(1.) “I went twice to Jherusalem with a koldigen.”—Schiltberger’s
commentators have not been able to identify the word “koldigen”, to
which Koehler (_Germania_, vii, 371–380) puts a mark of interrogation,
observing that it is written in precisely the same manner in two early
editions. Frescobaldi in 1384 (_Viaggi in Terra Santa_) speaks of
the monks at the monastery on Sinaï as Calores, instead of Καλογέροι.
If Joseph, Schiltberger’s companion, was a Christian, he might very
possibly have been a Kalogeros, a title turned into “Koldigen”.—BRUUN.
(1A.) Another suggestion! Khodja is a corruption of the Persian word
Khaja, a term that in the East generally denotes a merchant (Garcin
de Tassy, _Les Noms Propres et les Titres Musulm._, 68). Or an
interpretation of “Koldigen” is perhaps to be found in Koul, the
Turkish for a detachment or small body of men, and jy, a termination
significative of office, profession, or trade, as for instance,
arabajy, one who drives; kayikjy, a boatman; ghemijy, a sailor, and
similarly, Kouljy, one who leads a body of men. In European Turkey,
however, Kouljy means also a coast-guard-man, and in other parts of
that empire the term is applied to a keeper or custodian. In his
Russian edition, Professor Bruun submits the word Koljy derived from
Koll, the title of those of the second class of the Monastic Order of
Kalender, the founder of which Order, singularly enough, was one named
Joseph. With the reader must remain the privilege of deciding upon
Joseph’s calling, whether monk, merchant, coast-guard-man, or
custodian!—ED.
(2.) “The Infidels call Jherusalem, Kurtzitalil.”—Jerusalem is called
by the Turks, Kouds Shereef, with the first part of which name might
be associated the first syllable “Kurtz”; but Shereef could scarcely
have been corrupted to “italil”, which reminds me of Halil, a term
pre-eminently applied to Abraham the friend of God, and given to the
gate of the city that leads to Hebron, known as the Bab-el-Halil
(Raumer, _Palæstina_, etc., 201).—BRUUN.
(3.) “the pilgrims can kiss and touch it.”—The Russian pilgrim Daniel
observed three openings in the marble slab, through which the sacred
stone could be seen and kissed; but the indiscreet zeal of pilgrims,
says Noroff, who contrived to chip off fragments, necessitated its
protection from further mutilation.—BRUUN.
(4.) “a brightness above the holy sepulchre, that is like fire.”—Some
people believed that this miracle was performed through the
intervention of a dove, while others attributed it to lightning. The
Russian pilgrim Daniel explains to his readers that it is only those
who have not attended during the celebration in church that could
be sceptic as to the appearance of this light from heaven, and he
trusts that the truly faithful and of good repute will believe in all
the miracles that take place within the sanctuary! He concludes his
observations by quoting Luke xvi, 10.—BRUUN.
(4A.) Of the lamp that burned in front of the Holy Sepulchre, Sir John
Mandevile has also recorded that “it went out of itself, on Good
Friday, and again lit itself at the hour that our Lord rose from the
dead.” This lamp Schiltberger may have seen, but it appears doubtful
whether he witnessed the performance of the miracle of the Holy Fire,
“the brightness above the Holy Sepulchre, that is like fire”, or he
surely would have described the supernatural occurrence.
This Easter miracle at the Holy Sepulchre has been the theme of most
travellers who have witnessed it ever since the days of Charlemagne.
Henry Maundrell (_Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem_, etc., 96) was
present at the Easter festival (1697) during the ceremony kept up
by the Greeks and Armenians, upon the persuasion that every Easter
a miraculous flame descends from heaven into the Holy Sepulchre. He
describes the fearful tumult and clamour made by the people in their
wild excitement in anticipation of the miraculous appearance of the
Holy Fire at the sepulchre, produced, as he exposes, by the two
miracle-mongers, the Greek and Armenian bishops, who had entered the
sepulchre alone for the purpose. When they issued with two blazing
torches in their hands, all the people rushed with candles that
they might obtain the purest fire sent down from heaven, which they
instantly applied to their beards, faces, and bosoms, pretending that
it would not burn like an earthly flame; but Maundrell says he saw
plainly that none could endure the experiment long enough to make good
that pretension.
Dean Stanley, who was at Jerusalem in 1853 (_Sinaï and Palestine_,
467), states that Maundrell’s account is an almost exact transcript of
what was still to be seen. Captain Warren also witnessed the strange
doings in 1867–70 (_Underground Jerusalem_, 429–437); and in _The
Graphic_, Sept. 21, 1878, was published an interesting illustration of
the interior of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during the performance
of the miracle, together with a short account of the proceedings.
“After a procession of bishops and priests thrice round the building,
the Patriarch enters the Sepulchre. Now the noise becomes greater and
greater ... making the place more like an Inferno than the Church of
Christ.... The Holy Fire now issues from the holes in the walls, and
hundreds of hands are stretched out as they frantically try to light
their candles at the flame.... By this time one candle has ignited
the other, and the crowd below is one mass of moving flame.” There is
no abatement, in this the 19th century, in the huge sham, with its
attendant blind superstition and noisy demonstrations.—ED.
(5.) “the priests from the country of Prester John.”—Upon descending
the steps on the east side of Calvary (Raumer, _Palæstina_, etc.,
301), another flight of twenty-four steps is reached, at the foot of
which is the Chapel of St. Helena, whence another flight of eleven
steps conducts to the place where the cross of Christ and those of
the two thieves were found. Here is an altar of the Latin church. The
chapel of the Jacobites must have been higher up, near the Chapel of
St. John which enclosed the tomb of the Baron of the Holy Sepulchre
and of his brother, the first king of Jerusalem; interesting monuments
that have been destroyed, not by the Turks but by the Greeks (Richter,
_Wallfahrten in Morgenlande_, 22).—BRUUN.
(6.) “the church of Saint Steffan, where he was stoned.”—It is asserted
on tradition (Noroff, _Péler. en T. S._, 19) that St. Stephen was
stoned in front of the sepulchre of the Holy Virgin, on the road that
leads from the Gate of St. Stephen, called also the Gate of Gethsemane.
But there was another gate on the north side of the city, that was
named by the Crusaders after the first Christian martyr, because it was
believed that he was stoned in front of it; this gate is now the Gate
of Damascus.
Noroff states further, that in ancient times there was upon the same
side a church of St. Stephen, which was demolished by the Christians
in consequence of its proximity to the walls, and because it presented
an obstacle to their defence. Daniel the Russian pilgrim, saw that
church intact, and asserts that St. Stephen there met his death and was
buried. Schiltberger, no doubt, found it in ruins. De Lannoy, without
mentioning the church, was of opinion that the martyr suffered death
close to the gate which bore his name, the spot being near Kedron and
the sepulchre of the Holy Virgin. The old chronicler Adamnanus (Raumer,
_Palæstina_, etc., 312, note 92), in describing the basilica of Zion
with its cœnaculum, says: “Hic petra monstratur supra quam Stephanus
lapidatus extra civitatem obdormitavit.” According to Daniel, Zion was
not within the city.—BRUUN.
(7.) “Another hospital that rests on fifty-four marble columns.”—The
ruins of this, the palace of the Hospitallers or Knights of the Order
of St. John of Jerusalem, are still to be seen to the south of, and
at no great distance from the Church of the Resurrection. A church
and monastery dedicated to the Holy Virgin were erected on this spot
in 1048; and shortly afterwards were constructed near these edifices,
another church, a monastery, and hospital, dedicated to St. John the
Baptist. Gerard, almoner of this hospital, instituted in 1118 the
celebrated Order of Hospitallers.—BRUUN.
(7A.) Benjamin of Tudela knew of two hospitals at Jerusalem which
supported four hundred knights, and afforded shelter to the sick. The
four hundred knights were ever ready to wage war together with those
who came from the country of the Franks. One hospital was called that
of Salmon, having been originally the palace built by Solomon.—ED.
(8.) “Infidels do not allow either Christians or Jews to enter it.”—This
must be the place where Omar about the year 640 constructed the great
mosque, afterwards converted into a Christian church that was named
Τὰ Ἅγια τῶν Ἁγίων. The Crusaders called it Templum Domini, by which
designation it was known to Schiltberger, although it was in the hands
of the Mahomedans.—BRUUN.
(9.) “called the throne of Salomon.”—This has reference to the site of
the mosque of Aksa, previously the Church of the Presentation of the
Virgin, built by Justinian in 530. The Russian pilgrim, Daniel, saw
it in the wrecked state to which it had been reduced at the conquest
of Jerusalem by the Franks, who there met with the most determined
resistance on the part of the Mussulmans.—BRUUN.
(10.) “there our Lord healed the bed-ridden man.”—It was generally
supposed that the pool and the palace of the templars occupied the
site of the temple of Solomon, close to the mosque of Aksa (Raumer,
_Palæstina_, etc., 297). Daniel knew of the residence of Solomon only,
because the palace was not constructed until the Order of Hospitallers
was established in 1119, that is to say, four or five years after his
stay in the Holy Land. The church, and the dwellings of the templars,
were destroyed in 1187 by Saladin, so that there was nothing for
Schiltberger to see but their remains.—BRUUN.
(11.) “the house of Herod.”—At no great distance from the pool, stood
a house said to have been that of Pilate; the modern edifice on the
south side of the Sakhara or mosque constructed by Omar in 637, is the
residence of the pasha. It is supposed that the palace of Herod was
farther away to the east, and to the right of the Via Dolorosa.—BRUUN.
(12.) “A church, called that of Saint Annen,” is noticed by De Lannoy,
who adds that this was the birth-place of St. Anne, the mother of the
Virgin Mary; but he makes no allusion to the head of St. Stephen, or
the arm of St. John Chrysostom, relics which, through some mistake
of the author, or of a scribe, have usurped the place of those of
St. Joachim the spouse of St. Anne. Daniel asserts that a church
consecrated to the latter existed in his day; it stood over their
dwelling and place of burial.—BRUUN.
(13.) “Mount Syon ... stands higher than the city.”—The wall constructed
by Souleiman, the Magnificent, 1536–1539, traverses the ridge of the
hills. Within it, near an Armenian chapel, is pointed out the house
of Annas, and at a short distance is the principal church of the
Armenians, dedicated to St. James the Elder who was there beheaded.
Within the wall stood the house of Caiphas the high priest, now the
Church of the Holy Saviour also belonging to the Armenians, and in
which is preserved the slab that closed the Saviour’s tomb. This is
probably the same church as described by Schiltberger; called that of
the Holy Saviour by De Lannoy (_Voy. et Ambass._, 54), who says that
it was in the occupation of Catholics, or perhaps of Armenians who
recognised the supremacy of the Pope, but not of the Gregorians. This
church could not have existed in the time of Daniel, because he simply
mentions the house of Caiphas.
Close at hand was the cœnaculum, in which the Last Supper took
place—where the Holy Ghost fell on the apostles—where the Holy Virgin
expired, and where Jesus Christ washed the apostles’ feet. The Church
of Zion or of the Virgin Mary, that stood here and is described by
Daniel and others, was afterwards occupied by the Franciscan friars,
and eventually became a mosque. William of Tyre (Raumer, _Palæstina_,
etc., 312), Schiltberger and his contemporaries, Zosimus (_Pout. Rouss.
loud._, ii, 50) and De Lannoy, all agree that here was the tomb of St.
Stephen; De Lannoy, however, adds that it was the second place of his
interment.—BRUUN.
(14.) “A beautiful castle which was built by the king-sultan.”—This
citadel on the western side of the mount was constructed during the
Crusades by the Pisans, the tower of David which formed a part of
it being of more ancient date. Daniel and others considered it a
formidable fortification.—BRUUN.
(15.) “King Soldan.”—The tomb of Solomon, described by several pilgrims,
adjoined that of David. De Lannoy calls it the burial place of twelve
other kings.—BRUUN.
(16.) “A brook in the valley of Josophat.”—On the banks of this stream,
the Kedron, and at no great distance from the garden of Gethsemane,
is a large rectangular edifice that was constructed by the Empress
Helena. Tobler (_Die Siloahquelle_, 149), who has taken the trouble
to record the number of steps counted by thirty-eight travellers, his
predecessors, without however including Schiltberger, places the tomb
of the Virgin at the foot of forty-seven steps. Near the above edifice
are four sepulchral monuments that have been differently described,
as their origin is unknown. Their style is partly Greek and partly
Egyptian, and they somewhat resemble the monuments at Petra. They are
fully described by Robinson, _Biblical Researches_, etc., and Kraft,
_Die Topographie Jerusalems_, Berlin, 1846.—BRUUN.
(17.) “the mount of Galilee.”—This is intended to designate the
northern summit of the Mount of Olives, on which was the tower Viri
Galilei, so called because two men in white stood there at the moment
of the Ascension (Raumer, _Palæstina_, etc., 310). De Lannoy refers to
this spot when describing pilgrimages to the Mount of Olives: “_Item_,
le lieu de Galilée, où Jhésu-Crist s’apparut à ses onze appostres”;
only he has confounded the place where the two stood with that of the
eleven.—BRUUN.
(18.) “Dead Sea, which is one hundred and fifty stadia wide.”—Josephus
(_Wars_, etc., iv, 8, 3) wrote that the Dead Sea was 580 stadia in
length, and 150 stadia wide. Seetzen (_Reiseberichte in Monatliche
Correspondenz_, Berlin, 1854, xviii, 440), gives the width at 13-1/2
English miles, which Robinson reduces to 11-1/4 miles, at the same
time observing that the water level rose from 10 feet to 15 feet; and
that when he happened to be there in the month of May, the water had
sufficiently risen to inundate, over the space of one mile, a salt lake
on its southern shore. The indications of Josephus and of Schiltberger
may have reference to the same season of the year.—BRUUN.
(18A.) Captain Warren (_Underground Jerusalem_, 175) gives much new
and valuable information on the Jordan and the valley of that river,
and explains that the rise and fall in the level of the Dead Sea is
caused by the fluctuations in the rush of water, the time of greater
evaporations not coinciding with that of the freshets. This rise
and fall might possibly be greater, were there no other regulating
arrangement than evaporation; but at the southern end there is a vast
tract of land, only submerged by a few feet (here is Robinson’s salt
lake), and when this is covered the evaporation is great; and should
the waters be unduly extracted, this becomes dry land. The Jordan
overflows its banks at harvest time, which is simply owing to the
harvest being early in that semi-tropical district, when the waters of
the river are swollen by the waters of Hermon. The disparity in the
dimensions of the Dead Sea, as noted by different authors, is here
accounted for and explained. See Duc de Luynes’ _Voy. d’Exploration à
la Mer Morte_, etc., Paris, 1874.—ED.
(19.) “Christians usually bathe in the Jordan.”—Pilgrims, even in the
days of Josephus and of Jerome, looked for salvation through baptism in
the Jordan, and still may thousands be seen on Easter Monday, wending
their way from Jerusalem to Jericho, performing the distance in five
hours; two other hours bring them to the Jordan, and they assemble at
the ruins of a church and monastery that were dedicated to St. John
the Baptist. The church was equally a ruin in Daniel’s time, but the
monastery and vaulted chapel near Hermon were in existence. It is clear
that this mount could not have been either the great Hermon of the
Lebanon, or the lesser Hermon which is situated in the middle of the
plain of Jezreel to the south of Mount Tabor.
The monastery of St. John the Baptist (De Lannoy) was perhaps identical
with that constructed, according to Adamnanus (Raumer, _Palæstina_,
etc., 60), by St. Helena, at the place where Christ was baptised.
Pocock (_Desc. of the East_, etc., ii, 49) makes it distant one mile
from the Jordan, and says that Greeks and Latins, who are at issue as
to the exact locality, are mistaken in seeking it on the western bank
of the river, John having baptised at Bethany beyond the Jordan. Noroff
(_Péler. en T. S._, 49) points out that Pocock himself is in error, and
that the Greeks and Latins were quite right in keeping to the western
bank, in front of Bethabara and not of Bethany.—BRUUN.
(20.) “from these it has its name.”—Many authors, from Josephus
to Burkhardt, have derived the name of the river Jordan from the
two springs, Jor and Dan, although the sources are in reality the
Banias, Dan, and Hasbeny; so that every allowance should be made if
Schiltberger has failed to give the correct etymology of the name,
which signifies in Hebrew “that which flows downwards”.—BRUUN.
(21.) “where the Infidels often have a fair during the year.”—This
beautiful plain was in all probability the valley of Jericho, watered
by the Jordan after it leaves the lake of Tiberias or Gennesareth, and
traverses two calcareous hills, described by Justin in words similar to
those of Schiltberger,—“Est namque vallis quæ continuis montibus velut
muro quodam clauditur.”
The valley of Jericho, compared by Josephus to a paradise, θεῶν
χωρίον, tractum divinum, is far from meriting such encomium, even
though we cannot but agree with Ritter that, considering the profusion
and utility of the vegetation still growing wildly in this fertile
valley, and the scattered remains of old aqueducts, it must have been
one of the most beautiful gardens in Palestine whilst in a state of
cultivation during the Crusades.
That the sepulchre of St. James was in this valley is a very puzzling
statement, because it is asserted on tradition that the Apostle of that
name, surnamed the Elder, was beheaded on Mount Zion, on the spot where
stands the church that bears his name; it is alluded to by Schiltberger
and De Lannoy, and is actually in the custody of the Armenians, who
state that the head of the saint was carried off to Spain, Quaresimus
(_Elucidatio Terræ Sanctæ_, ii, 77) asserting that the body, as well
as the head, is at Campostella. According to Daniel and De Lannoy, the
tomb of St. James the Less was in the valley of Josaphat, near that of
the prophet Zacharias, close to which, says Schiltberger, reposed the
remains of the prophet Jacob, a name substituted for that of James, or
rather James the Less, who, it is said, concealed himself in a tomb
near to that of Zacharias, upon the day that our Lord was betrayed.—BRUUN.
(22.) “twelve hundred and eighty years from Christ.”—The holy places had
been frequently won and lost during the Crusades, but they were never
again recovered from the Egyptians, after the expulsion of the Mongols
from Syria by the sultan Koutouz and his amir Beïbars in 1260, the
year 658 of the Hegira. Schiltberger’s error in computation, of twenty
years, probably arose from his having added the years of this date,
658 instead of 638 to the 622 years that had elapsed from the birth of
Christ to the commencement of the Mahomedan era. These dates amount
together to 1280, which he must have thought corresponded to 658 of the
Hegira, the period indicated to him as that at which Mussulman rule was
established in Syria and Palestine, and Christians lost their
influence.—BRUUN.
(23.) “and this they do that they may make more profit.”—Many travellers
in Egypt, whether previous to, during, or since the Crusades, have
noticed that balsam was to be obtained only from the Matarea garden
near Cairo. To his translation of Abd-Allatif’s description of Egypt,
Silvester de Sacy adds several passages on the cultivation of balsam in
that country, being extracts from the reports of European and Eastern
writers; but he omits Arnold of Lubeck and De Lannoy. Whilst at Cairo,
the latter was presented by the patriarch of India with a “fyole de fin
balme de la vigne, où il croist, dont il est en partie seigneur”; and
he repeats the tradition related by Brocardus (_Terræ Sanctæ Descr._,
311), that the vine of the balsam had been brought to Babylon, meaning
Cairo, by Cleopatra.
Schiltberger was in Syria and Egypt at about the same time as De
Lannoy, and may have heard this tradition, also the legend that was
related to the Bishop of Lubeck, to the effect that the balsam tree did
not put forth in the garden of Matarea until the Virgin, in passing by
when on her flight from the persecutions of Herod, had washed her son’s
clothes in the stream that irrigated the garden. Makrizi associates
this very fable with the well at Matarea, adding, that the balm-tree
had quite disappeared from the country about the Jordan where it was
formerly exclusively obtained. Strabo (XVI, ii, 41) and Pliny (XII, v,
4) both say that this plant was cultivated in the royal gardens at
Jericho, of which it was the chief ornament (Josephus, _Wars_, etc.,
iv, 8); but it is doubtful whether it disappeared entirely from Judæa
after the days of Cleopatra and Augustus, because some was purchased at
Jerusalem in 705 by St. Guillebaud (cited by S. de Sacy, Abd-Allatif,
91); and Burkhardt learnt that balm-oil was to be obtained at Tiberias,
extracted from a fruit that greatly resembled the cucumber, and grew on
a stem very like the balsam tree at Mecca.
Now-a-days, a sort of oil, produced from the myrobalsamum and prepared
at Jerusalem, is sold to superstitious pilgrims for genuine balsam or
extract of opobalsamum, although it does not possess its qualities.
Deception was also practised in Schiltberger’s time, but he has shewn
himself not to have been so great a simpleton as the many who are being
continually duped.
That the sale of balsam was a great source of revenue to the sultan
(the patriarch of Armenia paid a high price for it, see page 92), is
confirmed by others. Makrizi considered it a most useful commodity.
Christian sovereigns vied with each other in securing a supply, and it
was greatly esteemed by Christians in general, because baptism was not
considered efficacious unless oil of balsam was dropped into the water
prepared for the purpose.—BRUUN.
(23A.) A plant called the balsam, from which oil was extracted, and
not to be found in any other part of the world, grew in the vicinity
of Fostat the chief city of Egypt, situated on the river Nile to the
north. So wrote Ibn Haukal in the 10th century. It was near Fostat that
Cairo was founded in 968. Jacques de Vitry, a bishop in Palestine in
the 13th century (afterwards bishop of Tusculum, the modern Frascati)
alludes to the produce of balsam in Egypt, which previously was to be
obtained in the Holy Land only (_Gesta Dei per Francos_, etc., Hanoviæ,
MDCXI, _Bongars edition_). According to De Lannoy, it grew by the shore
near the city of Cairo, and De Maillet, Consul for France at that city
in the early part of the last century, specially describes the plant,
which, however, he could not have seen, as it had disappeared two
hundred years before his time.
The last of the plants that grew in the garden of Matarea, says this
author, were not more than two or three cubits in height, the stem
being about one inch in thickness; the leaves of a beautiful green, on
slender branches, resembled those of the rue. The stem had a double
bark, the outer of a reddish colour, the inner, the thinnest, being
perfectly green. The smell of the two barks was not unlike that of
the turpentine tree, but when bruised between the fingers emitted
an odour similar to that of cardamom. Like the vine, this plant was
primed annually, and De Maillet supposes that then was extracted the
valuable balsam so greatly esteemed by all Christians, especially those
of the Coptic church, the efficacy of baptism without its application
being generally doubted (_Descr. de l’Egypte_, edited by the Abbé Le
Mascrier, à la Haye, 1740). De Maillet distinguishes the balsam of
Cairo from that of Mecca, which Ali Bey (_Travels_, etc.) informs us
was not made there, but, on the contrary, was very scarce, as it could
only be obtained when brought by the Bedouins. Ali Bey was told that
it came from Medina. According to some authors, the last of the balsam
plants growing in Egypt were destroyed in 1615 by an inundation of the
Nile.—ED.