nt operations; while,
inside the walls, were small parties from the French and Italian
detachments which those countries had sent to assist us in Palestine.
Inside the city, at the base of the Tower of David, the ceremony was
concluded by the reading of the Proclamation. Its terms promised that
every person could pursue his lawful business without interruption, and
that every sacred building, monument, holy spot, shrine, traditional
site, endowment, pious bequest, or customary place of prayer of
whatsoever form of the great religions of mankind, would be maintained
and protected according to the existing customs and beliefs of those to
whose faiths they were sacred.

CHAPTER XI

THE HOLY CITY[2]

It is beyond the scope of this book to attempt a detailed history of
Jerusalem. It cannot, however, fail to interest those readers who have
followed us thus far, if we glance at a few incidents in the history of
this sacred spot.

Of little importance, perhaps non-existent, in the days of the
Patriarchs, and still in the hands of the Jebusites through the days of
Joshua, the Judges, and Samuel, it first sprang into fame about a
thousand years before Christ when it was captured by King David, who
made it his capital. Solomon built his temple on Mount Moriah, and
prayed to Jehovah that He would especially hear the prayers of His
people when they prayed toward the city which He had chosen and the
House which Solomon had built for His name. Then did this city become,
and has ever since remained, the sacred city of the Jews.

With the advent of Christ, born within a few miles of its walls, Who
here preached and healed, instituted His Holy Sacrament, suffered under
Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried and the third day rose
again from the dead, Who here laid the foundations of the most beautiful
religion that the world has ever seen, Jerusalem became and has ever
since remained, the sacred city of the Christian.

And then, six hundred years later, came the rise of Islam. The great
prophet Mahomet, in evolving his religion, based his teaching upon the
principles of Judaism and Christianity, the prophets of which were to be
honoured, including "the prophet David" and "the Prophet Christ." So, in
accordance with the prayer of Solomon, and until the antagonism between
Judaism and Islam led to the substitution of Mecca, it was towards
Jerusalem that devout Moslems were required to turn when they prayed.
From Moun