Show Palestine Under the Caliphs In the first century of the decline of the 2fs great caliphs of Bagdad Bernard a Breton r monk from the celebrated monastery of Mont St Michel set out for the Holy Land > i i traveling first to Rome He found the Saracens in possession of Bari and transporting tl trans-porting thousands of Italian Christian captives to Egypt and Barbary After months sailing he reached Alexandria where heavy tolls were levied anc BO entered Palestine from the south by Gaza His account contains the j first known notice of the miracle of the holy fire which must have been a recent c custom or Anthony and Willibald Sylvia II t Syl-via and Paula would not all alike have been silent on the subject He also speaks f of the hospice for pilgrims erected by Charlemagne in Jerusalem near the site is afteward famous as the Hospital of the Knights of St John Pf Charlemagne had been on terms off r l r h f I friendship with the great Bagdad Caliph HarunelRasnd and it was indeed believed be-lieved in the Eleventh century that the famous emperor had visited the Holy City in the ninth as is shown by the song or ballad called Chanson du Voyage de Charlemagne dating about 1075 AD Mult fu Hez Charlemagne de cele grant beltet Vlt de cores colurs le inonstierpemturet DC martlrs e deTlrgenes e de granz majestez 12 les curs de la tune e les festes anvels E lea lavacres curre o les peisons par merIt mer-It is remarkable that this custom of painting oraries in churches continued much later as may still be seen in the Church of the Cross near Jerusalem But the legendary visit of Charlemagne is not noticed by Bernard who speaks only of the hostel and of a noble library in Jerusalem Jeru-salem as given by the glorious Emperor I Charles as he calls him Bernard was I not admitted into the mosque on the site of the temple inclosure but he speaks very well of the Moslem government under I un-der El Mutazz The Christians and the pagans have there such a peace between them that if 1 I should go a journey and in the journey my camel or ass that carries my baggage should die and I shou leave everything there without a guard and go to the next town to get another oh my return re-turn I should find all my property untouched The law of public safety there is such that if they find in a city or on the sea or on the road any man journeying by night or by day without with-out a letter or some mark of a king or prince of that Land he is immediately thrown into prison till the time he can give a good account whether he be a spy j or not Edinburgh Review |