DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10358#0357
3 24
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
old.—But there is also another tablet, with an ornamental Roman margin. Although the
inscription is illegible, it is apparently the oldest record in the building, and possibly the other
two tablets are translations, or at any rate memoranda, of its contents. Not much stress is to be
laid on these inscriptions !—There is an account, however, of the foundation of the convent in the
Annals of Eutychius, Patriarch of Alexandria in the latter half of the ninth century, which is
given at length by Robinson. In this there is a great deal of information ; not conclusive,
indeed, but of such a nature that one cannot help thinking that there may be something in the
traditions imbedded therein. He describes the monks of Mount Sinai as imploring Justinian to
build them a convent, that so they might have a common home, and be protected from the
wandering sons of Ishmael. The monks speak of themselves as living scattered upon the
WADY SOLIEF OR SOLAF, SINAI.
In the foreground is a shittim-tree, whose branches the Arabs are lopping off in the roughest fashion for their camels and for fuel.
mountains and in the valleys round the sacred bush "out of which God—His name be praised
-spoke with Moses." The Patriarch states that the monks had constructed a tower of refuge
above the bush, and that in it was the church of St. Mary. This tower and the bush, according
to the description, were in a narrow place between two mountains where fountains of water
sprang up. The Emperor's legate built the convent so as to include the tower,—but in such a
position that any one on the top of the mountain could throw a stone into the midst of the
convent. This is doubtless a spiteful exaggeration :—he placed it in that position because of
the propinquity of the bush, and because there was a necessity put on him to avoid blocking
up the valley and so preventing the rush of the torrents. He also built a chapel on the top of
the mountain on the spot where Moses received the Law. The name of the first prior is
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
old.—But there is also another tablet, with an ornamental Roman margin. Although the
inscription is illegible, it is apparently the oldest record in the building, and possibly the other
two tablets are translations, or at any rate memoranda, of its contents. Not much stress is to be
laid on these inscriptions !—There is an account, however, of the foundation of the convent in the
Annals of Eutychius, Patriarch of Alexandria in the latter half of the ninth century, which is
given at length by Robinson. In this there is a great deal of information ; not conclusive,
indeed, but of such a nature that one cannot help thinking that there may be something in the
traditions imbedded therein. He describes the monks of Mount Sinai as imploring Justinian to
build them a convent, that so they might have a common home, and be protected from the
wandering sons of Ishmael. The monks speak of themselves as living scattered upon the
WADY SOLIEF OR SOLAF, SINAI.
In the foreground is a shittim-tree, whose branches the Arabs are lopping off in the roughest fashion for their camels and for fuel.
mountains and in the valleys round the sacred bush "out of which God—His name be praised
-spoke with Moses." The Patriarch states that the monks had constructed a tower of refuge
above the bush, and that in it was the church of St. Mary. This tower and the bush, according
to the description, were in a narrow place between two mountains where fountains of water
sprang up. The Emperor's legate built the convent so as to include the tower,—but in such a
position that any one on the top of the mountain could throw a stone into the midst of the
convent. This is doubtless a spiteful exaggeration :—he placed it in that position because of
the propinquity of the bush, and because there was a necessity put on him to avoid blocking
up the valley and so preventing the rush of the torrents. He also built a chapel on the top of
the mountain on the spot where Moses received the Law. The name of the first prior is