Deir Al Arba'een

Deir Al-Arba'een, showing the entrance to the tombs on the bottom left.

Deir Al Arba'een (Arabic: دير الأربعين, lit. 'Sanctuary of the Forty'), also Masha'ad Al Arba'een, is a ruined building approximately 300 meters to the West of the Old City of Hebron. It is considered the most notable ancient structure on Tel Rumeida.

It was described by the PEF Survey of Palestine in 1874 and by Andreas Evaristus Mader in 1911–14.[1]

A corner of the building contains what is thought to be the Tomb of Jesse and Ruth.[1][2]

Description

Diagram of Deir Al-Arba'in published by the PEF Survey of Palestine.

The ruin, surrounded by a quadrangular wall structure and vaulted rooms, consisted of a single cell chapel and semi-circular apse.[1]

The central structure measures 5.5 by 10 metres, surrounded by a quadrangular wall measuring 25 by 30 metres that enclosed vaulted rooms.[1]

It is sited above what was formerly known as the 'Ain Khibra, renamed the 'Ain Judaida.[3]

The PEF Survey of Palestine described the ruins as follows: "The building seems to be a modern Arabic work on older foundations... Several pillar shafts lie in the ruins. The vaults which remain have both groined and tunnel roofs, with pointed arches. Lower down the hill, on the north-east, are three parallel vaults, bearing 109° along this length, ruined on the east ends. They have a sloping outer scarp, and the building measures about 60 feet square outside. The walls are 9 feet thick; the vaults have tunnel roofs. The masonry resembles that of the Deir — stones rudely squared, 21⁄2 feet by 13⁄4 feet by 11⁄2 feet high, or 10 inches by 13 inches high. Some stones lie near having rude drafts."[4]

The Sakawati vaults are 8 feet by 4 feet, and 32 feet high.[4]

History

It was described by Mujir al-Din, in his History of Jerusalem and Hebron (c.1495)[1] as a pilgrimage site visited by pious Muslims (ziyārah).[5]

This site began to be called Deir al-Arba'een (Mosque of the Forty [Witnesses]) by the 19th century.[5][6] According to Moshe Sharon, both names, Mashhad al-Arba’in and Dayr al-Arba’in, appear to reflect the ancient name for Hebron, Qiryat Arba’, and thus would not refer to forty martyrs.[5]

Juan Perera, a Franciscan writing c.1553, described what was known in the Christian tradition as the Church of the Forty Martyrs, (Ecclesia quadraginta martyrum),[3] which had been transformed into a mosque,[7] and was apparently associated with Cain's murder of Abel.

There is no evidence of its use by Christians in the medieval period.[1]

Francesco Quaresmi in the early 17th century, described its remains as the chancel of the earlier church,[1] and observed that Turks and Orientals generally held this structure,[4][3]

Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert described the buildings in 1837.[8]

Georg Rosen and Arthur Penrhyn Stanley visited the site on their journey to Palestine with the Prince of Wales in the mid-nineteenth century. Rosen wrote that the tradition that a tomb in the building is that of Jesse is "very young", noting that 17th-century traveller Laurent d'Arvieux described it as the tomb of Caleb. Rosen also stated that the tomb does not "seem to be particularly revered by the Jews of Hebron".[9][2]

Tomb of Jesse and Ruth

Main article: Tomb of Jesse and Ruth

These identifications are, according to Moshe Sharon, rather late since they are not mentioned by the Arab medieval writer Mujir al-Din.[5] Rabbi Jacob, the Messenger of Yechiel of Paris, around 1238–1244, stated that either Jesse or Joab was buried in a cave on this Hebron hillsite.[10] The Italian Jewish traveler, Rabbi Meshulam of Volterra, stated that the tomb of Jesse he visited in 1481 was located 10 miles from Hebron.[11] In 1522-3 Rabbi Moses ben Mordecai Bassola visited the site, mentioning only Jesse's tomb in a burial cave, putatively, in local folklore, connected by tunnel to the Cave of the Patriarchs.[12]

Ruth's tomb only began to be pointed out at the outset of the 19th century.[5]

Sakawati vaults

The Sakawati vaults contain another tomb bearing the inscription of Seiyid el 'Alam el 'Araf el Mehakkik Muhammed Ibn 'Abdallah el Hasany, with a date, 27 Rejeb, 652 AH (1254 C.E.)[1] The PEF Survey of Palestine in 1874 noted that a pottery lamp burnt over the tomb, and it was known to the locals as the tomb of Sheikh el Mujahed or Abu es Sakawati.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Denys Pringle,The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A Corpus: Volume 2, L-Z, Cambridge University Press, 1998 pp.203–204.
  2. ^ a b Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn (1868). Sermons Preached Before His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales: During His Tour in the East in the Spring of 1862, with Notices of Some of the Localities Visited. Charles Scribner. p. 193. In a corner of this building is the so-called Tomb of Jesse.
  3. ^ a b c Franciscus Quaresmius, Historica theologica et moralis Terrae Sanctae, 1639, vol 2 p.782.
  4. ^ a b c d Claude Reignier Conder, Herbert Kitchener,The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology, Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund, London, 1883, Vol 3 pp.327–8.
  5. ^ a b c d e Moshe Sharon, Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae, Vol 5, H-I BRILL, 2013 pp.45–52.
  6. ^ Lior Lehrs, 'Political holiness: negotiating holy places in Eretz Israel/Palestine, 1937–2003,' in Marshall J. Breger, Yitzhak Reiter, Leonard Hammer (eds.),Sacred Space in Israel and Palestine: Religion and Politics, Routledge, 2013 pp.228–249 p.242.
  7. ^ Juan Perera, A Spanish Franciscan's Narrative of a Journey to the Holy Land, edited by H. C. Luke London, 1927, cited Pringle p.203.
  8. ^ Schubert, Gotthilf Heinrich von (1839). Reise in das Morgenland in den Jahren 1836 und 1837. J.J. Palm und E. Enke. p. 479. Jesses angebliches Grab, zu welchem zuletzt ein sehr beschwerlicher Weg, über die zwischen die Gartenmauern herausgeworfnen Steine hinführte, liegt innerhalb dem Gemäuer eines jener alten, zur Ruine gewordnen Gebäude, dergleichen viele auf der Höhe des Berges stehen. Sie scheinen fast durchgängig einer älteren, zum Theile wohl viel älteren Zeit anzugehören als die der Muhamedanischen Herrschaft des Landes ist. Nahe bei Jesses Grabgebäude sind mehrere Häußer zusammengebaut gewesen, von denen das eine wohl einmal die Bestimmung einer christlichen Kirche gehabt haben kann. Vielleicht mag dasselbe auch von jenem Gebäude gelten, in welchem die Grabstätte gezeigt wird. Von einer brunnen – oder schachtartig senkrecht hinabführenden Oeffnung in der einen Ecke dieses Gebäudes trugen sich unsre Begleiter mit einer Sage, nach welcher jenes Brunnenschacht zu ausgemauerten Gängen führen sollte, welche in der Tiefe bis Hebron und noch weiter führten.
  9. ^ Ueber das Thal und die nächste Umgegend Hebrons, G. Rosen, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Vol. 12, No. 3 (1858), pp. 477–513, https://www.jstor.org/stable/43359676: "Auf dem Gipfel dieses Hügels liegt die nicht unbeträchtliche Ruine, welche v. Schubert besucht und beschrieben hat (Ritter, Erdkunde XVI. 1. p.218). Die Rabbinen Hebrons zeigen dieselbe als das Grab Isais; jedoch entging schon dem so eben genannten Reisenden nicht, dass der Hauptbau nichts Anderes als eine kleine Kirche gewesen seyn könne. Vor 200 Jahren wurde dem Ritter ď Arvieux (Mémoires II. p. 236), welcher (wie v. Schubert) sich in Hebron jüdischer Gastfreiheit erfreute, dieselbe Ruine als das Grab Calebs gezeig. Die Tradition ist also eine sehr junge; auch scheint die Stelle bei den jetzigen Juden Hebrons nicht in besonderer Verehrung zu stehn. Der arabische Name Déir-el-Erba'în (دير الأربعين) führt uns unwiderleglich auf den wirklichen Ursprung jener Reste, deren Bau übrigens keineswegs ein hohes Alterthum bekundet. Es war, wie auch d'Arvieux (an d. ang. St.) ausspricht, ein den 40 Märtyrern gewidmetes Kloster, welches wahrscheinlich noch von andern, jetzt bis zur Unkenntlichkeit zerfallenen Bauten umgeben war."
  10. ^ Elkan Nathan Adler, Jewish Travellers in the Middle Ages: 19 Firsthand Accounts, Courier Corporation, 1930 reprint pp.115.129 p.120.
  11. ^ Adler, p.187.
  12. ^ Moses ben Mordecai Basola, 'In Zion and Jerusalem: the itinerary of Rabbi Moses Basola (1521–1523)' Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, C. G. Foundation Jerusalem Project Publications of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies of Bar-Ilan University, 1999 p.77. Quote: "at the summit of the mountain opposite Hebron is the burial place of Jesse, David's father. It has a handsome building with a small window that looks down on the burial cave. They say that once they threw a cat through the window and it emerged from the hole in the Cave of the Patriarchs. The distance between them is half a mile."