Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae

Moshe Sharon - 9789004440562 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 11:28:57AM via free access Handbook of Oriental Studies Handbuch der Orientalistik

Section 1, The Near and

Edited by Maribel Fierro (Madrid) M. Şükrü Hanioğlu (Princeton) Renata Holod (University of Pennsylvania) Florian Schwarz ()

Volume 30

Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ho1

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Volume Seven – J (2) –

Jerusalem 1

By Moshe Sharon

LEIDEN | BOSTON

Moshe Sharon - 9789004440562 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 11:28:57AM via free access The publication of this volume was supported by the Fondation Max van Berchem, . The Max van Berchem Foundation is a scientific foundation established in Geneva, , in memory of Max van Berchem (1863–1921), the founder of . Its aim is to promote the study of Islamic and Arabic archaeology, history, geography, art, epigraphy, religion and literature. It has subsidized the Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae since 1997.

The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/97019195

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ISSN 0169-9423 ISBN 978-90-04-44013-5 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-44056-2 (e-book)

Copyright 2021 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Requests for re-use and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV via brill.com or copyright.com.

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Moshe Sharon - 9789004440562 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 11:28:57AM via free access To Judy Always at my side encouraging, helping and caring

Moshe Sharon - 9789004440562 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 11:28:57AM via free access Moshe Sharon - 9789004440562 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 11:28:57AM via free access CONTENTS

Foreword ...... ix Acknowledgements ...... xii List of Plates ...... xiii Max van Berchem ...... xv

Addenda ...... 1 ...... 21

Bibliography ...... 311 General Index ...... 319 Index of Qurʾānic Verses ...... 325 List of Inscriptions according to Sites ...... 327 Figures Addenda ...... 329 Inscriptions ...... 339 ...... 413 Sites ...... 439

Moshe Sharon - 9789004440562 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 11:28:57AM via free access Moshe Sharon - 9789004440562 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 11:28:57AM via free access FOREWORD

The seventh volume of the CIAP dedicated to the inscriptions of Jerusalem during the first five centuries of the Islamic rule, follows the groundbreaking volumes of Max van Berchem’s Matériaux pour un Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum (MCIA), deux- ième partie, Syrie du Sud, tome premier Jérusalem “Ville”, tome deuxième Jérusalem “Ḥaram”, tome troisième Jérusalem “Planches.” The references to the Jerusalem vol- umes are “CIA 1”, “CIA 2,” and “CIA 3”. The reference to the first volume of the MCIA dedicated to (Première partie Égypte, 1903) is “CIA 1, Egypt.” Where there is no reference to the CIA or to any other publication, it means that the inscription is new and unedited. However, an inscription, which van Berchem recorded but did not include, for some reason, in the CIA, is treated as published, and the reference to it will be “Publication: MvB” combined with the reference to its place in van Berchem’s archives. In his volumes on the inscriptions of Jerusalem, van Berchem divided his study of the epigraphic material according to sites. He first divided the material into two parts, the first 143 inscriptions in the first volume are the inscriptions found in the city itself, outside the Ḥaram (Ville) and the ones found in the Ḥaram (nos. 144 to 300) make up the second volume (Ḥaram). He divided this volume into three parts according to the major monuments; first the inscriptions found in, or next to the es- planade of the sanctuary with its relatively minor sites, followed by the inscriptions of the Dome of the Rock (Ṣakhrah) and finally the inscriptions of the Aqṣā mosque. I followed a different method. Since the inscriptions in the whole CIAP are ar- ranged according to chronological order, the inscriptions of Jerusalem are also ar- ranged chronologically. A special index is attached that indicates the site of each inscription. I made a point to refer to the work of van Bercham, and particularly to his rich scholarly apparatus, which enabled me to limit my notes to the main refer- ences, so that the reader is always exposed to his work. Unlike other sites, Jerusalem has been the object of endless studies which have covered every possible aspect of the holy city. I therefore did not engage myself with writing a long dissertation on it, and preferred to deal with the issues emerging from the particular study of each inscription which put the reader into the historical con- text of each individual inscription. Following the method used in this Corpus (and van Berchem’s), the inscriptions are always studied against their historical, cultural, linguistic and theological context. The sum total of these studies adds up to a clearer

Moshe Sharon - 9789004440562 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 11:28:57AM via free access x Foreword understanding of Jerusalem under the Muslims. Like in most of the previous vol- umes, this volume also begins with a section of Addenda to volumes 2, 3, 5, and 6 followed by the main Corpus.

This is an opportunity to thank Dr. Necati Alkan for his contribution to the Turkish material in the Addenda. His work is acknowledged in situ. For many years now, my long-time student and colleague Dr. Ami M. Schrager has always been a great help to me, and many times has contributed his keen eye and excellent familiarity with the computer to solve reading and bibliographical problems, concurrently proving him- self a professional epigrapher with independent research qualities. Thanks are due to my colleagues who are always ready to answer questions relating to their fields of expertise: Reuven Amitai, Albert Arazi, Joshua Blau, Amikam Elad, Isaac Hasson, Yohanan Friedman, Benjamin Z. Kedar and the late Bernard Lewis, my teacher and longtime friend, who passed away during the preparation of this volume. Much help was extended by Ms. Sylvia Krapiwko, the custodian of the archives of the IAA, who did not spare time or effort when asked to provide visual material for the Corpus. I could not carry out the work on the CIAP without the financial support of the Fondation Max van Berchem in Geneva and without the availability of the van Berchem archives and the friendly attitude and encouragement of Professor Charles Genequand and Mrs. Antoinette Harri who has always been available to contribute her professional support which makes my work in the van Berchem archives for more than 20 years fruitful and enjoyable. I must emphasize that I was particularly encouraged when the Académie des inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, , acknowl- edged my work and awarded me a prize for volume 6 of the Corpus. The constant encouragement of E.J. Brill, my faithful publishers that always drive me to supply them with yet another new volume of the Corpus, is always a source of pride. Their professional production of the CIAP is a masterpiece. I cannot but recall with great sadness that this volume of the Corpus has been written the second time over. It had been already composed, and nearly ready for publication in 1987, the year of my return with my family from a sabbatical in South Africa. The complete volume on Jerusalem was supposed to be the first volume of the Corpus. It was all hand-written and the photographs of the inscriptions and sites were on paper (fortunately I had negatives of the photographs). By mistake, the hand-written material was put into the container with all our belongings and sent by boat to Eilat. After safe arrival, the container was stolen. The household goods were plundered, and the pages of the Corpus were scattered and blown away by the winter wind, and destroyed by the rain and mud. There was no copy. This vol- ume, however, is not an exact replica of the lost one because in the many years that

Moshe Sharon - 9789004440562 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 11:28:57AM via free access Foreword xi have elapsed since 1987 many more inscriptions have been discovered and I have changed the method of publication and in the over thirty years since then, I have created a new, solid method of research and publication. My wife Judy accompanies me at every stage of this project, her encouragement, and professional contribution as proofreader accompany the birth of each one of its volumes.

Moshe Sharon Jerusalem, December 2020

Moshe Sharon - 9789004440562 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 11:28:57AM via free access ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The research on the Arabic inscriptions in Palestine is carried out under the aus- pices of Israel Academy for Sciences and Humanities that also extends its financial support to the project. The research project and its publication Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae are sponsored, and financially supported by the Fondation Max van Berchem in Geneva. The foundation has granted permission to use its archives and publish information and photographs from Max van Berchem’s files and carnets. The Palestine Exploration Fund, London, opened its archives and gave permission for the usage of material relevant for this project. The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has given permission to use its archives and publish information as well as original photographs of both locations and in- scriptions in its possession. Thanks are due to the Muslim waqf authorities for helping me in the 1970s to survey the whole Ḥaram and examine all its major and minor shrines. I was able to climb the scaffolding built inside the Dome of the Rock and examine closely the inscription (see the photograph lower down). I entered via a small door in the outer dome and walked in the space between the outer (golden) and inner (wooden) cupolas of the Ṣakhrah searching for inscribed wooden rafters. Among the architectural remnants that were scattered, at that time, in a few places on the Ḥaram, and in the Islamic Museum, there were also two copper inscriptions (on wooden boards) kept in one of the minor shrines that had been removed from the northern and eastern gates of the Ṣakhrah. I was able to touch and closely study, record, and photograph them. Mardo Nalbandian of Jerusalem provided photography services to the CIAP, and supplied excellent photographs of the mosaic inscription in the Dome of the Rock.

Moshe Sharon - 9789004440562 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 11:28:57AM via free access LIST OF PLATES

Pl. 01. Bāqah al-Ḥaṭab 172 ...... 2 Pl. 02. Oil lamp ...... 5 Pl. 03. Dayr al-Ḥaṭab fragment of a construction text ...... 7 Pl. 04. Fīq, reconstruction text of Khān al-ʿAqabah ...... 9 Pl. 05. Iʿbillīn 1178–1180 ...... 12 Pl. 06. Iʿbillīn 1188 ...... 14 Pl. 07. 1215 ...... 15 Pl. 08. Jaffa 1243 ...... 17 Pl. 09. Jaffa, Mid-19th century ...... 17 Pl. 10. Jaffa 1266, 1343. Construction text ...... 19 Pl. 11. Jerusalem, Inscription from the Negev ...... 32 Pl. 12. Jerusalem 32, the mosque ...... 34 Pl. 13. Jerusalem 32 ...... 35 Pl. 14. Morone da Maleo’s Terra Santa. The 1669 original ch. XIV pp. 81–82 ...... 45 Pl. 15. Dimensions of the ḥaram ...... 56 Pl. 16. Jerusalem 72 DOR. By permission of the Royal Asiatic Society copied from JRAS 1970 ...... 63 Pl. 17. Jerusalem. Maʾmūn’s‌ mutilation ...... 78 Pl. 17a. Jerusalem Ma‌ʾmūn’s mutilation and ʿAbd al-Malik reconstructed original following MvB ...... 78 Pl. 18. The Kathismah ...... 81 Pl. 19. The open mosque in Beʾer Orah in the Negev (slightly reconstructed) ...... 84 Pl. 20. Beʾer Orah mosque excavated ...... 85 Pl. 21. ʿAbd al-Malik’s dirham minted in Baṣrah in the year 81/700 showing script similar to that of the copper inscriptions ...... 99 Pl. 22. Jerusalem c. 105/723 ...... 113 Pl. 23. Jerusalem 105: Silver coin (dirham) of Walīd b. ʿAbd al-Malik ...... 114 Pl. 24. MvB 223 ...... 115 Pl. 25. MvB 220 ...... 117 Pl. 26. Jerusalem c. 200/815–16 – Epitaph. Photo Courtesy IAA ...... 120 Pl. 27. Jerusalem c. 200 ...... 124

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Pl. 28. Jerusalem 250 ...... 129 Pl. 29. MvB 238 and 238R ...... 131 Pl. 30. Jerusalem 261–269 (copy of CIA 1, fig. 5) ...... 133 Pl. 31. Jerusalem 297 and the cut away from the full inscription of the parallel fragment ...... 135 Pl. 31a. Filasṭīn 297 full inscription. The fragment belongs to an inscription that looked exactly like this one ...... 135 Pl. 32. MvB 222 ...... 144 Pl. 33. Jerusalem 301 ...... 149 Pl. 34. Ramlah 306 ...... 151 Pl. 35. Jerusalem 301 (courtesy IAA) ...... 154 Pl. 36. Jerusalem 301c ...... 156 Pl. 37. Jerusalem 302 (courtesy Oded Golan) ...... 158 Pl. 38. MvB 219 Jerusalem 305 ...... 164 Pl. 39. Plan of the Ḥaram in the 12-century Legend (after Le Strange) ...... 186 Pl. 40. Squeeze no. MvB 228. 350/961–962 ...... 192 Pl. 41. MvB 85b, 85c Jerusalem 351–359 ...... 201 Pl. 42. Jerusalem 400: Shahādah ...... 224 Pl. 43. Jerusalem, Ṣakhrah, 413 (From de Vogüé) ...... 245 Pl. 44. Inscription 418 in situ ...... 252 Pl. 45. Jerusalem 418. De Vogüé’s drawing and present condition ...... 253 Pl. 46. MvB squeeze 226a+b ...... 257 Pl. 47. Inscription above the “triumphal arch” under the ceiling. (Courtesy IAA) ...... 264 Pl. 48. Jerusalem 426. Detail, end of the inscription (Photo courtesy: IAA) ...... 265 Pl. 49. Jerusalem 450. Top, inscription. Bottom, Hussieni’s details and reading ...... 280 Pl. 50. Jerusalem 477 Miḥrāb Zakariyyāʾ, present location ...... 297 Pl. 51. Jerusalem 518 IAA Report (erroneous reading and translation) ...... 301 Pl. 52. Jerusalem 588 ...... 308

Moshe Sharon - 9789004440562 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 11:28:57AM via free access MAX VAN BERCHEM

ذ َ َ ُ نَ ُ ُ � � ا ا ل�م ءُ ل ��د ��� �م� نَ ا �ل��ل ؤ �ع ض ��هُ إِ ر م ي س ِ � �ِم ِ ر� ف َ ُ ُ ّ َ َ َ ُ � � د ا ء � ت د ه � م � � � ك � ل ِ ر ٍ ي ر � � ي � � ِ ج ي ل There is no question that we owe thanks, gratitude and admiration to Max van Berchem; for he is, without a doubt, the pioneer and founder of the scholarly field of the study of Arabic epigraphy. He created the method according to which Arabic inscriptions should be studied in context, that is to say against their historical, geo- graphical, cultural, linguistic, and paleographical background. His masterpieces Matériaux pour un Corpus Incriptionum Arabicarum (MCIA) on Egypt and Jerusalem are pure demonstrations of what scholarship should be. The staggering number of inscriptions which he recorded and published is amazing, particularly if one takes into consideration that he died at the age of 58. He aimed high, because he regarded the material for the MCIA as part of a grand project of collecting and publishing all the inscriptions found in the Arab, and probably the Islamic world. He felt that these monuments are continually exposed to destruction. In addition to his three massive volumes of the MCIA, he published many more inscriptions which he collected during his travels in the Middle East and Asia Minor. These studies were collected and re-published in the two volumes of the Opera Minora by the Fondation Max van Berchem with an excellent index composed by Professor Charles Genequand (Edition Slatkine, Geneva, 1978). Many records of in- scriptions collected by van Berchem are preserved in the archives of the Fondation. These include the beginnings of studies on sheets of papers in his handwriting, usu- ally the reading of the inscriptions and their description copied from the carnet, which he used on the spot, and some preliminary notes. The inscriptions themselves were recorded according to three methods: hand copy by van Berchem, photocopy when one of these 19th century early cameras was available, and mainly squeezes (estampage, abklatsch). Getting near an inscription in order to prepare a squeeze put van Berchem many times in real danger, when he had to climb, unprotected in any way, on very long ladders between six to twelve-metres-long as we see in the attached photograph taken in 1914. We see him after climbing to the top end of the long ladder, in order to take a squeeze of an inscription high on the north wall of the Ḥaram. There are a few people standing near the bottom of the ladder engaged

Moshe Sharon - 9789004440562 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 11:28:57AM via free access xvi Max van Berchem in conversation; none of them, except for the curious children, seem to pay atten- tion to the Franjī on top, and nobody holds the ladder which could easily collapse to one side. As for van Berchem, half his body is hanging out to the right and both hands are busy sticking the wet squeeze paper onto the inscription.

Max van Berchem on a ladder

In one case, according to his testimony, he wanted to examine the rafters on the roof of the octagon of the Dome of the Rock when the place was in darkness, about 10 to 12 metres above the ground, and he had to jump over the wide space between the rafters. It was a miracle, he says, that he managed not to fall, probably to his death. (See below no. 36.) When he wanted to examine the long inscription in the Dome of the Rock from the outer ambulatory, he climbed a 12-meter ladder again without any

Moshe Sharon - 9789004440562 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 11:28:57AM via free access Max van Berchem xvii support or minimal safety device. The danger was always there, whether in Jerusalem, in or in other parts of Syria, because most of the inscriptions he recorded on squeezes needed physical contact between the hands of the squeeze maker and the inscription. Many of these inscriptions were at a great height and a good ladder was very rare. The squeezes are stored in the MvB archives in Geneva. For many years I have been working on these squeezes, registering them and attaching an initial read- ing and identification to each one. The first eighty squeezes were published in an addendum to the CIAP in 2007. The rest of the squeezes are stored electronically and can easily be traced according to the running number which appears in red on each squeeze. The amount of material left in van Berchem’s files and squeezes is stunning and had he lived longer there is no question that all this material would have been pub- lished according to his original vision of the universal corpus of Arabic inscriptions. His daughter Marguerite Gautier van Berchem composed a short biography of her father based on his memoires and documents, particularly his letters to his mother covering the period from 1871 to 1910. (Marguerite Gautier-van Berchem et Solange Ory, La Jérusalem Musulmane dans l’oeuvre de Max van Berchem. Lausanne, Editions de Trois Continents 1978: 15–23). In homage to this great scholar I feel that I should pay him a debt of honour and introduce this volume of the CIAP on Jerusalem with a summary of his biography. He was born in Geneva on March 16 1863. In 1877 when he was thirteen years old he entered a gymnasium in , and two years later, after graduating, he went to Leipzig, at that time the great centre of oriental studies, where he received his doctorate maxima cum laude in March 1886, at the age of 23. Afterwards we meet him in the universities of and Berlin impressing the scholars there and particularly his patron Edward Sachau. The trend in oriental studies at the time was the history and arche- ology of the Arabic civilization to which he decided to dedicate himself, once he had acquired perfect knowl- edge of Arabic. At the end of that same year, 1886, and accompanied by his mother, the young scholar trav- elled to Egypt, and there for the first time he came into contact with the treasures that Cairo could offer. This was the beginning of his career on the ground. The diary of his mother notes day by day the work of her son. It was then that he decided to study Arabic epig- raphy. When they returned to Europe in 1887, the idea of the large project of the Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum was already born in his mind. At the beginning of 1888 he arrived again in Cairo with his brother Victor to prepare his trip to Syria. After lengthy

Moshe Sharon - 9789004440562 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 11:28:57AM via free access xviii Max van Berchem preparations, on 23 March 1888 they departed by train to Ismailiyah and thereafter to Port Sa’id on their way to Syria. An Egyptian dragoman, efficient and loyal, looked after the logistics of this trip which, in addition to the recorded inscriptions, sup- plied the material for his future two-volume book describing his Syrian adventure, the main material for which he collected many years later. (see below). From Port Sa’id, van Berchem’s company boarded a French boat to Jaffa and on the 26 of March they were on their way to Jerusalem. On 29 March, the van Berchem brothers arrived in Jerusalem. He described his first encounter with the Holy City in a letter to his mother which he wrote “sous les murs de Jérusalem” on that same day. “I am writing this letter to you not knowing when it will reach you. We made a contract for 45 days with a good dragoman called Daibas Fadoul, who was charged with furnishing us with everything for the voyage: tents, food, beds, canteen, a cook, beasts of burden and for riding etc., for 200 francs a day that is to say 50 francs per head.” (They were four Europeans in the caravan: Max, Victor and two Venetian gentlemen). It is inter- esting to learn about the company that was involved, showing how complicated it was at the time to embark on such a trip. “Our caravan was composed of 20 mules for baggage and encampment, 7 to 8 horses, we four, the dragoman, one cook, and one domestic aid to the cook, another domestic, and the leaders of the beasts of burden.” At the age of twenty-five (picture above on the left) he saw Jerusalem for the first time. Initially, when he first saw its walls he was disappointed, which he later regretted. The man who thereafter dedicated most his life to Jerusalem, left for us the following description of the city in the same letter to his mother, the begin- ning of which I quoted above. “We encamped in the place in which the Crusaders camped for the first time … Yesterday and today (Thursday) we saw the city: the Ḥaram ash-Shérif, Mosque of al-Aksa, on the site of the old Temple, the Holy Sepulchre, the ruins of the Hospital of St. John, the city walls, the Kidron, the Hinnom, Siloa, the tombs, the citadel. What can I tell you about Jerusalem?… I saw things that are very beautiful, but nothing very striking. Its streets are narrow, wind- ing uphill. Its houses all built with stone, tattered, full of picturesque recesses be- striding the streets on somber arcades. It is a mixture of all the styles, of all times, the souvenirs of Jews, Greeks, Romans, Christians, Muslims. The churches of the Middle Ages next to the mosque; all this encircled by a great wall of stones perched on a mountain between two deep ravines with the background of blue mountains: the sky of Italy and a sun of the orient. In the streets one meets all the nations, people who came from all corners of the world united here by the same religious thinking (dans une méme penseée religiouse) but separated by manners and ideas.” Further on van Berchem enumerates all the non-Muslim religious communities in Jerusalem according to the quarters in which they live. The Christians: Greek

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(Orthodox), Latin (Catholics), Armenian, and the Jews who keep to themselves in their southern quarter and are recognized by their headgear and sidelocks. This first meeting with Jerusalem was short but it gave van Berchem the opportunity to get acquainted with the city and its monuments. He copied and registered some in- scriptions and photographed a few on glass negatives, before he left the city. The caravan quitted Jerusalem after touring its environment and reached on 24 May 1888 after three weeks of riding through Syria. He left a very vivid description of the route and the inhabitants whom he met on the way, in a letter to his mother. Once in Damascus he described the city and its monuments in great detail. He also drew a plan of the city, thus giving us a good idea of the Syrian capital in that period. Between 1889 to 1890, van Berchem concentrated on Egypt where he travelled fre- quently. In 1891 at the age of 28 he got married to Elizabeth de Saugy and in 1892 the young couple travelled to Cairo where they spent the winter. In that same year, hav- ing been three times in the orient and collecting a large amount of epigraphic and other material, van Berchem issued an alarming call to the scholars of the world: “The Muslim monuments are neglected, their ruins, still magnificent, soon will be but vestiges of their glorious artistic past. Their historical inscriptions will disap- pear. They should all be surveyed, all the texts engraved on mosques, tombstones, caravanserais, madrasas, the castles and the bridges. (There is a need) to photograph the monuments, explore all the Muslim regions, study all the mobile objects which adorn museums or are in private collections and publish these texts systematically in a fashion that will provide a lively commentary on the Muslim institutions.” On 2 March 1893 van Berchem and his wife embarked in for Jaffa. They spent some time in Ramlah, where he collected many inscriptions, and continued from there to Jerusalem, this time by the newly built railway which connected Jaffa with Jerusalem. In the three weeks that they spent in Jerusalem, van Berchem re- corded more than one hundred inscriptions working mainly in the Ḥaram, taking squeezes, photographing and copying, accompanied by a kawas and a soldier as- signed to him by the Ottoman authorities. At the end of March, the van Berchem couple travelled to Damascus. At the end of a fifteen days stay in the Umayyad capital, his collection of in- scriptions was greatly enriched. These inscriptions he would later publish in several articles. A few weeks after the return of the couple to Geneva in May 1893, Mrs. van Berchem died. Terribly affected by the death of his young wife, van Berchem stopped working for a while. In the end, however, summoning up all his inner powers he resumed his work and in spring 1894 he left for Alexandria where he embarked again for Jaffa. From

Moshe Sharon - 9789004440562 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 11:28:57AM via free access xx Max van Berchem there he went to Jerusalem on 10 May 1894, this time to work on the inscriptions of the city, after spending ten days touring the Ḥaram again. In 1895 during the months of April, May and June, he toured Syria on horseback with Edmond Fatio, a Genevan architect. This tour yielded his two-volume itinerary, Voyage en Syrie, which was published only some twenty years later. Eighteen years elapsed without van Berchem being seen in the Orient. These were years of hard and intensive work, travelling in Europe participating in congresses, spending time in Paris. There, on 31 March 1913 he was admitted as a corresponding member to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, that became the patron of the publication of the Corpus. At the age of 50 (picture above on the left) he was the youngest associate foreign member of this most prestigious academy. At the end of 1913 he travelled to where he met his colleague and friend Halil Edhem the director of the Ottoman Museums, who helped him with the official ar- rangements for his work in Jerusalem. After returning to Geneva, in February 1914 he departed for Cairo and was later joined by his second wife and her sister. On 1 April 1914 they left Egypt for Jerusalem by boat and train. With the help of the Dominican priests of the École Biblique he resumed his work in the city and in the Ḥaram, always accompanied by a soldier and an Ottoman official. He reviewed all the inscriptions which he had registered during his previous stays in the city in 1888, 1892, 1893, and 1894, and those which he had discovered since then, making an effort that nothing should escape him. When he left for Europe a few weeks later he had the feeling that his work “on the ground” was complete and that what remained was the composition of the Corpus of Jerusalem. With the clouds of war on the horizon it was clear his work would suffer, particularly when the war actually broke out. He was mobilized for a few months to the Swiss army, and when released he returned to Geneva to resume his work, but his heart was not in it. He wrote to his pupil and friend in Germany: “My wonderful material about Jerusalem is in front of me and I do not get around to work on it.” In spite of that he completed the Corpus, but the man was weakened, worn out. After a few months of intense work his health gave way. He died on 7 March 1921, just nine days before his 58th birthday. The Corpus of Jerusalem, the crown of his scholarly work was born! The reaction to his death came from all over the scholarly world. “He departed to his celestial Jerusalem” wrote Herzfeld, and Jaussen added “It is true to say that he succumbed on the walls of the Holy City.” This and the other volumes of the CIAP follow in his footsteps, use his methods of research and rely on his wonder-ful work.

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Scaffolding prepared in 1970 to enable reading of the long inscription in the Dome of the Rock. In spite of the better conditions, I still had to climb to the top of the scaffolding on a ladder not much different from the one on which van Berchem climbed 56 years earlier

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