244 
monument of architecture, which ought to interest the 
learned, whether followers of Moses, or Jesus Christ, 
or of Mouhhammed. 
As a constant friend to truth, I ought to premise, 
that I had only time to make five visits to the Temple; 
these were however long, and so well employed, that I 
can certify the accuracy of my descriptions and draw- 
ings, without, however, laying claim to geometrical 
precision in all the details. 
El Haram, or The Temple, called also Beit el 
Mok q ddes e Scherif, or the principal holy house in Je- 
rusalem, is an union of several buildings erected at dif- 
ferent periods of Islamism, which bear upon them 
demonstrative proofs of the prevailing taste of the vari- 
ous ages when they were severally constructed. They 
form however a very harmonious whole. 
It is not precisely one mosque, but a group of 
mosques; its name in Arabic (El Haram,) strictly sig- 
nifies a Temple or place consecrated by the peculiar 
presence of the Divinity; the profane and the infidels 
are forbidden to enter it. The Mussulman religion ac- 
knowledges but two temples, that of Mecca, and that 
of Jerusalem; both are named El Haram; both are 
equally prohibited by the law to Christians, Jews, and 
every other person who is not a Mussulman. The 
mosques in Arabic are named El Djammaa, or the 
place of Assembly; they are respectable places it is true, 
but they are not consecrated by the especial presence 
of the Divinity. Entrance into them is not prohibited 
to infidels by any canonical precept; the people, how- 
ever, do not like to see strangers in them, nor can the 
latter enter them except by virtue of an order from a 
public authority; for even at Constantinople Christians 
enter the mosque of St. Sophia, and the other mosques^ 
