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_full_alt_author_running_head (neem stramien B2 voor dit chapter en dubbelklik nul hierna en zet 2 auteursnamen neer op die plek met and): 0 _full_articletitle_deel (kopregel rechts, vul hierna in): Accounts from the Holy Land, Lebanon and Syria _full_article_language: en indien anders: engelse articletitle: 0 222 Chapter 7 Chapter 7 Accounts from the Holy Land, Lebanon and Syria The 13 letters in this chapter (Accounts 7-19, inclusive) comprise detailed ac- counts of the biblical towns of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Jaffa, Acre, Nazareth, Tiberias and Safed, together with accounts of Tyre, Sarepta (Sarafand), Sidon, Cannobine, Tripoli, Mount Lebanon and Baalbek. The final letter, written from Aleppo, is a short personal note to Bishop Milles in Ireland requesting ecclesi- astical favours. The period of this correspondence spans four months, from the beginning of April until the end of July 1738. However, there is such a gap between Letters 18 and 19 (sent from Baalbek and Aleppo respectively), it is likely that a letter from Damascus is missing. This would explain why the correspondence in this collection lacks an account of the famous temples of Baalbek, which feature so prominently in Pococke’s book. JERUSALEM 2/13 April 1738 Pococke to Bishop Milles Account 71 My Lord When I landed at Joppa from Damiata I went to the house of Simon the Tanner by the sea side; which according to tradition, was where the Hospitium of the Latin Fathers now stands. Joppa is situated on the side of a hill, on the sea. It is no harbour for ships only for small boats, which are shelter’d from the weather by a ridge of rocks that run along, at some distance before the Quay. The great vessels anchor a league off, and in bad weather are often obliged to go to sea. They have a great trade here in Soap, which is made at Ramah, Lydda, and Acre, as well as at this place, and they export a great quantity of cotton in small barks to Acre, to be shipp’d off for other parts, and these barks often return loaded with soap in order to be shipped off here. It is that fine soap, which the perfumers sell in London, by the name of Sopa of Joppa, and is made of the oil 1 BL, Add MS 15779 © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004440050_008 _full_alt_author_running_head (neem stramien B2 voor dit chapter en dubbelklik nul hierna en zet 2 auteursnamen neer op die plek met and): 0 _full_articletitle_deel (kopregel rechts, vul hierna in): Accounts from the Holy Land, Lebanon and Syria _full_article_language: en indien anders: engelse articletitle: 0 Accounts from the Holy Land, Lebanon and Syria 223 of olives, in which these countrys abound, and which makes it so much excel the manefactory [sic] in our parts. All Egypt is supplied with it from hence. The most curious thing in Joppa is the manner in which they are supplied with water, which is by digging wells along the quay close by the sea side, where they have fresh water that never fails. The story of Perseus, and Andromeda is related of this place, and the grave St Jerom says that the ring remained in the rock in his time, to which she was tied. This town belongs to the Kisler Aga [Kızlar Ağası] or head of the Grand Signiors black Eunuchs, who sends a Gov- ernor to this place, who has a soldiery under him, but they can be of very little use in the country against the Arabs, because if they happen to kill any one they are obliged to pay eleven hundred Piasters; which is about £200 and six- teen changes of raiment for the blood; which the soldiers of the Grand Signor are not obliged to. A mile Eastward of Joppa on a rising ground are some signs of the founda- tion of a church; which they say was built where the house of Tabitha stood, who was raised form the dead by St Peter, and on hier festival day the Greeks celebrate the sacrament there. Ramah, called by the Arabian Ramely, is three leagures distant from Joppa, in the way to Jerusalem; and it is generally agreet that this is Arimathea, the city of that Joseph who took so much pious care of our Saviours body, and laid it in his own new tomb. There the Hospitium of the Latin Fathers is, they have an old well built chappell where the say Nicodemus had a house. There were two large churches here with well built square towers; one dedicated to St John, the other to the forty Martyrs. I have e t think that this place flourished and as much enlarged in time of the Holy war, and there are great ruines of well built arched houses. A league North East of Ramah is Lydda, where St Peter cured Eneas. Here St George the Patron of England suffer’d as a Confessor, and some say as a martyr; tho’ I think authentick history is somewhat dark in that respect. The city at that time, was called Diospolis, and Justinian built a church here to St George, which I could see by the ruins was a very fine one, and built before the good architecture, was corrupted by the Gothick taste. A King of England is men- tioned to have rebuilt or more probably repaired it; which doubtless was Rich- ard the first in the time of the Holy wars. The Greeks have the East part for a church, and the Turks the West for a Mosque having a great veneration for this Saint. The East end of the nave and of one Isle, which are in a semi circular form remain with the arches over them, and one pillar in the body of the church. It is all of fine hewn stone of excellent masonry both within and with- out. The pillars are large, square, and of the Corinthian order, with a round pillar of the same order against each side of it, and on each side of the entrance .

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