The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1918-01-18
FTER being in the undisputed
control of the Moslems for 673


~ years, Jerusalem once again
has come into the possession Of
the Christians, the Crescent has fallen
and the Cross has replaced it. The
decisive event of this ninth crusade"
made by the British forces under Gen
eral Allenby, was the capture of Jaffa,
the chief port of Palestine.
Jaffa, which is also written Yafa and
Joppa, and which is supposed to have
been named the city beautiful, as its
Hebrew name implies, has a history
so ancient that its foundation and its
early history are entirely lost In the
mists of the past, writes Joseph Jack
son in the Philadelphia Public Ledger.
1t Is linked with the legends of Ho-
mer, with the commerce of the Phoen1-
clans, with the mythology Of the
Greeks as we'll as with the story of the
New and Old Testaments. Lying so
close to Jerusalem, and for many years
the real port of entry to that inland
city, it has in recent years established
a very modern reputation for business,
which has nothing to do with its sto-
ried past.
Even the country in which the old
city is situated has had its name
changed many times. The Greeks long
before the time Of Christ alluded to
1t as Ethiopia, later it was Canaan, and
finally Palestine.
It has been ruled by Phoenicians, by
Greeks, by Egyptian Pharaohs, by AS
syrian kings, by the Romans, the Sara
Gems, the Jews, the Arab caliphs and
the Turks, to say nothing of the tenn
porary occupation by Christian emper-
ors from Germany, France and Eng
land.
The city of Jaffa has been besieged
and taken by every newcomer for the
last forty centuries who has made the
attempt on Jerusalem, but despite the
fact that it often has been the scene
of hostilities and that more than once
its block-paved streets have run with
human blood, and that once, at least,
1t was almost destroyed by an earth
quake, the town never has ceased to
be beautiful, with it's hills surround
ing 1t to the southwest covered with
fruit trees, and with its own quaint
stone buildings, churches and mosques.
Was Held by the Pharaoha
The Pharaohs of Egypt for time
Included this ancient land in their en-
pire, during the reigns of Thothmes LII
and Amenhotep, say from about l6OO
to 400 B. c., although the Egyptian
occupation seems to have lasted for
quite three centuries.
On the porch on the great temple at
Karnak there has been discovered ref
erences to the town of Ja-pu, and else
where in the land of Egypt there Is q
reference to Ya-pu, both being inter
preted to mean Jaffa. 1t appears to
have been the Promised Land of bibli-
cal times, and when this was distrib-
uted under Joshua, the country border
ing the Mediterranean, in which Jaffa
lies, was awarded to the tribe of Dan.
But the territory continued in the pos
session of the Philistines until the
reign of David, when the 1sraelites
came into their own.
During the time of Solomon, Jaffa
played an important part, for it was
there that the precious woods and met
ais which were brought from afar to
make his temple the wonder of the
world were unloaded from the puny
vessels that piled the Mediterranean
All of the materials that were brought
from afar entered Palestine at Jaffa
and were transported overland to the
hills on which the Holy City lies,
where his great edifice was erected.
When the Ten Tribes revolted Jaffa
regained its independence, which had
been denied it for centuries, but this
freedom was scarcely enjoyed before
Rammanicar III, the king of Assyria,
fell upon it and once more it felt the
yoke of foreign authority.
If it were renowned for no other
event, Jaffa must always be famed as
the port from which Jonah sailed when
he tried to hide from the Lord and
attempted to neglect the Lords bust
ness.