itself appears also to have been called Mamre, probably from the name of Abraham's friend; while the terebinth of Mamre is placed, by a tradition older than Josephus, at some distance from the town towards Jerusalem.' The ancient city lay also in a valley; and the two pools, one of which at least is as early as the time of David, serve unquestionably to identify the modern with the ancient site. 2

3

Here Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived and walked with God; and here they were all entombed. From Hebron or its neighbourhood Jacob and his sons went down by way of Beersheba to Egypt to meet and dwell with Joseph. After the return of the Israelites from Egypt, the city was taken by Joshua, and given over to Caleb, who drove out the Anakim from the region; it was afterwards made one of the six cities of refuge, and assigned to the Levites and priests." Hebron became at length the royal residence of David, where he reigned for seven and a half years over Judah; and here too he was anointed king over all Israel. It was also at Hebron, that Absalom raised the standard of rebellion." This was likewise one of the places fortified by Rehoboam; and after the exile the returning Jews dwelt again in the city and surrounding villages.

The name of Hebron does not occur any further in the Old Testament, and not at all in the New; but we learn from the first book of Maccabees and Josephus, that it came into the power of the Edomites, who had taken possession of the south of Judah, and was recovered from them by Judas Maccabæus.'

man among the Anakim." But as the Hebrew word 78 (Arba) also signifies four, and the word for man (7) Adam, is likewise used as a proper name, some of the Jewish Rabbins in this verse took Kirjath-Arba in the meaning 'city of the four,' and read likewise Adam the great' instead of a great man;' then 'the four' were held to be the patriarchs Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who were supposed to be all buried here. The same conceit Jerome doubtless derived from bis Jewish teacher: "Arbee, id est, quatuor; eo quod ibi quatuor patriarchæ Abraham, Isaac et Jacob sepulti sunt, et Adam magnus, ut in libro Jesu scriptum est; " Onomnast. art. Arboch. Comm. in Matth. 27, 33. Hence the Vulgate likewise reads in the same verse: "Adam maximus ibi inter Enacim situs est." See Bochart Phaleg, ed. Villem. p. 300.—A tomb of Adam was shown here with those of the other patriarchs in the seventh century (Adamnanus 2. 10); and from this source probably came the later traditions, which connect the creation of Adam with Hebron.

1 Mamre is expressly said to be Hebron, Gen. 23, 19. 35, 27. Comp. 14, 13. 24. less correctly, plain of Mamre,) seems to The terebinth of Mamre, (Engl. version itself, Gen. 13, 18. 18, 1. See Vol. I. be distinguished from Hebron or Mamre

P.

For the market which existed there, and 216 and n. 1. Reland Pal. p. 711 sq. the sale of the captive Jews under Adrian, see above, Vol. I. p. 369. Reland pp. 714, 715.

Gen. 37, 14 "the vale of Hebron." 2 Sam. 4, 12.

14.

Gen. 37, 14. 46, 1 sq.

Josh. 10, 36. 37. 14, 6-15. 15, 13.
Judg. 1, 20.

Josh. 20, 7. 21, 11. 13.

2 Sam. 2, 1-4. 11. 1 K. 2, 11. 2 Sam. 5, 1. 3.

7 2 Sam. 15, 9. 10.

* 2 Chr. 11, 10. Neh. 11, 25.

1 Macc. 5, 65. Joseph. Ant. 12. 8. 6. For this invasion of the Edomites, and their subsequent subjection by John Hyrcanus, see above, p. 69.

In

It was afterwards seized by the rebel Simon Giorides; but recaptured and burnt by Cerealis an officer of Vespasian. the same connection, Josephus describes the tombs of the patriarchs as existing there in his day; and both Eusebius and Jerome, and all subsequent writers who mention Hebron, down to the time of the crusades, speak of it chiefly as containing these sepulchres; under which they probably refer more particularly to the ancient massive exterior walls described above, as being apparently remains of Jewish antiquity."

In the course of time, this remarkable external structure, enclosing the tombs of Abraham and the other patriarchs, came to be called the "Castle of Abraham;" and by an easy transition, this name was afterwards applied to the city itself. We have already seen the earliest trace of it in a notice of St. Willibald in the eighth century; and in the time of the crusades, the names of Hebron and the Castle of St. Abraham, were used interchangeably. Hence, as Abraham is also distinguished among the Muhammedans by the appellation el-Khulil, the Friend, i. e. of God, this latter epithet passed over among them into a name of the city; and they now know Hebron only as el-Khulil."

Soon after the capture of Jerusalem by the crusaders, Hebron appears also to have fallen into their hands, and in Á. D. 1100 was bestowed as a fief by Godfrey of Bouillon upon Gerhard of Avennes. Sawulf, two years after, describes it as in ruins.' We hear not much more of it in the history of those times. In two of the expeditions of king Baldwin I, into the region southeast of the Dead Sea, in A. D. 1100 and 1116, he is said to have passed by Hebron in going or returning; and the same was perhaps the case in the other similar expeditions of the same sovereign in A. D. 1115, and in that of Baldwin III, in A. D. 1145. In A. D. 1167, Hebron was raised to be a 1 Joseph. B. J. 4. 9. 7, 9.

2 Onomast. art. Arboch. See the other notices down to the time of the crusades, pp. 77, 78. See also the general account of the Haram, pp. 75-79. * See p. 78.

Edrisi mentions Hebron only under the name "Kabr Ibrahim," Abraham's sepulchre; ed. Jaubert p. 338. Albert Aquensis (in Gesta Dei) uses only the name "Castellum seu Præsidium ad St. Abraham," 7. 15, 41, 43. ib. 10. 32. ib. 12. 22. (Comp. Gesta Dei p. 604.) In this last passage, indeed, he seems to distinguish the "Præsidium ad St. Abraham " from the valley of Hebron; and in 7. 41 he places the former near the Dead Sea; so that it is very possible he may have thought it to be a different place from Hebron. Yet the same facts which he here relates of St.

Abraham, are referred by other writers of the same age to Hebron; Gesta Dei p. 580. Will. Tyr. 10. 8.-William of Tyre speaks only of Hebron, e. g. 8. 1. ib. 10. 8. ib. 15. 6. etc. Abulfeda has Beit Hebrun; Tab. Syr. ed. Koehler p. 87. Comp. Mejr ed-Din in Fundgr. des Or. II. p. 140.

Abulfeda describes here the "Mesjid Ibrahim el-Khulil," Tab. Syr. p. 87. n. Schulten's Index in Vit. Salad. art. BeitSjebrinum. So too Ibn Batûta p. 19. See also d'Herbelot Biblioth. Orient. arts. Abraham and Khalil. Comp. James 2, 23.

6

Albert. Aq. 7. 15. Wilken Gesch. der Kr. II. p. 44.

1

Latin episcopal see, and Rainald appointed bishop; there had before been here only a Greek priory. The title of bishop of Hebron continued for some time in the Romish church, and four other bishops are mentioned, one of them as late as A. D. 1365.* But this was merely nominal; for after the capture of Jerrusalem by Saladin in A. D. 1187, Hebron also reverted to the Muhammedans, and has ever since remained in their possession. The church which the Christians had built or at least decorated, within the structure around the tombs of the patriarchs, now became a mosk, and was honoured with presents from the Sultan.3

5

Thus far there is nothing to excite a doubt as to the identity of the site of the ancient and modern city. Arculfus near the close of the seventh century, found the place without walls, exhibiting only the vestiges of an ancient desolated city; although a multitude of people yet lived there in miserable dwellings scattered in the valley, partly within and partly without the ruins of the former walls." Yet Benjamin of Tudela, after A. D. 1660, affirms, that the ancient city was situated on a mountain, and was then desolate and deserted; the city of that day being in the valley. Brocardus, a century later, repeats this account, with more particulars; according to him, the ancient city was on the hill north of the slope on which we encamped, three bow-shots west of north from the modern town, where nothing was then visible except large ruins." This story is copied by writers of the following centuries; and the idea seems to have become current, that the ancient city lay upon the hill." Yet none of the travellers of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, speak of any ruins there, on their own knowledge.

We were not aware of this old report at the time of our visit; and therefore did not examine the hill in question. My companion has since informed me, that according to his impression, the site of a former village was spoken of on that hill,

bert 7. 36. Will. Tyr. 10. 8. Wilken Gesch. der Kr. II. pp. 88, 89.-For that in A. D. 1116, see Alb. Aq. 12. 22. Wilken ib. p. 403. Comp. Will. Tyr. 11. 29.-For the two others, see Will. Tyr. 11. 26. Wilken ib. p. 402. Will. Tyr. 16. 6. Wilken ib. III. i. p. 208.

Will. Tyr. 20. 3. Jac. de Vitr. 57. Le Quien Oriens Chr. III. p. 1270. E. g. the carved pulpit; Mejr ed-Din in Fundgr. des Or. II. p. 375. See above, p. 78.

• Adamnanus ex Arculfo 2. 8. ⚫ Itin. p. 76.

Brocardus c. 9. p. 185.

T By Marinus Sanutus, p. 248. Brey

denbach in Reissb. p. 133. Quaresmius II. p. 771 sq. Zuallart. Viagg. p. 233. Von Troilo p. 321, Dresd. 1676. The site upon the hill is alluded to (but not ruins) by F. Fabri in Reissb. p. 287; and also by Baumgarten p. 78.-But Maundeville, Lud. de Suchem, and William of Baldensel, who all passed through Hebron in the fourteenth century; as well as Stephen von Gumpenberg, F. Fabri, and Mejr ed-Din, who minutely describe it near the close of the fifteenth; and also Belon who was here about the middle of the sixteenth; make no allusion to any other site than that of the present town.

similar to several others in the neighbourhood of Hebron; but with the remark that there were no remains there of importance. Had we then known the circumstances above related, we should certainly have gone upon the hill, and ascertained the facts for ourselves. The later researches of friends' show conclusively, that there is nothing on that hill to counterbalance the mention of "the valley of Hebron" in the book of Genesis, and the strong evidence of the ancient pools.'

In the fourteenth century, pilgrims passed from Sinai to Jerusalem directly, through the desert, by Beersheba and Hebron. In the following century, this route was abandoned for that by Gaza; yet the pilgrims sometimes took Hebron in their way, or visited it from Jerusalem. Writers of that period describe here an immense charitable establishment or hospital, situated near the Haram, where twelve hundred loaves of bread, besides oil and other condiments, were daily distributed to all comers, without distinction of nation or religion. The annual expenses were said to amount to twenty-four thousand ducats; of which two thousand were derived from the village of Summeil in the western plain. Hebron continued to be occasionally visited by travellers, down to the latter part of the seventeenth century; although, before that time, it seems no longer to have been generally resorted to by pilgrims. But from that period onward until the present century, no Frank traveller appears to have found his way to the city of the Patriarchs.

Morison relates, in A. D. 1698, that a few years before, a French (Frank?) merchant on a visit to Hebron, being mounted on a spirited horse, rode over and killed a child in the streets. Although he made shift to escape the rage of the people by flight, yet such was the excitement and the hatred caused by

So Rev. S. Wolcott, in Biblioth. Sac. 1813, p. 59, 60.

2 See pp. 88-90. A remark of Jerome may seem at first to favour the site upon the hill, and perhaps gave rise to the story; Quaest. in Gen. xxxv. 27, "pro Arbee in Septuaginta campum habet, quum Chebron in monte sita est." But this expression "in monte" stands here by way of antithesis to a plain, and is therefore equally applicable to a high hill-side; in which sense it would also be true of the present town. The ancient city was doubtless larger and extended further up the sides of the valley.

'So Maundeville, L. de Suchem, W. de Baldensel.

⚫ Gumpenberg was here in A. D. 1449; Breydenbach and F. Fubri in 1483, on their way to Gaza; Baumgarten in 1507, coming from Gaza; Belou about 1548; etc.

Gumpenberg's Journal in Reissb. p. 445. F. Fabri ib. pp. 288, 289. Mejr edDin in Fundgr. des Orients II. p. 377. This last writer says there were three distributions of bread and the like daily; in the morning and at noon to the inhabitants only; and in the afternoon to all

comers.

F. Fabri 1. c.-For the error which converts Summeil into St. Samuel, and the greater blunder of Breydenbach, see above p. 33, and Note XXXI, end of the volume.

Zuallart speaks of Hebron, probably without having seen it; p. 233. So too Cotovicus, p. 241 sq. Quaresmius appears to have been there, II. p. 769 sq. Von Troilo visited it in 1666, p. 319 sq. But both Surius and Doubdan, who were earlier than he, and strictly pilgrims, make no mention of Hebron.

this accident against the Christians, that from that time no traveller had ventured to approach the place. It is not unlikely that some accident of this kind may have alarmed the fears of the monks, and led them to dissuade travellers from going thither; but their timidity was probably still more wrought upon, by the restless and warlike disposition of the people of Hebron, and their continual feuds with the inhabitants of Bethlehem and other neighbouring villages; they being of the Keis party, and the latter of the Yemen. Hasselquist in 1751 mentions, that five or six years before, "the inhabitants of Bethlehem and Hebron carried on such a war as destroyed the greatest part of the best inhabitants of both villages; and the neighbourhood of Bethlehem was entirely laid waste." Even so late as 1807, Ali Bey fell in with "a band of Christian shepherds, who were going to Jerusalem, to lay a complaint against the Mussulman shepherds of Hebron, who had carried off a part of their cattle. They had with them two camels, which they had taken from the Mussulmans as reprisals." Under such circumstances, it is not surprising, that the influence of the monks should have been successfully exerted, to restrain travellers from extending their excursions towards the south beyond the pools of Solomon.

In the present century, Seetzen was the first to lay open again the way to Hebron in 1806; he travelled from here to Mount Sinai through the desert, making however a circuit almost to Gaza.5 He was followed the very next year by Ali Bey. Then another interval of eleven years elapsed, before the visit of Irby and Mangles and their party in 1818, as they passed this way on their route to Wady Mûsa.' Thirteen years later, in 1831, Poujoulat made an excursion hither from Jerusalem, as did Monro in 1833. Then came the rebellion of 1834; in which the people of Hebron and the whole region round about bore a conspicuous part, and brought down upon themselves a heavy retribution. They were among the last to hold out; and when, after quelling the disturbances at Nâbulus, Ibrahim Pasha marched southwards with his troops, the rebels gave him battle not far from Solomon's pools, and were defeated.' They retired and entrenched themselves in Hebron; but Ibrahim pressed forward, carried the place by storm, and gave it over to sack and pillage. Many were slain; and the Jews especially are reported to have suffered the most

1 Relation Historique p. 480.

See above, p. 17. Quaresmius relates, that in his day (about 1620) Tekoa was seldom visited for a similar reason: "Non facile possumus Thecuam ire, propter ibi et in via inhabitantes et discurrentos Arabes." Vol. II. p. 687.

* Reise nach Paläst. p. 170.

Travels II. pp. 230, 231.

Trav. p. 342 sq. [104.] Legh, May 7, 8. Correspond. d'Orient V. p. 211 sq. Summer Ramble, I. p. 232 sq.

• See above, Vol. I. p. 217.