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It is said that not fewer than ten thousand inhabit Saphet and Jerusalem, and that in their worship they still sing those pathetic hymns which their manifold tribulations have inspired; bewailing, amid the ruins of their ancient capital, the fallen city and the desolate tribes.
A few points to the north appears the Mount of Beatitudes, the place where Christ delivered his sermon to his disciples and the multitude. Not far from this little hill is the city of Saphet, or Szaffad, standing upon elevated and very conspicuous ground. Still farther, in the same direction, is seen a lofty peak covered with snow, a part of the chain of Anti-Libanus.
At Acra, or Ptolemais, the sea overflowed its banks, and poured into the streets, though eight feet above the level of the water. The city of Saphet was entirely destroyed, and the greatest part of its inhabitants perished. At Damascus, all the minarets were overthrown, and six thousand people lost their lives.
It is worthy of notice, that when the celebrated chief now named retreated from before Acre, the tyrant Djezzar Pasha, to avenge himself on the Franks, inflicted a severe punishment on the Jewish and Christian inhabitants of Saphet.
The only town of consequence between the ruins of Capernaum and the alpine range of Hermon and Djibbel el Sheik is Saphet, already mentioned, being one of the four cities consecrated by the religious veneration of the Hebrews. According to Burckhardt, it stands upon several low hills that divide it into quarters, the largest of which is occupied by Jews.
Saphet is still a sort of university for the education of the Jewish rabbis, of whom there are usually twenty of thirty resident, collected from different countries of Europe, Africa, and Asia. They have no fewer than seven synagogues.
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