It was at Joppa, on the house-top of Simon the tan- ner, "by the sea-side" — with the view therefore cir- cumscribed on the east by the high ground on which the town stood, but commanding a boundless prospect over the western waters — that the apostle Peter had his " vision of tolerance," as it has been happilj^ designated, and -went forth like a second Perseus — but from the east to emancipate, from still worse thraldom, the vir- gin daughter of the west. The Christian poet Arator has not failed to discover a mystical connection between the raising to life of the aged Tabitha — the occasion of Peter's visit to Joppa — and the baptism of the first Gentile household {De Act. Aposiol. I. 840, ap. Migne, Patrol Curs. Compl. Ixviii, 164).
In the 4th century Eusebius calls Joppa a city (Ono- mast. s. V.) ; and it was then made the seat of a bishop- ric, an honor which it retained till the conquest of the country by the Saracens (Reland,p. 808; S. Paul, Geogr. Sac. p. 305) : the subscriptions of its prelates are pre- ser\'ed in the acts of various synods of the 5tn and 6th centuries (Le Quien, Oriens Christian, iii, 029). Joppa has been the landing-place of pilgrims going to Jerusa- lem for more than a thousand years, from Arculf in the 7th century to his royal highness the prince of Wales in the 19th, and it is mentioned in almost all the itin- eraries and books of travel in the Holy Land which have appeared in different languages {Earl// Travels in Pal. p. 10, 34, 142, 286). None of the earty travellers, how- ever, give anj^explicit description of the place. Dur- ing the Crusades Joppa was several times taken and retaken by Franks and Saracens. It had been taken possession of by the forces of Godfrey de Bouillon pre- viously to the capture of Jerusalem. The town had been "deserted, and was allowed to fall into ruin, the Crusaders contenting themselves with possession of the citadel (William of I'yre, Hist, viii, 9); and it was in part assigned subsequently for the support of the Church of the Kesurrection {ibirl. ix, 16), though there seem to have been bishops of Joppa (perhaps only titular after all) between A.D. 1253 and 13G3 (Le Quien, 1291 ; compare p. 1241). Saladin, in A.D. 1188, destroyed its fortifications (Sanut. Secret. Fid. Criicis, lib. iii, part x, c. 5) ; but Richard of England, who was confined here by sickness, rebuilt them {ibid., and Richard of Devizes in Bohn's .4 nt. Lib. p. 61). Its last occupation by Chris- tians was that of St. Louis, A.D. 1253, and when he came it was still a city and governed by a count. " Of the immense sums," says Joinville, " which it cost the king to inclose Jaffa, it does not become me to speak, for I they were coimtless. He inclosed the town from one I side of the sea to the other; and there were twenty-
JOFFA
1004
JORDAN
four towers, including smaU and great. The ditches were weU scoured, and l<;ept clean, both within and without There were three gates" (Chron. of Cms. p. 495 Bohn). So restored, it fell into the hands of the sultans of Egypt, together with the rest of Palestine, by whom it was once more laid in ruins ; so much so that Birtrand de la Brocquiere, visiting it about the middle of the loth century, states that it then consisted oulv of a few tents covered with reeds, having been a strong place under the Christians. Guides, accredited by tire sultan, here met the pUgrims and received the customarv tribute from them : and here the papal in- (hil^ences offered to pilgrims commenced (Early Trav- e/*, p. 280). Finally, Jaffa fell under the Turks, in whose hands it still is, exhibiting the usual decrepitude of the cities possessed by them, and depending on Christian commerce for its feeble existence. During the period of their rule it has been three times sacked — by the Arabs in 1722, by the iMamelukes in 1775, and lastly by Napoleon I in 1799, when a body of •4000 Albanians, who held a strong position in the town, surrendered on promise of having their lives spared. Yet the whole 4000 were afterwards pinioned and shot on the strand ! When Napoleon was compelled to retreat to Egypt, be- tween 400 and 500 French soldiers lay ill of the plague in the hospitals of Joppa. They could not be removed, and Napoleon ordered them to be poisoned '. (Porter, Ihmlbook for S.and P. p. 288).
3. Di-scription.—Yafa is the modern name of Joppa, and is identical with the old Hebrew Japlio. It con- tains about 5000 inhabitants, of whom 1000 are Chris- tians, about 150 Jews, and the rest iMoslems, It is beautifully situated on a little rounded hiU, dipping on the west "into the waves of the Mediterranean, and on the laud side encompassed by orchards of orange, lemon, apricot, and other trees, which for luxuriance and beau- ty are not surpassed in the world. They extend for several miles across the great plain. Like most Orien- tal towns, however, it looks best in the distance. The liouses are huddled together without order; the streets are narrow, crooked, and filthy; the town is so crowded along the steep sides of the hill that the rickety dwell- ings in the upper part seem to be toppling over on the Hat roofs of those below. Tlie most prominent features of the architecture from without are the flattened domes by which most of the buildings are surmounted, and the appearance of arched vaults. But the aspect of the wliole is mean and gloomy, and inside the place has all the appearance of a poor though large village. From tlie steepness of the site many of the streets are con- nected by flights of steps, and the one that runs along tlie sea-wall is the most clean aiid regular of the whole. Tliere are three mosques in Joppa, and Latin, Greek, and Armenian convents. The former is that in which European pilgrims and travellers usually lodge. The bazaars are worth a visit. The chief manufacture is soap. It lias no port, and it is only under favorable circumstances of wind and weather that vessels can ride at anchor a mile or so from the shore. There is a place on the shore which is called "the har- bor." It consists of a strip of water from fifteen to twenty yards wide and two or three deep, inclosed on the sea side by a ridge of l(nv and jiartially sunken rocks. It may afford a little shelter to boats, but it is worse tlian useless so far as commerce is concerned. The town is defended by a wall, on which a few old guns are mounted. Witli the exception of a few broken columns scattered about the streets, and through the gardens on the southern slope of the hill, and the large stones in the foundations of the castle, Joppa has no re- mains of antiquity; and none of its modern buildings, not even the reputed " house of Simon the tanner," which the monks show, arc Avorthy of note, although the locality of the last is not badly chosen (Stanley, S. and P. p. ica, 274 ; and see Seddoii's Memoir, p. 86, 185). The town has still a considerable trade as the port of Jerusalem. The oranges of Jaffa arc the finest in all