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Random Facts about the History of Jerusalem
HISTORY OF JERUSALEM
The earliest name of Jerusalem appears to have been Jebus,
or poetically, Salem, and its king in Abraham's time was
Melchizedek. When the Hebrews took possession of Canaan, the
city of Salem was burned, but the fortress remained in the
hands of the Jebusites till King David took it by storm and
made it the capital of his kingdom. From that time it was
called Jerusalem. During the reigns of David and Solomon it
attained its highest degree of power. When ten of the Jewish
tribes seceded under Jeroboam they made Shechem (and later
Samaria) the capital of their kingdom of Israel, and
Jerusalem remained the capital of the smaller but more
powerful kingdom of Judah. The city was taken by Shishak,
King of Egypt, in 971 B.C., was later conquered and sacked
by Joash, King of Israel, and in the time of Ahaz, the King
of Syria came against it with a large force, but could not
take it. The city was besieged in Hezekiah's reign, by the
army of Sennacherib, King of Assyria, but was saved by the
sudden destruction of the invading army. After the death of
Josiah, the city was tributary for some years to the King of
Egypt, but was taken after repeated attempts by the
Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C., and was left a
heap of ruins. The work of rebuilding it began by order of
King Cyrus about 538 B.C., who allowed the Jewish people who
had been carried into captivity to return for this purpose.
From this time Jerusalem enjoyed comparative peace for
several hundred years and grew to be an important commercial
city. When Alexander invaded Syria it submitted to him
without resistance. After his death it belonged for a time
to Egypt and in 198 B.C., passed with the rest of Judea
under the rule of Syria. Antiochus the Great ruled it with
mildness and justice, but the tyranny of his son, Antiochus
Epiphanes, brought about the revolt, headed by the Maccabees,
through which Jerusalem gained a brief independence. In 63
B.C., Pompey the Great took the city, demolished the walls
and killed thousands of the people, but did not plunder it.
However, nine years later Crassus robbed the temple of all
its treasures. The walls were soon after rebuilt under
Antipater, the Roman procurator, but when Herod came to rule
over the city with the title of King, given him by the Roman
Senate, he was resisted and only took possession after an
obstinate siege, which was followed by the massacre of great
numbers of the people. Herod improved and enlarged the city,
and restored the temple on a more magnificent scale than in
Solomon's time. Jerusalem is said at this time to have had a
population of over 200,000. This period of wealth and
prosperity was also rendered most, memorable for Jerusalem
by the ministry and crucifixion of Christ. About A.D. 66,
the Jews, goaded to desperation by the tyranny of the
Romans, revolted, garrisoned Jerusalem, and defeated a Roman
army sent against them. This was the beginning of the
disastrous war which ended with the destruction of the city.
It was taken by Titus, in the year 70, after a long siege,
all the inhabitants were massacred, or made prisoners, and
the entire city left a heap of ruins. The Emperor Hadrian
built on the site of Jerusalem a Roman city, under the name
of Elia Capitolina, with a temple of Jupiter, and Jews were
forbidden to enter the city under pain of death. Under
Constantine it was made a place of pilgrimage for
Christians, as the Emperor's mother, Helena, had with much
pains located the various sites of events in the history of
Christ. The Emperor Julian, on the contrary, not only
allowed the Jews to return to their city, but also made an
attempt, which ended in failure, to rebuild their temple. In
614 the Persian Emperor Chosroes invaded the Roman empire.
The Jews joined his army, and after conquering the northern
part of Palestine, the united forces laid siege to and took
Jerusalem. The Jews wreaked vengeance on the Christians for
what they had been forced to endure, and 20,000 people were
massacred. The Persians held rule in the city for fourteen
years; it was then taken by the Romans again, but in 636 the
Caliph Omar beseiged it. After four months the city
capitulated. It was under the rule of the Caliphs for 400
years, until the Seljuk Turks in 1077 invaded Syria and made
it a province of their empire. Christian pilgrims had for
many years kept up the practice of visiting the tomb of
Christ, as the Caliphs did not interfere with their
devotions any further than by exacting a small tribute from
each visitor. But the cruelties practiced upon the pilgrims
by the Turks were many, and report of them soon roused all
Europe to a pitch of indignation, and brought about that
series of holy wars, which for a time restored the holy
sepulcher into Christian hands. Jerusalem was stormed and
taken July 15, 1099, and 50,000 Moslems were slaughtered by
their wrathful Christian foes. The new sovereignty was
precariously maintained until 1187, when it fell before the
power of Saladin. Jerusalem, after a siege of twelve days,
surrendered. Saladin, however, did not put his captives to
death, but contented himself with expelling them from the
city. Jerusalem passed into the hands of the Franks by
treaty, in 1229, was retaken by the Moslems in 1239, once
more restored in 1243, and finally conquered in 1244 by a
horde of Kharesmian Turks. In 1517 Palestine was conquered
by Sultan Selin I., and since then has been under the rule
of the Ottoman Empire, except for a brief period--from 1832
to 1840, when it was in the hands of Mahomet Ali Pasha of
Egypt, and his son Ibrahim had his seat of government in
Jerusalem.
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