1009: Adémar of Chabannes on the Destruction of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem: Difference between revisions

Walker, Paul E.: al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh, in: ''Encyclopaedia of Islam THREE, ''URL:[http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_30213 http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_30213], accessed 09.04.2021.|8=al-Ḥākim, Anti-Judaism, Antisemitism, Apocalypse bathing culture, Bedouins, persecution, Christian-Muslim festivals, ''ḏimmī'', ''dhimmī'', Fatimids, church of the Holy Sepulchre, interreligious, Jews, monastery of St Catherine of Mount Sinai, monasticism, pilgrimage, syncretism, conspiracy theory, destruction, ''zunnār''|3a=''Ipso anno sepulchrum Domini Hierosolimis confractum est a Judeis et Sarracenis, III° kalendas octobris millesimo X° anno ab incarnatione ejus. Nam Judei occidentales et Sarraceni Hispanie miserunt epistolas in Orientem, accusantes Christianos et mandantes exercitus Francorum super Sarracenos orientales commotos esse. Tunc Nabuchodonosor Babilonie, quem vocant Admiratum, concitatus suasu paganorum in iram, afflictionem non parvam in Christianos exercuit, deditque legem ut quicumque christiani de sua potestate nollent fieri Sarraceni, aut confiscarentur aut interficerentur. ''|3b=''Unde factum est ut innumerabiles christianorum converterentur ad legem Sarracenam, et nemo pro Christo morte dignus fuit preter patriarcham Jherosolimorum, qui variis suppliciis occisus est, et duos adolescentes germanos in Egipto, qui decollati sunt et multis claruerunt miraculis. Nam ecclesia Sancti Georgii, que actenus a nullo Sarracenorum potuit violari, tunc destructa est cum aliis multis ecclesiis sanctorum, et peccatis nostris promerentibus, basilica sepulchri Domini usque ad solum diruta. Lapidem Monumenti cum nullatenus possent comminuere, ignem copiosum superadiciunt, sed quasi adamans immobilis mansit et solidus.Bethleemiticam ecclesiam, ubi Christus natus est, cum niterentur destruere, subito apparuit eis lux fulgurans, et omnis multitudo paganorum corruens exspiravit, et sic ecclesia Dei genitricis intacta remansit. Ad monasterium quoque montis Sinai, ubi quingenti et eo amplius monachi sub imperio abbatis manebant, habentes ibidem proprium episcopum, venerunt Sarracenorum decem milia armatorum, ut monachos perimentes habitacula eorum cum ecclesiis diruerent. Propinquantes autem a quatuor fere milibus, conspiciunt totum montem ardentem et fumantem, flammasque in celum ferri, et cuncta ibi posita cum hominibus manere illesa. ''|3c=''Quod cum renunciassent regi Babilonio, penitencia ductus tam ipse quam populus Sarracenus valde doluerunt de his quae contra Christianos egissent, et data preceptione, jussit reaedificari basilicam Sepulchri gloriosi. Tamen redincepta basilica, non fuit amplius similis priori nec pulchritudine nec magnitudine quam Helena mater Constantini regali sumptu perfecerat. Mox e vestigo super omnem terram Sarracenorum fames incanduit per tres annos, et innumerabilis eorum multitudo fame mortua est, ita ut plateae et deserta cadaveribus replerentur, et fierent homines cibum et sepultura feris et avibus. Secuta est eos gladii vastitas. Nam gentes Arabiae super terram eorum diffuse sunt, et qui remanserant fame, gladiis interierunt. Captus est ab eis rex Babilonius, qui se contra Deum erexerat in superbiam, et vivus, ventro dissecto, visceribusque extractis, impiam animam ad baratrum projecit. Venter ejus, lapidibus oppletus, consutus est, et cadaver, ligato plumbo ad collum, in mare demersum est. ''|4a=In the same year, the sepulchre of the Lord in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Jews and Saracens, on the third calends of October in the year 1010 since his Incarnation. This was because the western Jews and the Saracens of Spain had sent letters to the Orient accusing the Christians of having raised a Frankish army and to have this army come upon the Saracens in the Orient. Greatly angered by this information from the pagans, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, whom they refer to as Admiratus, then inflicted not a little misery on the Christians and issued a law according to which all Christians under his rule unwilling to become Saracens would either be dispossessed or killed.|4b=Hence it happened that countless Christians converted to the Saracen law, and no one was worthy to die for Christ except the patriarch of the Jerusalemites, who was put to death in an agonising manner, and two young men in Egypt, who were brothers, were beheaded and [later] shone in many miraculous manifestations. Finally, the church of St. George, which no Saracen had yet succeeded in desecrating, was destroyed, as were many other churches of the saints, and the church of the Lord's sepulchre was pulled down to the ground because of our sins. [But] they were unable to break the stone of the sepulchre in any way, although they laid a great fire, but it remained immovable and firm as diamond. When they endeavoured to destroy the church in Bethlehem, where Christ was born, a dazzling light suddenly appeared to them, and the whole multitude of the heathen collapsed and died, and so the church of Our Lady remained unharmed. Also at the monastery on Mount Sinai, where more than five-thousand monks were staying under the leadership of the abbot, and where they had their own bishop, ten-thousand Saracens came with weapons to kill the monks and destroy their cells and churches. But when they had come within about four miles, they saw the whole mountain glowing and smoking, and the flames reached up to heaven. But all that was there, with the people, remained unharmed.|4c=When this was reported to the king of Babylon, he and all the Saracen people repented of what they had done to the Christians, and he issued a decree to rebuild the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in all its splendour. But the rebuilt church did not remotely resemble that of the first one which Helena, Constantine's mother, had built with royal funds, in its beauty and grandeur. Shortly afterwards, a famine that lasted for three years took the whole country of the Saracens, and countless of them died of starvation, so that the roads and the desert were filled with corpses, and the people found their burial as food for the wild beasts and birds. This was followed by destructions of the sword, for the nations of Arabia spread over their territory, and those who had survived the famine died by the swords. They [i.e. the peoples of Arabia] took the king of Babylon captive, who had risen up in pride against God, and they cut up his abdomen whilst he was alive, tore out his intestines, and threw his nefarious soul into the abyss. His stomach was filled with stones and sewn up, and his body weighed down with lead and sunk in the sea.}}