University of Houston, 4333 University Drive, Houston TX 77204-2000, (713) 743-1050.
© 2013 University of Houston. All rights reserved.
| Title | Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt, Vol. 2 |
| Creator (LCNAF) |
|
| Publisher | D. Appleton and Company |
| Date | 1883 |
| Description | Index: Phoenicia and Lebanon / by the Rev. H. W. Jessup -- The Phoenician plain / by the Rev. Canon Tristram -- Acre, the key of Palestine, Mount Carmel and the river Kishon, Maritime cities and plains of Palestine / by Miss M. E. Rogers -- Lydda and Ramleh, Philistia / By Lt. Col. Warren -- The south country of Judaea / by the Rev. Canon Tristram -- The southern borderland and Dead Sea / by Professor Palmer -- Mount Hor and the cliffs of Edom, The convent of St. Catherine / by Miss M. E. Rogers -- Sinai / by the Rev. C. P. Clarke -- The land of Goshen, Cairo, Memphis, Thebes, Edfu and Philae / by S. Lane-Poole. |
| Subject.Geographic (TGN) |
|
| Genre (AAT) |
|
| Language | English |
| Type (DCMI) |
|
| Original Item Location | DS107 .W73 v.2 |
| Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b1703789~S11 |
| Digital Collection | Exotic Impressions: Views of Foreign Lands |
| Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/exotic |
| Repository | Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room, William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library, University of Houston Libraries |
| Repository URL | http://info.lib.uh.edu/about/campus-libraries-collections/william-r-jenkins-architecture-art-library |
| Use and Reproduction | No Copyright - United States |
| Identifier | exotic_201304_015 |
| Title | Page 99 |
| Format (IMT) |
|
| File Name | exotic_201304_015_117.jpg |
| Transcript | ACRE, THE KEY OF PALESTINE. 99 now called Haifa el 'Atikah (see map). In the Talmud reference is made to nsin, Haifha and Shikmonah. Mount Carmel is called in Arabic Jebel Mar Elyas (the mountain of Saint Elijah), and from time immemorial it has been regarded as a sacred place, "the Mount of God." In the time of Tacitus an altar to the " God of Carmel" is said still to have stood upon the mount, but without temple or ornament, and upon this altar Vespasian sacrificed and consulted the oracle as to his future fortunes. The grottoes and caves of Mount Carmel were at a very early period used as places of retreat by holy men and sages, and it is recorded that even Pythagoras retired here for study and meditation. Prophets and philosophers were succeeded by Christian recluses, and a regular order of "hermits of Mount Carmel" was instituted in the year 400, by Jean, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in honour of the Prophet Elijah. (Some of the stories and fables which were related to me by people of Haifa were attributed to a hermit of Mount Carmel.) From these hermits naturally sprang the monastic order of the Carmelites, which was organized early in the thirteenth century. Under the protection of the Crusaders they built a monastery, which was visited by Louis IX. in 1252. Edward I. of England was enrolled in this order, and one of its most famous generals was an Englishman, Simon Stock or Stoke of Kent, who for sixteen years lived in a grotto, which is now enclosed in a chapel on the slope of Carmel just below the lighthouse (see page 88). His memory is greatly revered; he died in 1265. In 1291, when the Crusaders finally lost their possessions in Palestine, the monaster) (which was on the site of the present building, shown on page 84) was attacked and plundered, and many of its inmates were murdered. The place was deserted and remained in ruins for a long period. The grotto known as "the School of the Prophets," at the foot of Mount Carmel (see page 85), was, after a long interval, purchased and tenanted for a time by a small company of Carmelites. A little chapel was built close to it by Fra Prospero, but in 1635 the monks were massacred by the Mohammedans, who took possession of the place and have held it ever since. They regard it with great reverence, and keep lamps constantly burning there in honour of Elijah, and it is visited by a great number of pilgrims of divers creeds every year. The grotto, which is partly artificial, is twenty-eight by twenty-one feet square, and eighteen feet in height. I once saw a rudely carved and painted wooden cradle here, and was told that it had been brought by a young mother who had lost two children successively in infancy, and who desired a blessing and protection for her newly-born child, an infant son. A small house, built only a few years ago, stands opposite the entrance to the grotto, where the ruins of the chapel of Fra Prospero could formerly be traced. A palm-tree grows within the enclosed court of this sanctuary (see page 85). The monastery which Napoleon visited in 1799, and which was used as a hospital for his wounded soldiers after his unsuccessful siege of'Akka, was destroyed in 1821 by Abdallah Pasha. |