The Sanhedrin were assemblies of judges appointed to sit as a tribunal in every city in the Land of Israel. Whereas each city had appointed to it a Lesser Sanhedrin made up of twenty-three judges, the Great Sanhedrin comprised seventy-one judges, and acted as the Supreme Court, taking appeals from cases decided by lower courts. The word, Sanhedrin, is a Hebrew and Aramaic word (סנהדרין, rendered in Greek as Συνέδριον (synedrion)), meaning "sitting together," hence "assembly" or "council." The Great Sanhedrin―usually referred to simply as the Sanhedrin―comprised the Nasi (president), the Av Beit Din (chief of the court, deputy to the Nasi), and sixty-nine sages (Mufla), who sat in a semicircle facing them.
'The Sanhedrin in session' from an encyclopaedia of about 1883 [Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0]
In the Second Temple period, the Great Sanhedrin met in the Temple in Jerusalem―in a building called the Lishkat ha-Gazit (לשכת הגזית, the Hall of Hewn Stones)―every day except festivals and the Sabbath day. After the destruction of the Second Temple, a Sanhedrin in Yavneh―between Ashdod and modern Tel Aviv―took over many of the functions of the Great Sanhedrin, under the authority of Rabban Gamliel. The rabbis in the Sanhedrin served as judges and attracted students who came to learn their oral traditions and scriptural interpretations. After the failure of the Bar Kokhba Revolt, the Sanhedrin moved from Yavneh to the Galilee, to Usha (from 80-116 CE), later moving back to Yavneh for a time. It then moved again to Usha in 140 CE, staying thereafter in the Galilee. After a decade, it moved from Usha to Shfar'am under the Nasi, Shimon ben Gamliel II; then to Beit Shearim under Rabbi Yehuda haNasi, who lived there. When Yehuda haNasi fell ill and moved to Tzippori (Sepphoris) in 163 CE, the Sanhedrin went with him. Finally, under Rabbi Yehuda II haNasi, it moved to Tiberias in 193 CE.
וכנגדן גלתה סנהדרין מגמרא מלשכת הגזית לחנות ומחנות לירושלים ומירושלים ליבנה ומיבנה לאושא ומאושא ליבנה ומיבנה לאושא ומאושא לשפרעם ומשפרעם לבית שערים ומבית שערים לצפורי ומצפורי לטבריא וטבריא עמוקה מכולן שנאמר (ישעיהו כט, ד) ושפלת מארץ תדברי רבי אלעזר אומר שש גלות שנאמר (ישעיהו כו, ה) כי השח יושבי מרום קריה נשגבה ישפילנה ישפילה עד ארץ יגיענה עד עפר א"ר יוחנן ומשם עתידין ליגאל שנאמר (ישעיהו נב, ב) התנערי מעפר קומי שבי:
"...the Sanhedrin was exiled in ten stages at the end of the Second Temple period and after the destruction of the Temple, and this is known from tradition: From the Chamber of Hewn Stone, its fixed seat in the Temple, to Ḥanut,literally, shop, a designated spot on the Temple Mount outside the Temple proper; and from Ḥanut to Jerusalem; and from Jerusalem to Yavne; and from Yavne to Usha; and from Usha it returned to Yavne; and from Yavne it went back to Usha; and from Usha to Shefaram; and from Shefaram to Beit She’arim; and from Beit She’arim to Tzippori; and from Tzippori to Tiberias. And Tiberias is lower than all of them, as it is in the Jordan Valley. A verse alludes to these movements, as it is stated: “And brought down, you shall speak out of the ground” (Isaiah 29:4).
"Rabbi Elazar says: There are six exiles, if you count only the places, not the number of journeys, and a different verse alludes to this, as it is stated: “For He has brought down those who dwell high, the lofty city laying it low, laying it low, to the ground, bringing it to the dust” (Isaiah 26:5). This verse mentions six expressions of lowering: Brought down, laying it low, laying it low, to the ground, bringing it, and to the dust. Rabbi Yoḥanan said: And from there, i.e., from their lowest place of descent, they are destined to be redeemed in the future, as it is stated: “Shake yourself from the dust, arise, sit, Jerusalem” (Isaiah 52:2)."
Talmud Bavli, Rosh Hashana 31a
In the late 3rd century CE, to avoid persecution, the name "Sanhedrin" was dropped and its decisions were issued under the name of Beit HaMidrash (house of learning). The last universally binding decision of the Great Sanhedrin appeared in 358 CE, and it was finally disbanded in 425 CE after continued persecution by the Eastern Roman Empire.
Usha
Usha, now in ruins, is surrounded by stone quarries, which were probably in use during the Hellenistic period or earlier during the Iron age. A Hebrew seal was found in the vicinity of Usha, dated to the Israelite Kings (8th century BCE). In the Roman times this was one of many small agricultural villages in the area, yet the Sanhedrin moved here in the years 80-116 CE, as described above, and later returned here for ten years from 140 CE, before relocating to Shfar'am. The choice of this small village was no doubt a deliberate attempt to keep a low profile since, at these times, the Romans were suspicious of any political or religious activities following the two Jewish revolts of 67-70 CE (the Great Revolt) and 131-135 CE (the Bar Kokhba Revolt).
In halacha (Jewish law) there is a group of laws that were made by the Sanhedrin at its meeting in Usha, known as the Usha Regulations, which were intended to strengthen the people and deal with family and economic life. Usha is also mentioned in the story of the death of Rabbi Yehuda ben Bava, who was killed by Hadrian's decree, after the Bar Kokhba Revolt, after he ordained his students between the towns of Usha and Shfar'am.
"...because once the wicked Government decreed that whoever performed an ordination should be put to death, and whoever received ordination should he put to death, the city in which the ordination took place demolished, and the boundaries wherein it had been performed, uprooted. What did R. Judah b. Baba do? He went and sat between two great mountains, [that lay] between two large cities; between the Sabbath boundaries of the cities of Usha and Shfar'am and there ordained five elders: viz., R. Meir, R. Judah, R. Simeon, R. Jose and R. Eliezer b. Shamua'. R. Awia adds also R. Nehemia in the list"
Talmud Bavli, Sanhedrin 14a
A section of the Roman road from Akko (Acre) to Tzippori―which followed a more ancient route and was constructed to facilitate the mobilisation of the Roman army―runs just north of Usha, from west to east. A spur south from this road heads towards Usha and, along this road, is a remarkable surviving inscription which recalls the above Talmudic reference to the Sabbath boundaries of Usha and Shfar'am. This Sabbath Marker is inscribed in Greek on a rock, at the edge of the hillside which is the ancient cemetery of Usha. The inscription is in two lines, reading "CAB GOYMCBA". "CAB" is thought to be an abbreviation of "CABAT" meaning Shabbat, but the meaning of "GOYMCBA" is not known, though some scholars believe it may be the name of the Shabbat zone (eruv). The marker is about 1 km from Shfa'ram, and 0.5 km from Usha.
The Sabbath Marker at Usha
According to Jewish law, on the Sabbath one may not travel more than 2000 cubits (about 1 km) from one's location, but with Usha and Shfar'am being so close, residents could meet at the boundary marked by the stone, which is referred to in the Talmudic extract above.
The Sabbath marker is mentioned in an 1889 quarterly statement for the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF). It is there described as a Greek language inscription found on a flat stone 1,667 ft to the east of the eastern city wall of the ancient city and 330 ft to the west of a small olive grove, in a rocky region just to the south of a road leading to Shefa 'Amr (Shfar'am). The inscription was said to have been discovered by natives of Shefa 'Amr, who showed to Père Julien, a priest from Beirut, who in turn shared it with Gottlieb Schumacher of the PEF.
The ancient cemetery of Usha nearby has burial caves and rock-hewn tombs, but these were invisible in the spring vegetation when we visited.
The Roman Road leading north from Usha, though the Kiryat Ata forest
The tomb of Rabbi Yehuda Ben Bava is located in a cave 700 m north-east of the Shabbat marker, on the edges of modern-day Shfar'am, and is constantly attended by the pious. The modern road junction to the north is called "Somech" (ordinator), recalling the Rabbi's heroic acts in ordaining rabbis in defiance of Rome. As stated in the Talmud, quoted above, the penalty for this act was execution for the ordainer and those he ordained. In order to prevent the destruction of the hosting city, the ordination was performed in between Usha and Shfar'am but outside their city limits. Ordaining the students was a lengthy process, in the middle of which they were discovered by a legion of Roman soldiers. Despite his students' protests, Rabbi Yehuda chose to remain and block the enemy so the newly-ordained Rabbis could flee and continue the chain of Jewish survival. It is said that, using intense Kabbalistic meditations, he wedged himself like a stone in the narrow pathway, preventing the Roman soldiers from passing, and giving his students a chance to escape. The soldiers meanwhile pierced his body with 300 spears. Thus martyred at the age of seventy, Rabbi Yehuda is known as one of the Ten Martyrs.
The tomb of Rabbi Yehuda Ben Bava
As related in the Talmud, at the end of the period of Hadrian's decrees ("the period of destruction"), the sages gathered in Usha to establish a new centre for learning Torah in place of those that were destroyed in the revolt.
"Take heed our rabbis gathered in Usha, and these are: Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Nehemiah , Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yose , and Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and Rabbi Eliezer son of Rabbi Yose the Galilean and Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob. They sent to the elders of the Galilee and said: Everyone who has studied will come and learn, and anyone who does not learn will come and study. They gathered and learned and did all the necessary things."
Talmud Bavli, Song of Songs Rabbah 2:16
In several places in the Babylonian Talmud, the second-generation Amora (scholar), Rabbi Yose Daman Usha is mentioned as the teacher of Rabbah bar bar Chana, the second generation Babylonian Amora and Talmudist who passed on halacha in his name.
During the Byzantine period (4th-7th century CE) there was a synagogue in the village, but only fragments of the structure have been found and the site was first excavated only in 2018 (see below). The village continued until the Arab period, and was probably destroyed in the 8th century. The site is mentioned as part of the domain of the Crusaders during the truce, in 1283, between the Crusaders, based in Acre, and the Mamluk sultan al-Mansur.
In the mid-19th century, the Ottoman government settled Muslim immigrants from Algeria on the site, called Hǔsheh (هوشة), with houses built using the ancient masonry. The village's lands belonged to the inhabitants of Shefa 'Amr (Shfar'am).
In 1937 Kibbutz Usha was established 3 km to the west. There are two other Kibbutzim near the site―Ramat Yochanan (2 km west), and Kefar Maccabbi (2.5 km west). All three are called Gush Zevulun―the cluster of Zevulun―being in the area of the Land of Israel given to that tribe.
On 11 April 1948, Fawzi al-Qawuqji ordered the Arab Liberation Army's Druze Battalion to begin operations around Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan. The Battalion occupied the semi-abandoned villages of Hǔsheh and Khirbat al-Kasayir and began to shell Ramat Yochanan and harass the neighbouring settlements. The Haganah responded and on the night 15–16 April, in what is known as the Battle of Ramat Yochanan. According to historian, Benny Morris, "Wailing refugees fled to Shefa'Amr, spreading rumors of Jewish atrocities."
In an action initiated by the army in the 1960s, the houses in the village were demolished not to the level of their foundations. Remains of the buildings stand along an alley, with most of the walls preserved to a height of one metre. Most of the larger stones from the village had already been removed and re-used in the nearby Kibbutzim.
Today the remains of the Arab village can be seen, some walls with older masonry incorporated, as well as a group of Roman-period winepresses, and the recently-excavated base of a large public structure, possibly the synagogue, on the north side.
The ruins of the site were examined in the Palestine Exploration Fund's (PEF) expedition of 1866-1877, by Conder and Kitchener. They identified Khûrbet Hûsheh with the place of the seat of the Sanhedrin, stating, in their 1881 Survey of Western Galilee, "Osheh.—A seat of the Sanhedrin in Galilee, mentioned with Shafram, from which it was two Sabbath days' journey (Tal. Bab. Abodah Zarah, 8 b). Two and a half English miles south-west of Shefa 'Amr (Shafram) is Khûrbet Hûsheh. This would give the correct distance within a few hundred yards." They quote Victor Guérin, who wrote about his visit in 1875:
"The remains of a considerable building attracted my attention. It is completely demolished, but the fine blocks which lie on the ground where it stood, and a broken capital, prove that it was built with care and adorned within by columns. Perhaps it was a synagogue, for the Khurbet Husheh is very probably the ancient Usha, often spoken of in the Talmud in connection with Shefa'Amr, to which it was contiguous."
The Ottoman era village contained a shrine known as Maqam Nabi Hushan, which William M. Thomson, writing in 1859, identified as Neby Hǔshǎ, which he translates as the "Prophet Joshua," and describes it as a "white-domed mazar [...] a place of great resort." Conder and Kitchener, following Guérin, identify the prophet as Neby Houchan, which is Hosea.
In an 1889 quarterly statement for the PEF, the ancient ruins are described as follows:
"This ruin [...] must have been an important place, to judge from the mass of building stones and the fragments of columns lying about. Now that the grass is dried up a regular city wall can be traced. On the main road running from the well towards the ruin some fine capitals are lying about, which have a close resemblance to those which on other sites have been stated to be remains of synagogues. The shafts of columns lying about generally have the basis or capital worked out of the same piece, have a diameter of 18 inches, and are composed of Nari limestone."
In the same report, it is noted that the water of Bir Husheh, located at the western edge of the ruin, is praised by the locals for its "excellence." Older inhabitants relayed how Jezzar Pasha and Abdullah Pasha, former Governors of 'Acca, had their drinking water supplied from the well, and tended to camp by the well during their trips to the interior.
Usha was surveyed in the 1960s, when wine presses, a cemetery, a sheikh’s tomb, the ruined houses of the Ottoman village, an olive press, a mikve (ritual bath), and a wide variety of flora and trees hundreds of years old were documented. However there has not yet been any in-depth study of the remains of the ancient settlement, although many rock-hewn installations located at the site have been dated to the Talmudic period.
During 2008 and 2009, two seasons of excavation were conducted as part of an ongoing study excavation for sixth grade pupils of the Nizanei Zevulun Regional School. This was when the double industrial winepress was uncovered, on the east side of the village. The installation included two treading floors and two deep collecting vats, with a screw base for secondary pressing of grape skins hewn in each of the treading floors.
Left: general view of the installation. Centre: One of the winepresses. The grapes were crushed by foot on the flat treading floor, and the juice ran into the vat. The raised hole in the centre of the floor was used for a secondary juice extraction: the remains of the crushed grapes were placed in the hole, and a pole was used to crush them a second time in order to extract a lower quality grape must. Right: The winepress treading floor seen from the pit. Steps lead into the pit to allow the workers to collect the juice into jars for fermentation.
A channel that led from the screw base to the collecting vat was hewn in the eastern floor; the deep vat (c. 2 m) has a staircase hewn in one corner. A terracotta pipe that led from the screw base to the collecting vat was set in the western treading floor. This hewn collecting vat was well-plastered and contained many potsherds that dated to the Byzantine period. A shallow, plastered, filtration pit, built of small stones and cement inside a depression in the bedrock, was exposed just east of the collecting vat; a perforated hole in its bottom connected the pit to the adjacent collecting vat.
Also found during the 2008-2009 seasons were hewn pits that were apparently collecting vats associated with an olive press, which displayed two phases of use. More exciting was the discovery of a hewn corridor in which four plastered steps were cut, leading to a hewn and plastered space which―from its plan, dimensions, and the plastering, was almost certainly a mikve (Jewish ritual bath). It was seen that the bottom of the mikve was damaged when a cave was later hewn, destroying the mikve's use. This cave is evidently part of a hiding place, with a continuation leading to another, non-excavated space. As such, it is probably dated no later than the Bar Kokhba Revolt, because no hiding refuges postdating this time have been discovered. If this is the case, the quarrying of the mikve and the adjacent olive press can be dated to the time of the Second Temple.
Today Usha is located in a National Park and was declared an antiquities site in 2009, after excavations the previous year identified the cultural value of Talmudic Usha and proposed a plan for its conservation and development, including implementing the “Adopt a Site” project in the Nizanei Zevulun Regional School.
General view of the 2018 excavations at Usha
Prior to the widening of nearby roads at Somekh junction to the west, in 2013 a trial excavation was conducted at Horvat Usha, along the western shoulder of Highway 70. This revealed quarries, a winepress with a cave below it, cist graves hewn in a prominent boulder and a terrace wall, along with a further burial cave, a rock-hewn installation, and retaining walls of agricultural terraces.
In April 2018 the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA), together with neighboring communities, held a ceremony in Usha to officially open the new Sanhedrin hiking trail. The trail starts in Usha, then passes the other places where the Sanhedrin operated, finally reaching Tiberias. The 70 km trail was launched on the 70th anniversary of the state of Israel, and commemorates the 71 wise men of the Sanhedrin.
Sanhedrin Trail marker at Horvat Usha
Also in 2018 further structures at Usha were exposed by IAA archaeologists together with students from nearby schools. The base of the large public structure on the north side has been further excavated; this may have been the synagogue, or later converted to a monastery. It could also have been the house of Rabbi Yehuda haNasi.
The public structure at Usha
The recent dig has also exposed a fermentation vat with a mosaic pavement, with a further wine press associated with it, as well as much pottery. These are show below together with pieces of terracotta wine jars from the archaeologists' discarded pile of sherds.
Shfar'am
The ancient Jewish-Roman city of Shfar'am is today a large Arab and Druze town, known in Arabic as ShefaʻAmr. Though it has been argued that the two names have different etymologies, the newer Arabic name preserves the ancient Jewish one, which in Hebrew means "the beauty of the nation."
Walls, installations and pottery sherds from the Canaanite, Iron Age, Hellenistic and Roman periods have been found at Shfar'am, and the town has been settled without interruption since the Roman period, when it was one of the cities mentioned in the Talmud as containing the seat of the Great Sanhedrin, as described above. The town is mentioned in the Tosefta of Tractate Mikveh, and in several other places in the Talmud.
The town is located near the road that forked east from the Via Maris (the main North-South highway), passing through the town to I’bilin, Hannaton, Tzippori (Sepphoris) and Nazareth, before heading to the Kinneret. Indeed the modern road from the coast to Nazareth continued to pass through Shfar'am until as recently as the late 1970s, when highway 79 was built bypassing the town to the south. In the Roman times, though Shfar'am was one of many agriculture villages in the area, this location made it important. It was the Knights Templar who first fortified the city in order to protect the pilgrimage road from Acre to Nazareth, naming their fort “La Safran.” The current surviving fortress was built atop vaulted halls, some 40m long, which are the remains of this Crusader fort. The halls have rows of stones with holes to which horses were tied. At the foot of the castle was a fortified settlement with a church, inhabited by local Christians and Crusaders.
After defeating the Crusaders, Saladin used the fortress between 1190–91 and 1193-94 as a military base for attacks on the Crusaders’ last stronghold in Acre. By 1229, the town was back in Crusader hands, as confirmed by Sultan Baybars in the peace treaty of 1271, and by Sultan Qalawun in 1283. During a visit to the town in 1287, the Italian monk, Riccoldo da Monte di Croce, noted that it had Christian inhabitants. However by 1291 it was under Mamluk control, and sultan al-Ashraf Khalil allocated the town's income to a charitable organization in Cairo.
The fortress of Daher El-Omar from the south, atop the vaulted remains of the Crusader fortress of La Safran
During early Ottoman rule in the Galilee, in 1564, the revenues of the village were earmarked for the new endowment of Hasseki Sultan Imaret in Jerusalem, established by Hasseki Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana), the wife of Suleiman the Magnificent. There were a very small number of Jews inthe town, but they dwindled to none by the end of the sixteenth century.
It was not until the 18th century that the village rose to prominence. At the beginning of the century the village was under control of Sheikh Ali Zaydani, the uncle of Daher al-Omar and leading ruler in the lower Galilee. Daher al-Omar rose to power in the 1740s and, around 1741, a large number of Palestinian Jews settled at Shfar'am, encouraged by Rabbi Chayim Abulafia of Smyrna (who also established a community at Tiberias). The Jews of Shfar'am were at first employed in agriculture, but as the government oppressed them with taxes, they left their farms and engaged in commerce. Their lands were then given to the Druze, but when they refused to pay the taxes the lands were restored to the Jews. In 1771, Daher built the fort which still stands today at the highest point in the centre of the city, probably atop the ruins of the Crusader fortress. Though the nineteenth century English orientalist and explorer, EH Palmer, stated it was a myth, it is often said that the citizens changed the name of the city to Shefa'Amr (“health of Amar”) in Daher's honour, since he was said to have been cured by waters of the local well. After the establishment of the state of Israel, the fort was used as a police station until a new one was built in the Fawwar neighbourhood, when the fort was renovated and converted to a youth center club, which has since closed down.
The eastern retaining wall of Daher al-Omar's fort, at the top of the old town (left) and the remains of the fort (right)
After Daher's death in 1775, Jazzar Pasha allowed Othman, his son, to continue as the governor of the town in return for a promise of loyalty and advance payment of taxes. Jazzar Pasha allowed the fortress to remain intact despite orders from Constantinople that it should be destroyed. By 1877, James Finn wrote that "The majority of the inhabitants are Druses. There are a few Moslems and a few Christians; but [in 1850] there were thirty Jewish families living as agriculturists, cultivating grain and olives on their own landed property, most of it family inheritance; some of these people were of Algerine descent. They had their own synagogue and legally qualified butcher, and their numbers had formerly been more considerable." However, "they afterwards dwindled to two families, the rest removing to [Haifa] as that port rose in prosperity."
After Othman was removed and replaced with Ibrahim Abu Qalush, an appointee of Jazzar Pasha, Shefa'Amr became an important regional centre due to its cotton-growing industry. Tax returns for the village attest to the large returns expected of this crop.
Pierre Jacotin's map from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 shows the town as Chafa Amr. According to the census conducted by Moses Montefiore in 1839 , there were 107 Jews in Shfar'am, all Sephardim. According to Laurence Oliphant , around 1850, 30 Jewish families from Morocco settled in Shfaram as farmers, but were forced to leave the land after 20 years of harassment and robbery. Conder and Kitchener, who visited in 1875 for the PEF, were told that the community consisted of "2,500 souls—1,200 being Moslems, the rest Druses, Greeks, and Latins." The town's Druze community dwindled considerably in the 1880s as its members migrated east to avoid conscription by the Ottoman authorities. A population list from about 1887 showed that Shefa'Amr had about 2,750 inhabitants; 795 Muslims, 95 Greek Catholics, 1,100 Catholic, 140 Latins, 175 Maronites/Protestants, 30 Jews and 440 Druze.
In 1948 Shefa'Amr was captured by the Israeli army during the first phase of Operation Dekel, between 8–14 July. The Druze population actively cooperated with the IDF. The Muslim quarter was heavily shelled and thousands of inhabitants fled. According to Benny Morris, following the fall of Nazareth some of the refugees were allowed to return to their homes. The population was placed under strict Martial Law from then until 1966. In November 1949 a group of notables from Shefa'Amr gave the IDF a list of over 300 illegal residents in the town.
It can be said that several Jewish families lived in Shfar'am from the 16th century until 1920. In his book of 1845, "Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine," Rabbi Joseph Schwarz noted about thirty Jewish families in the town. In 1901, amongst a total population of 1,345 there were seven Jewish families comprising forty-five individuals. Among them were three haberdashers and dealers in dry-goods, one greengrocer, one oculist, one druggist, and an official who combined the functions of ḥazzan, shoḥeṭ, mohel, and teacher. At that time Shfar'am possessed a school subsidized by the Alliance Israélite Universelle, a small synagogue, a mikve, and an abandoned synagogue, several centuries old. This ancient synagogue, which still exists, was built in the 17th century, atop the ruins of a more ancient synagogue which was built on the site where the Sanhedrin had sat. After it fell into ruin, it was renovated in the 18th century by Rabbi Chaim Abulafia and his students, when Daher al-Omar gave permission for Jews to return to the town. The community disbanded in the 1870s, with the last Jew leaving in the 1920 and entrusting the keys to the Muslim Ja’afaris family, who hold them to this day. The synagogue, which contains prayer books and a Torah, was restored in 1988. When we approached the synagogue, the matriarch of the Ja'afaris family called to us from the balcony of their house overlooking it, and offered us the keys.
The ancient synagogue at Shfar'am
Interior of the ancient synagogue at Shfar'am
Building and expansion during the 20th century have destroyed many of the old sites; but in recent years the local council has realised their historic and touristic value, and set up signboards and trails. The synagogue is adjacent to the fortress, as well as the Old Mosque and the Church of SS Peter and Paul. The Old Mosque, properly the Mosque of Ali Ibn Abi Talib, was constructed in the days of Sulayman Pasha in the 18th century. The mosque originally served mainly the family, its entourage and the soldiers of the ruler. Since then, the mosque has undergone development and expansion work in various periods. The older part of the mosque with its shorter minaret is still visible to the south, behind the more recent extensions with their taller minaret.
The Old Mosque from the south, with its older dome and minaret (left), and from the north, with its newer ones (right)
The Melkite Greek Catholic church of SS Peter and Paul was built by Othman, who made a promise to build it if his fort was finished successfully. The walls of the church began to weaken and in 1904 the entire church building was reinforced and renovated. This is the main church of the local Greek Catholic community.
The Melkite Greek Catholic church of SS Peter & Paul
There are several other beautiful and historic buildings around this part of the town, including the now-deserted market. Hover over the pictures in the slideshow below for captions.
Where the Sisters of Nazareth convent stands today, in the centre of the town, was a 4th century church called St. Jacob's Church. Around this church were Byzantine rock-hewn burial caves, and some other very remarkable such tombs are to be seen to this day dug int the hillside directly south of the fortress, in the Al-Burj Christian neighbourhood. These were the graves of the 5th and 6th century Christian community. Three of the tomb entrances are decorated with sculptures of lions, birds, snakes, floral motifs, crosses, amphorae and Greek inscriptions which make mention of Jesus.
The first tomb (moving from east to west) has two birds carved above its entrance, flanking a cross in a roundel.
The second tomb (below left) and fourth tomb (right) are not decorated.
The third tomb retains its hinged stone door (carved to resemble a wood-panelled door), though it was broken by ancient grave robbers. Two birds flank a cross with an alpha and an omega, just above the stone door. Around the door carved grape vines grow out of vases on both sides, meeting at a rosette, and with dolphins in the corners.
On either side of the door facade are carvings. To the right of the door is carved a lioness, trees, birds, amphorae, fish, and a large face within a knot.
To the left of the door is carved a male lion, trees, birds, amphorae, fish, and a large face within a knot. At the end of the carved group is an elephant.
The fifth tomb, like the third, is highly decorated. The façade displays grape vines growing out of vases on both sides, meeting around a flower, flanked by leaves rather than the dolphins of the third tomb. Below this, and just above the entrance, two birds flank a small cross, but are more worn than in the third tomb. Adjacent to the doors are more designs, with a Greek inscription on either side (the only inscription in the group other than the alpha-omega), which apparently reads, "Lord Christ, save Sam [illegible], and have pity on me and my children." Conder & Kitchener, in their 1881 Survey of Western Palestine, describe this tomb among others, but did not decipher the inscription fully.
Below are details of the inscriptions, along with a photograph from the 1881 Survey.
To the left of the door is carved a lioness springing over a pomegranate tree and a young cub.
To the right of the door is also carved a lioness springing over a pomegranate tree and a young cub, with a bird above him.
Below are two photographs of the interior of the fifth tomb, showing the southern and western burial niches (arcosolia).
These tombs are unique in their decoration and remain at risk, despite the recommendations of a 2007 IAA conservation survey which suggested their preservation through stone conservation, arranging drainage at the site and in its immediate vicinity (all but one tomb was flooded from winter rains when we visited), and arranging long term conservation maintenance of the site. Failing that, the survey suggested that, due to irreversible damage to the site’s surroundings the most efficient conservation solution would probably be to back-fill the tombs and cover them over. In the absence of any measures whatsoever, the charming lady of a house adjacent to one of the tombs informed us, proudly, how they regularly clean the sculpted masonry; who knows what untold damage this well-meant imperative causes for suture generations?
Near the tombs, which are wedged between house entrances, is a modern rock carving (in an old burial cave) with a small garden and statue of the Virgin Mary.
Near to these tombs is the grave of Sheikh Abu Arabia. Sidna Abu Arabia was a God-fearing Druze known for his righteousness. The elders of Shfar'am say that the sheikh died in his home, but only his clothes were found in his bed, while his body disappeared. No further details are known about him and for what period he lived. The gray-gray marble tomb was renovated in 1999. It is said that a Christian neighbour of the tomb has lived peacefully and known no calamity since moving there. Druze residents come to pray and receive the sheikh's blessings.
Grave of Sidna Abu Arabia
Finally, further up the hill to the south of the town, is the tower (Al-Burj) for which the neighbourhood is named. Despite its name, it is in fact an ancient crusader fortress that was renovated in the time of Othman, the son of Daher al-Omar, in the 18th century.
Al-Burj