CONQUESTS OF THE SARACENS. 329 



tion; to renounce the use of saddles, arms, and 

 intoxicating liquors; to have no crosses in their 

 churches, streets, or books ; and not to ring, but 

 merely to toll, their bells. 



On the ratification of the terms, the gates were 

 thrown open, and the Moslems, with Omar and the 

 officers of the army at their head, took possession 

 of the city. The Christian patriarch entered by the 

 side of the caliph, who conversed with him fami- 

 liarly, putting many questions concerning the reli- 

 gious antiquities of the place. They visited the 

 Church of the Resurrection together ; and, at the 

 hour of prayer, the caliph declined offering his ado- 

 rations in the temple, preferring the steps of the 

 porch ; where he spread his mat, and performed his 

 devotions. 



Thus fell Jerusalem, the glory of the East, the 

 imperial seat of David and Solomon. The number 

 of the slain and the calamities of the besieg-ed were 

 greater than when taken and sacked by the legions of 

 Titus ; yet the servitude of the Romans, either in its 

 condition or its duration, was nothing in comparison 

 with the tyrannical sway of the vSa*acens, in whose 

 hands it has continued to the present day, except 

 for an interval of ninety years, when the valour of 

 the Crusaders restored it to the possession of the 

 Christians. By command of the caliph, the ground 

 on which stood the Temple of Solomon was cleared 

 of its rubbish, and prepared for the foundation of a 

 mosque, which still bears the name of Omar. 



Aleppo, the Bersea of the Greeks, had not then 

 attained the commercial celebrity of later times ; 

 but it was a place of considerable strength. The 

 castle was built on a high artificial mound, at a little 

 distance from the town. Obeidah found the inliab- 

 itants more disposed for capitulation than defence ; 

 and, in the absence of the governor, thirty of the 

 chief merchants secured their lives and rehgion at 

 a moderate composition. The surrender of the 



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