JERUSALEM was taken by Titus A.D. 70, when 1,100,000 Jews perished, and 97,000 were carried away captive.
A. D. 132, it was taken by Barchochab, who rebelled against the Romans, and claiming to be the Messiah, had 300,000 followers, and committed great slaughter.
In the year 135 it was re-taken by the Emperor Adrian, who destroyed 50 castles, 800 cities, and slew 530,000 Jews.
Constantine built many churches in Jerusalem, and favored it highly.
Julian favored the Jews, and commenced to rebuild the Temple, setting 10,000 men at work to clear Mount Moriah, intending to make it a rival of Mount Calvary; but his projects failed by special interposition of God, the workmen being driven from the foundation by balls of fire issuing therefrom and soon after, he died.
Chosroes, king of Persia, in the year 614, aided by 24,000 Jews, sacked the city, killing 90,000 Christians.
Heraclius recovered it by treaty, after defeating the king of Persia, year 628, and it remained under Roman and Christian control till the rise of the Arabian impostures.
In 637 it was taken by the Kalif Omar, who by treaty allowed the Christians a right to the holy sepulchre, and built the splendid Mosque of Omar on Mount Moriah, on the site of Solomon's Temple.
Achmet, a Turk, took it in 868.
The Kalif of Bagdad took it in 906.
Hakem of Egypt took it and burnt the church of the holy sepulchre, 1009.
Soon after, Mohammed Isched, a Seljukian Turk, conquered it.
Ortok took it in the same century.
Malek Shah next, 1076.
The successors of Ortok recovered it soon after.
The Fatimites of Egypt soon after recovered it, and burnt the Church of the holy sepulchre, which was soon rebuilt.
The Crusaders took it in 1099, slew 70,000 Mohammedans, and elected Baldwin king.
In 1187, Saladin, the Turkish sultan of Egypt, took it.
In 1192, Richard of England defeated Saladin in several great battles, with immense slaughter, and by treaty recovered the freedom of Jerusalem for the Christians.
Melek Moadin of Damascus demolished the city's walls in 1219.
In 1229, Frederick II, Emperor of Germany, with an army of 40,000 entered Jerusalem in triumph, and by treaty secured it to the Christians.
Toleration was secured for the Mohammedans in the mosque of Omar, and for the Christians in the church of El-Alsa. But this treaty was soon violated by the Turks; for David of Kerac destroyed the city and slew the most of the people; and when the Earl of Cornwall arrived, the Christians were in great oppression; but by his energy they were reinstated, by treaty, in the enjoyment of their rights, 1243.
The Sultans of the Carismains took it in 1244.
It was recovered in 1247.
It was surrendered to Bibars of Egypt, a Mameluke conquerer of Antioch, at which time he slew 40,000 and carried away captive 100,000. He besieged Acre with an army of 200,000 sacked it, and ended the kingdom of the Crusaders in Palestine.
Jerusalem was taken in 1382 by the Tartars, and yielded to Tamerlane about 1400. It soon fell under the Mamelukes of Egypt, and the Othmans took it in 1517, under Selim I. The present walls were built by his successor, Solymon the Magnificent, in 1542. The church of the holy sepulchre was burnt in 1808, and the present one built in 1810.
In 1832, Mehemet took possession of it without war, but in 1832 it revolted, in the general insurrection of Palestine, but was soon brought into subjection. In 1842 he was deprived of all his Syrian possession, and since that it has been under the Sultan of Turkey,--Russia, France and England having rights it.
Almost all nations of Europe, Asia, and Africa, have trodden Jerusalem under foot. How true the great prophecy of Christ!
(1858)