Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/157

tomb of David at the spot situated outside the Zion Gate and known as the Cœnaculum, or upper room where Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper; it is only since a.d. 1560 that Mohammedans have recognised it as such.^[1] Though, indeed, in 1479, Tucher of Nuremberg found a mosque installed in the lower part of the building, which already contained what were shown as the tombs of David and Solomon and other Jewish kings; there is evidence that the Moslems did not believe in the tradition, and they probably had the mosque there, in the first place, to be on terms of equality with the Christians, and in the next, because of their belief in the Cœnaculum as the place where ’Isa ibn Maryam “miraculously caused a table to descend from Heaven.”^[2] As a matter of fact, we know, from the special statement of Mejr ed dìn (a.p. 1495), that in his day Mohammedans believed that both David and Solomon were buried near Gethsemane.^[3] He indeed mentions the Cœnaculum, but only as the “Church of Zion.”^[4] The group of buildings connected therewith was originally erected as a convent for the Franciscans, and this order had its chief seat here from 1313 to 1561 a.d. They had been expelled from it before the later date, but had succeeded in regaining possession. The tradition concerning their final expulsion, is as follows:—

In a.d. 1560, a wealthy and influential Jew from Constantinople came to Jerusalem, and begged to be allowed to pray at the tomb of David. The request being indignantly refused by the Latins, he vowed to be revenged, and accordingly, on his return to Constantinople, he told the grand wazir that it was very wrong to permit the tomb of one of the great prophets of Islam to remain in the hands of infidels. As a result of his representations, aided it is said by bribes, the Moslems were persuaded that the tomb of David was where both Jews and Christians agreed in stating it to be, and accordingly the