Roberts, David; Croly, George: The Holy Land: Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia (Band 1) (London, 1842)

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This Sketch, in addition to the view of the City, gives, in the distance, crowning a lofty hill, the City
of Safed. The land is peculiarly liable to earthquakes; Safed was fearfully visited in the middle of the
last century (1759); but a still heavier visitation befell it in 1837. On the first day of the year, a
succession of the most violent shocks rent the earth in many places, and almost instantly overthrew the
chief part of the dwellings. The loss of life was dreadful, though perhaps too largely calculated at five
thousand; four-fifths of the sufferers were Jews.1

Safed is venerated as one of the four holy cities of Judea; the others being Jerusalem, Hebron, and
Tiberias. Its prominent position led to its being fortified at an early period. By some authorities it has
been supposed to occupy the site of Bethulia, and by others, that of Kitron, a city of Zebulon. But,
nothing is distinctly known of the City before the Crusades, when it afforded shelter to Baldwin III. after
his defeat at El-Huleh, in 1157. Safed is, however, chiefly celebrated for its Rabbinical school, one of
the most distinguished among the Jews, and for many centuries it has been thus regarded; but the period
of its scholastic foundation is not certain, it was probably long after the conquest by Bibars. Its palmy
days were, however, during the sixteenth century, when the most eminent of the Rabbins lived and taught
there; and at this early period (1578) it had an established printing-office, which, even as late as 1833,
still gave regular employment to a considerable number of persons.2 It has been supposed, that Safed
was the "City set on a Hill," to which allusion is made in the Sermon on the Mount,3 and that the Hill
itself was the Mount of the Transfiguration.4 But both suppositions are unsustained by evidence.

1 Biblical Researches, iii. 818 — 338. ' Roberts's Journal.

Matt. v. It. Maunclrell, Apr. 1<). + Busching Erdbeschr. th. xi. i. 488.