CORRESPONDENCE.
NOTES OF A PILGRIMAGE. IL-JERIISALEM : THE TEMPLE.
ONE of the earliest convictions impressed upon the mind of the traveller to Palestine is that the Turk is a nui- sance. The gigantic absurdity, to call it nothing more, of leaving all these holy places, the centre of veneration to all Christendom, in Mahommedan hands, produces a natural feel- ing of irritation, which is constantly freshened and revived by some vexatious regulation or piece of official red-tapeism, causing the most peaceable pilgrim to regret that the period of holy wars is past, and consider seriously the advisability of preaching a crusade himself on his return from the parts of the infidel. It is sufficient to talk with any resident who has ever had any serious business with that hopeless Govern- ment—especially those who are trying to introduce any kind of progress or improvement in Palestine—to find a good, solid foundation for this feeling against the Turkish rulers ; the ordinary traveller is exasperated by their mere presence. Here we find, in the first place, the unspeakable Turk occupying for his own purposes the site of the Temple, and raising beautiful buildings thereupon for his own worship. This, we consider, is bad enough, but when he comes to celebrating his own religious festivals there, and consequently excluding all but Mahommedans from the whole area during the time that we are at Jerusalem, the enormity is still more remarkable. This is not even a coincidence. The benighted paynim does not want for worldly wisdom, and, having no confidence whatever in the doctrine of peace on earth and good-will towards men, as understood by enthusiastic pilgrims, he has established a feast of his own which attracts a sufficient number of Mahom- medans to counterbalance the Christians. To these latter the whole of the Haram-esh-Sherif is closed, and many poor pilgrims who cannot afford to stay long at Jerusalem are obliged to go away without having seen the place of the Temple, a very real hardship to some of them.
Being a little less pressed for time than some others, we were able to pay one flying visit to the Haram-esh-Sherif. The last of the pious Mahommedans had been packed off with much beating of drums, clashing of cymbals, and waving of banners, on their pilgrimage to the spot where it is extremely unlikely that Moses was buried, and in the whole of the enclosure there was scarcely a figure to be seen. We were not, however, suffered to enter without protectors, our bodyguard consisting of the cavasse of the Consulate, a gentleman of ferocious aspect, with a gold-laced jacket and a curved scimitar, and an aged Turkish non-commissioned officer, who followed us about brandishing a huge pair of top-boots, in reality taken off from motives of piety, but apparently to be used as offensive weapons. Our time was very short ; but I believe that if you cannot spend three weeks over the Temple, it is better to see it in half-an-hour. Certainly no subsequent visit can show anything to surpass the first view of the whole. We pass in by the beautiful judgment-hall, where the Cadi administered justice at the gate in times gone by, into a vast enclosure, some five hundred yards long. and at least half as wide, studded in all directions with countless little domes and cupolas. The central platform, roughly identified with the Court of the Jews, as the outer zone is with that of the Gentiles, is paved, but most of the rest remains as Nature made it, and green grass and trees make a contrast with the white walls and the many-coloured domes. Some of these are merely canopies over the numerous fountains indispensable in a Mahommedan place of worship; others form a sheltered place for prayer, supplied with a mihrab, or niche in the direc- tion of Mecca, to guide the devotions of the pious, or serve to
mark some spot of particular sanctity; while the row of low, domed buildings to the north of the central platform are even utilised as sleeping-rooms by devotees from a distance. Going up by a broad flight of low steps, topped by a single row of graceful arches, we come upon the gem of the whole, the exquisite Dome of the Rock itself. Certainly no one can accuse the Mahommedans of neglecting to make the House of God beautiful. It is true that this building was probably the work of Christian artists under Mahommedan orders ; but this only shows that the early Arab conquerors had sufficient wisdom and piety to seek for their most holy shrine something which they could understand to be finer than their own rude architecture.
The Dome of the:Rock, though by far the most important building of the central platform, is merely, like many of the others, a kind of shrine built over the most sacred of all the holy places. It is an octagonal building, measuring about twenty yards in every direction, built around the great flat rock to which so many traditions are attached. The exterior is richly, almost gaudily decorated with coloured marbles and Damascus tiles, and the interior also has been made beautiful with mosaics and profuse decoration of every kind. But these have not the effect that we have deplored in the most sacred Christian shrine, of obstructing the view of the principal object of veneration, or even distracting the eye from it. The rock, which occupies the whole centre of the building, surrounded by a balustrade of painted wood, is plain to the sight even of a large concourse of people, and though the amount of light which penetrates through the stained glass of the windows is not exactly dazzling, it is at any rate a great advance upon the profound obscurity which conceals the Holy Sepulchre. Altogether, the idea that this mosque gives is that of a perfect composition, where, while the eye can find in every corner some beauty of detail to rest upon, the attention is naturally concentrated on the most important point. The admirable art with which the decoration is lavished on the background, while the rock is left in its bare simplicity as the centre of all, seems to me at least far more impressive than all the flummery of gold and silver lamps about the Holy Sepulchre.
I am speaking, of course, of the generally recognised Sepulchre. It is worth remembering, however, that the mosque in which we are standing was considered by no less an authority than James Fergusson to be the Church of the Resurrection built by Constantine over the actual tomb of our Lord, represented by the grotto underneath the stone. This idea has never been generally accepted, and has now probably ceased to have any adherents at all, but Mr. Fergusson him- self was never shaken in his belief. Certainly all probability seems against it, still it is strange to think that so great an authority on architecture should have made a mistake of three clear centuries as to the date of the building. What the rock actually does represent is not very certain. The Mussulmans, of course, have its history quite pat, and a very wonderful rock it must have been, according to them. Not only was it the scene of Abraham's proposed sacrifice of his son—in which story Christian and Jewish tradition appear to agree—but it is also connected with the personal history of Mahomet himself. Here the Prophet is known to have prayed, and from here he ascended to heaven on his wonderful mule Alborak.' The in- fluence of the Sent of God was so powerful, that the rock was enabled to hold converse with him—as it did later with the Caliph Omar—and even attempted to follow him in his aerial voyage, a purpose which it might have achieved, but for the thoughtful action of the archangel Gabriel, who arrested it just in time. The marks of the: angel's fingers are there to this day ; so that this story at least must be true. Jewish tradition tends to see here the rock on which the ark rested, and consequently the Holy of Holies, which, however, is more usually placed at a point some way to the south-west, near the top of the stairs by which we approached. The theory that on this rock stood the altar of burnt-offerings is supported by the existence of a channel which might have served to let the blood run down into the cave below and perhaps through the hollow which evidently exists under the round stone at its centre. Explorers have desired to make further researches by raising this stone; but though the necessary authorisation was obtained from Constantinople, the local authorities were immovable on the subject. The stone, they averred, formed the cover of the Well of the Evil Spirit, and, as they very reasonably argued, if it were removed, the Evil Spiritwould Iget out, and might literally play the devil with Jerusalem, a contingency against which they, as reponsible rulers,:were bound to provide. So the mystery is likely to remain unsolved.
Time is a very hard master, :and it is only at his abso- lute command that we can refrain:from lingering over the beautiful little shrines with which the central platform is studded ; but the mosque of El Aksalmust not be omitted, and there is only just enough time to see that. We are hurried past a great open-air pulpit of exquisite workman- ship, supported on arches of the perfectly circular for- mation peculiar to Arabian architecture, past an immense stone laver shadowed by immemorial cypresses, which might almost date back to King Solomon's time, and find our- selves in front of a grand colonnade forming the entrance to a. Christian church. Yes, there is no doubt about it ; it is stripped of all its ornaments, and the Mahommedan attributes of Inihrab and ,nimbar have been introduced into it ; but• no one can doubt for a moment of what it has been. It was here that Justinian, twelve hundred years ago, built a church in honour of our Lady, which was restored to Christian. worship by the Templars after some centuries of Mahommedan domination. There is still the great vaulted hall, opening off the church, where the Knights of that fiercest of holy brotherhoods met together. Here in the long, bare aisles—not so bare then,. we may well imagine—they assembled in prayer, often perhaps as a prelude to some savage raid on the nearest infidel strong- hold. Here, however, we are not tempted to remember their faults. We are rather inclined to wish that their days had come back, and that we might see them ride clattering into- the court again, breaking down the ensigns of Mahommedan. worship with their heavy maces, and restoring the holy city to—well, probably to be fought over by half-a-dozen Christian sects, all at bitter enmity, and " hating one another for the love of God." I fear that we must be content for the present to- leave Jerusalem under the direction of the Turkish Pasha, at this moment, no doubt, much troubled in his mind about the dangerous ceremony of the "Holy Fire," which is to take place this very afternoon, and quaking with apprehension at• the news that forty stout man-of-warsmen have come up for the feast from a Russian ironclad lying off Jaffa. What if it should occur to them—as it actually did—to ask their priests whether they should allow Turkish soldiery on this day of all others to stand round the sepulchre of the risen Lord P These apprehensions are groundless, however. The good Greek priests, even if they are not always in charity with their neighbours, will do their duty to-day in preaching peace to the exasperated sailors, and the Pasha will once more be able to telegraph to Constantinople that the perilous season has. passed over without incident. It is best to be at peace with all men. If we are to take any revenge on the Mussulman possessors of what we are hardly worthy to hold till we have- learned to apply the precepts of our own religion, let it be some- thing in the style of the carver of that splendid pulpit, an evidently Christian artist, who has played his Mahommedan masters the trick of introducing in his designs the hated sign of the cross, a fact which has apparently escaped their notice to this day.
Somehow we seem to have lost sight of the Temple itself all this while. But of the Temple there is really nothing remaining• but the place. We certainly find pillars and stones of great, antiquity, remnants of former great works, employed again in the Mahommedan constructions ; but these can be of little- service in giving even a general idea of the original building_ Those who wish to know more must be content to see with the eyes of Warren and Wilson, and the various explorers who have made researches here and published their discoveries; for the authorities will only permit excavations on the condition that all the treasures unearthed are to be carefully covered up. again. The rest of us must be content with the place alone,. the general scene of many incidents in our Lord's life, chiefly preserved for us by St. John. If there are no remains of the ancient buildings to guide us in reconstructing these, it is an advantage, on the other hand, that there are no traditional sites pointed out, except those connected with the Mahom- medan fairy-tales of which Solomon is the hero.
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