what later writer Jacob de Vitry relates, that the Christians had erected strong fortresses upon the extremities of their territory, in order to protect their borders from the inroads of the Saracens, viz. Montroyal (Shôbek) and Kerak in the S. E. and Safed and Belvoir (Kaukab) in the N. E. against Syria.' The date of the erection of these latter fortresses is not specified; but they would seem not improbably to have been built, perhaps nearly in the same period with those of Kerak, Beit Jibrîn, and Tell es-Sâfieh, in the latter years of king Fulco, not long before A. D. 1140.2 In respect to neither Safed nor Kaukab is any hint given, that a fortress had formerly existed on the spot. The charge of the castle at Safed appears to have been committed to the knights Templars, who afterwards laid claim to all the country around.3 In A. D. 1188, a year after the battle of Hattîn, all the country and cities of Palestine, except Tyre, were in the possession of Saladin; he had even threatened Antioch, but at length returned to Damascus. By his orders, his brother now laid siege to Shôbek and Kerak and subdued them; while the Sultan himself marched against the two remaining fortresses of Safed and Kaukab. In the mean time, Safed would appear to have been strengthened and perhaps enlarged; for both Christian and Arabian writers speak of it as exceedingly strong, and impregnable by its position; it had also become very troublesome to the Muhammedans. Saladin with his army sat down before the place late in October, and pressed the siege with great vigour; the Sultan himself conducting all the operations night and day. After about five weeks, Safed ted in Wilken Gesch. der Kr. III. ii. pp. 44, 45. 1) Jac. de Vitr. c. 49. p. 1074. 2) Marin. Sanutus expressly ascribes Safed to king Fulco; p. 166. 3) Will. Tyr. XXI. 30. 4) Jac. de Vitr. c. 49, 95. Bohaed. Vit. Salad. p. 87. Reinaud Extraits, etc. p. 232. capitulated; and the inhabitants were permitted to withdraw to Tyre.' Saladin immediately proceeded to lay seige to Kaukab, as already related.2 Safed now continued for half a century in the power of the Muhammedans. In A. D. 1220, Melek el-Mu'adh-dhem, Sultan of Damascus, dreading lest the Christians should again get possession of the strong-holds of the country, caused the fortress of Safed to be demolished; just as the year before he had adopted the same course with the walls of Jerusalem, and the castles of Bâniâs and Tibnîn.3 In A. D. 1240, in consequence of a treaty with the Sultan Isma'îl of Damascus, Safed, together with the castle esh-Shukîf and Tiberias, reverted into the hands of the Christians. The Templars were desirous immediately to rebuild the castle, and were promised protection and aid in the work, by the king of Navarre and other princes then at 'Akka; but as neither men nor money were furnished, the work was not begun. In the mean time, Benedict, bishop of Marseilles, who was then in the Holy Land, having travelled from Damascus by way of Safed to 'Akka, was so impressed with the importance of a fortress at that point, as a shield to the cities on the coast and a 1) Bohaed. p. 87. Abulf. Annal. A. H. 584. Reinaud Extr. p. 232. Wilken Gesch. der Kr. IV. pp. 244, 245, and Beyl. p. 83. 2) See above, p. 226. 3) Jac. de Vitr. Hist. Hieros. lib. III. p. 1144. Marin. Sanut. p. 209. Oliverii Schol. Hist. c. 26, in Eccardi Corp. Histor. med. Aevi Tom. II. p. 1421. Wilken 1. c. VI. p. 303.-The text of Jac. de Vitry (which Marin. Sanut. copies) instead of Mu'adh-dhem has "Coradinus," and reads as follows: "Anno Dom. 1220, Coradinus Princeps Damasci destruxit Safed castrum firmissimum," etc. This is copied by the editor of Van Egmond and 4) Hugo Plagon in Mart. et Durand Tom. V. p. 723. Marin. Sanut. p. 215. Reinaud Extr. pp. 440, 443. Wilken Gesch. der Kr. VI. p. 600. means of overawing and harassing Damascus and the interjacent region, that after persevering exertion, he prevailed on the Templars to undertake the rebuilding of the castle, upon the strength of their own resources. The work was immediately commenced; the bishop himself laid the corner-stone in December of the same year; and deposited upon it a cask of gold and silver coins as his own contribution. He remained near at hand, until the walls were so far advanced as to be defensible; and then returned to his home, leaving behind his blessing and all his property in Palestine to the fortress, as to a beloved son. On a second visit to the Holy Land in Oct. 1260, he found the castle of Safed completed with admirable strength and magnificence, nearly inaccessible from its position, and impregnable through the solidity and skill of its construction.' The Templars were not permitted long to possess their new fortress in peace. In June, A. D. 1266, the formidable Bibars, Sultan of Egypt, having already made himself master of most of the Holy Land, laid siege to Safed, and pressed it with such reckless vehemence, that in July the garrison were compelled to make terms of capitulation. These were granted; the garrison marched out; and having placed themselves in the power of the conqueror, were put to 1) See the extracts from a MS. in the Biblioth. Colbert. in Steph. Baluzii Miscellaneor. lib. VI. Tom. VI. pp. 357-369. Paris 1713. 8. From various expressions in this tract, which gives a particular account of Benedict's efforts, it appears to have been written between A. D. 1260 and 1266; i. e. before the final capture of Safed by Bibars. Many Muhammedan captives were employed in the building up of Safed; see Reinaud Extr. p. 444. Wilken 1. c. VI. p. 629.-The VOL. III. circumstances thus far related, serve to contradict the common impression, that the present castle of Safed was of Roman origin; a view which seems to rest chiefly on the weak authority of Stephen Schulz; Leitungen etc. Th. V. p. 209. Büsching Erdbeschr. Th. XI. p. 487. etc. The best account of the castle, as it existed a century ago, is in Van Egmond and Heyman Reizen II. p. 43, seq. Mod. Traveller in Syria, etc. I. p. 337, seq. 42 death in cold blood to the number of two thousand men. The prior of the Templars and two Franciscan monks, who had exhorted the Christians to constancy in their faith, are said to have been flayed alive. The circumstances of this brutal perfidy, as related by Arabian historians, are even more atrocious than they are described by Christian writers.'-Bibars immediately restored the fortifications of Safed, and posted there a strong garrison; gave orders for the erection of two mosks; and established in the town a colony brought from Damascus.2 The next year he again strengthened and completed the fortifications, so as to render Safed the bulwark of all Syria.3 We hear little more of the political state of Safed. Abulfeda speaks of it as a fortress, and of the town as divided into three parts; and the same is repeated by edh-Dhâhiry about the middle of the fifteenth century; the latter describes the castle as of surpassing strength, and adds that the town contained mosks, tombs of saints, schools, baths, and markets. All this indicates a high degree of prosperity; and Safed at this time was the head of a province.-During the eighteenth century, as we have seen, it was the beginning of Sheikh Dhaher's power; and its desolation by the earthquake of A. D. 1759 has already been related." During the invasion of Syria by the French in 1799, they occupied Safed with a garrison of about four hundred men, whose outposts were advanced as far as to the bridge of the Jordan; after their retreat the Jews' quarter was sacked by the Turks." 1) See Makrizi and other Arabian writers in Reinaud Extraits pp. 494-498. Marin. Sanut. p. 222. Wilken I. c. VIII. pp. 486-492. 2) Reinaud 1. c. p. 498. Wilken 1. c. p. 493. 3) Reinaud 1. c. p. 502. Wilken 1. c. p. 515. 4) Abulf. Tab. Syr. p. 83. Edh Dhâhiry in Rosenmueller Analect. 5) See above, pp. 273, 324. The origin of the Jewish settlement at Safed, and of the celebrated Rabbinic school, although of comparatively modern date, is nevertheless involved in obscurity. Benjamin of Tudela, who travelled in Palestine about A. D. 1165, and is careful to speak of every place where even two or three Jews were to be found, visited and describes the adjacent cemetery of Meirôn, but says not one word of Safed. The latter was then a fortress in the hands of the Christians; and it follows conclusively from Benjamin's silence, that no Jews at that time dwelt in the place. Nor were the circumstances of Safed, during that and the following century, such as were likely to allure them to take up their abode there. The rules and sway of the Templars were not favourable to tolerance, and least of all to the Jews. During the fifty years of Muhammedan dominion, after the capture of Safed by Saladin, it is indeed possible, that some of this people may have repaired thither; but when in A. D. 1240 the Templars regained possession for six and twenty years, it is hardly to be supposed, that Jews could have formed a portion of the inhabitants. Bibars, as we have seen, repeopled the place anew with a colony from Damascus. Most writers also of the two following centuries, make no mention of Jews at Safed.2 But in whatever period the first establishment of that people here may fall, or whenever their school of learning may have been founded, it is certain, that the latter was in its most flourishing state about the middle of the sixteenth century; and various circumstances render the supposition probable, that its origin 1) Benj. de Tud. par Baratier p. 108. 2) The only exception I have found is Rudolph de Suchem (A. D. 1336-50), who merely relates that in his time a Jew and his wife from Westphalia were living at Safed; Reissb. p. 852. See Brocardus c. IV. 173. Marin. Sanut. pp. 222, 248. W. de Baldensel p. 355. Sir J. Maundeville p. 117. London 1839. |