JAFFA
ITS HISTORY.
AFFA, the Biblical Japho, and the Joppe of the ancients, was originally founded by the Ph œnicians, and was a very old Phœnician colony. At the time of the exodus from Egypt, it was captured for the Jews by Joshua, some three thousand five hundred years ago. It is said that here Noah built his ark and embarked upon the waters during the deluge. There is also a legend that from here Jonah escaped God's behest by flight on a Thracian vessel.
In the time of King Solomon, Jaffa is first heard of as an important seaport, and as a city of some magnificence. David, in the previous reign, had wrested the city from the hands of the Philistines; and in King Solomon's reign it became the seaport of Jerusalem, which it has ever been to this day. The cedars of Lebanon, which were sent from Tyre, for the great Temple, were disembarked at Jaffa. Indeed, it became the port from which most Jewish expeditions were started. Jewish ships travelled to Ophir and Arabia for gold; and some, like the daring Phœnicians, even ventured out in the stormy Atlantic for tin in distant Cornwall.
During the wars that raged between Judah and the surrounding nations, Jaffa suffered but little, being on the sea-coast; for the attacks on Judah were all inland raids. It continued to flourish as the Jewish seaport, until the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. We find mention of Jaffa in the Greek period, as
one of the towns reconquered by the Maccabaeans for the Jewish race.
Then the Romans began to carry their eagles over the civilized world. When their path of conquest turned toward the East, they entered Judea by the port of Jaffa. It became a Roman city, and was used as the center of their operations in Judea. It was the landing-place for all their troops; and many a reinforcement came during the subsequent revolts of the Jews for liberty until the destruction of their second Temple, and their dispersion, the beginning of their long years of wandering over the world. During the ensuing wars Jaffa was repeatedly destroyed and each time rose up anew.
Christianity made an early appearance there. As early as the reign of Constantine the Great, a bishopric was established at Jaffa, and it was raised to the position of a county. Then, with the rise and spread of Mohammedanism, the city fell into the possession of Caliph Omar in 630. The Crusades followed. Europe threw its barbarous and cruel hordes upon the East; and Jaffa played a great role in their disembarking. In the twelfth century the county of Jaffa was assigned to the Order of Maltese Knights and was stormed by Saladin in 1187, and later by Safaddin in 1191.
THE CITY.
Jaffa is picturesquely situated on an elevation above the Mediterranean, surrounded by date palms and pleasant "Biaras" (Gardens). The numerous rocks outside the city, which are always sur-