Ben Ezra Temple, lying at the end point of church
buildings , is reported to have been erected
in the 6th or presumably the 9th Century AD. The temple
site and the surrounding grounds,
originally a property of the church, was acquired by the
Jews in return for "kantars of gold". The basilica-style
temple contains a Jewish heritage library, that was
inaugurated on November 25,1997.
In 1896, a
collection of documents known as "Jineesah" were found
in the temple. The document, written mostly in what was
called "Hebrew Arabic", a variation of Arabic in Hebrew
alphabet, exclusively used by Jews in the Middle Ages,
reflected political, economic and social conditions of
Jews under the Arab rule of Egypt as well as sectarial
organizations and relations between different Jewish
sects.
The said documents contained a number of rare
manuscripts of interpretations of the Old Testament,
excerpts of linguistic research on Hebrew as well as
documents explaining how Jews dealt with the Arab Muslim
authorities.
These documents, first compiled during the Fatimid era,
were earlier within in Aramaic but were later written in
Arabic, the official language in government departments
(diwans).
At the back of the temple, there is a very deep well,
where the coffers in which Prophet Moses as an infant
was placed by his mother, was reportedly found.
|