Marsilio (Venetian baili) 6 Zozimas (Zozimus), abbot 346, 389 Zububa (Suburbe) 273 Zwolle 24