Benjamin of Tudela (1163) states of Hebron: ‘Here is the large place of worship called St. Abraham, which during the time of the Moham- medans was a synagogue. The Gentiles have erected six sepulchres in this place, which they
retend to be those of Abraham and Sarah, of saac and Rebekah, and of Jacob and Leah ; the pilgrims are told that they are the sepulchres of the fathers, and money is extorted from them. But if any Jew come, who gives an additional fee to the keeper of the cave, an iron door is opened, which ten from the time of our fore- fathers who rest in , and with a burning candle in his hand the visitor descends into the first cave, which is Oey, traverses a second in the same state, and at last reaches a third, which contains six sepulchres, those of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Bl of Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah, one opposite the other.’ Ali of Herat, writing in 1173 (PEFSt, 1897, ᾿ 59), fifteen years before Hebron was retaken by Saladin, states that he was informed that in the year 1119, in the reign of Baldwin Π., a certain part over the cave of Abraham had given way and was repaired by the Franks from below. Rabbi Samuel bar Simson in 1210 claims to have visited the cave. ‘We de- scended by 24 steps, very narrow, and without means of turning to the right hand or the left. We saw there the place of the Holy House, and we noticed these monuments. This place has been erected 600 years (i.e. about A.D. 600), it is near the cavern’ (PEFSt, 1882, p. 212). Sir John Maundeville (1322, Early Travels in Pal. p. 61) says: ‘In Hebron are all the sepulchres of the patriarchs, Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their wives, Eve, Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah—they suffer no Christian to enter that place except by special grace of the Sultan—and they call that aaa where they lie Double Spelunk, Double Cave, or Double Ditch, because the one lies above the other.’ (The tomb of Joseph had already been added here by the Moslems).
Nasir-I-Khussan (A.D. 1047, Diary of a Journey through Syria and Palestine), after describing the
tombs of the patriarchs, states, ‘It is said that in early times the sanctuary (at Hebron) had ne door into it, and hence that no one could come nearer to (the tombs) than the outer porch (’iwdn), whence from outside they performed their visita- tion. When, however, the (Fatemeh Khalif) Mahdi came to the throne of Egypt (A.D. 918) he gave orders that a door should be opened (into the sanctuary). The entrance door of the sanctuary is in the middle of the northern wall, and is four ells high from the ground. [Note.—This door is usually now said, at the present day, to be on the eastern side: it is actually north-east]. On either side of it are stone steps, one staircase for going up and one for coming down, and the gateway is closed by a small door.
Jelal ed-Din (A.D. 1470) says that the Moslems destroyed the Christian church in the Haram enclosure when Saladin took Hebron; this de- struction may have been only partial, as the church still exists. This author’s writings are not con- sidered as reliable as those of Mijr ed-Din.
Mijr ed-Din (A.D. 1495) speaks of the Mosque of Hebron as the work of the Greeks (Rim), by which term he may mean the Christians, i.e. the Crusaders (see BRP ii. 78). He gives an account of the ‘invention’ of the Tomb of Joseph, outside the Haram enclosure, opposite the Tomb of Jacob, in A.D. 908-932, and states that the doorway through the west Haram wall between the two tombs was pierced A.D. 1394 by Yaghmuri,
overnor of Hebron. Makrisi (followed by sae ed-Din) relates that a poor idiot boy, having fallen through the hole existing in the floor of the mosque leading down into the cave, some servants descended into the cave and rescued him. They saw a stone staircase of 18 steps which led to the Minbar.
David the Reubenite, a Jew (A.D. 1523, PE ΞΕ, 1897, p. 47), visited the Haram area at Hebron, and, on being shown the cenotaphs of the patri- archs, said, ‘These are not true; the truth is that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are in the cave under ground; and I told them to show me the cave. So I went with them, and they showed me the opening of the door of the cave in the mouth of the pit; and they let down the lamp into the pit by a rope, and from the mouth of the pit I saw the opening of the door about the height of a man, and fae convinced that it was under the cave. Then I said, This is not the opening to the cave, there is another opening; and they answered me, Yes, in ancient times the opening of the cave was in the middle of the Great Church, in which is a cenotaph of Isaac.’ They showed him this open- ing, which was shut with large stones and lead ; and they read to him a book in which it was stated that a certain king (the 2nd from Mohammed), after the Moslems had taken the sanctuary from the Christians, had built up the opening to the cave.