Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/461



above description coincides with the usual style of architecture adopted in the ancient churches of this district, and there can be no doubt that this edifice was originally a place of Christian worship. The convent of the prophet Jonah is frequently mentioned in the ecclesiastical traditions of the Nestorians, and the following quotation from Bar Saliba identifies the site with the position of the modern mosque and tomb. Writing of the Patriarch Hnan-Yeshua, who was raised to that dignity during the caliphate of Abd ’ool-Melek ibn Merwân, cir. 686, he says: "Hnan-Yeshua resided in the convent of the prophet Jonah, which is situated on the western side of the wall of Nineveh facing the eastern gates of Mosul, and the river Tigris separates the two cities. When he died, he was buried here, in a coffin made of ebony. Six hundred and fifty years afterwards, the tomb containing the coffin was opened, and the body was discovered whole, and looked as if sleeping. Most of the inhabitants of Mosul went out to see this sight, and we also went and saw it with our eyes. And, even now, whoever desires to behold it, and to receive a blessing therefrom, is at liberty to do so; and if any disbelieve, let them go, and see and believe."

Bar Saliba, or Ibn Sleewa, lived in the fourteenth century, and as he introduces himself as an eye-witness of the above fact, it is clear that the convent was not converted into a mosque till a later period. Perhaps a peep beneath the sumptuous covering of the so-called tomb of Jonah might detect the ebony coffin of the Nestorian saint. Similar pious frauds have been perpetrated by Christians, if we are to believe what is alleged of S. Peter's chair at Rome.

The Mohammedans of the present day do not deny that many of their places of worship in this region were formerly Christian churches; on the contrary, they rather pride themselves upon the circumstance as a token of the triumphs of Islam. More than a century ago, a coffin containing a human skeleton was dug up within the precincts of the mosque at Mosul, called "Beit oot-Tekreeti." The coffin contained also several Syriac books, in one of which the following records were found: "This book of