Deen Islam -Sadaqah Group "In an age of terror, Reviving Lost Spiritual Knowledge"
The Hebrew word ramah (meaning, "high") was the name of several
towns located at high elevations. Two were important in the Old Testament
narrative: One was located about 5 miles north of Jerusalem, near Gibeah.
It was the home of the judge Deborah and later a border town between Judah
and Israel that changed hands between the two kingdoms a number of times.
The second Ramah was the birthplace, home and burial site of the prophet
Samuel, and it is a contraction of Ramathaim (KJV Ramathaimzophim, literally,
"the heights of the Zuphite"). As related in 1 Samuel 1:1-20,
Samuel's birth was the result of a miracle. His mother Hannah was barren
and she prayed to God for a son. Subsequently she conceived and gave birth
to Samuel. The location of Ramah, though, is a matter of dispute; the Bible
says only that it was in the tribal territory of Ephraim. Tradition places
it at Nabi Samwil.
Here, on June 6, 1099, a sorely decimated and ravaged Crusader army caught their first distant glimpse of the Holy City and consequently dubbed it Mont de Joie ("Hill of Joy"), and it later became a strategic site for their control of the city. In 1157 they built a church here and in 1192, Richard I, the Lion-Hearted, stayed here in preparation for his attack on Jerusalem during the Third Crusade. But he had to abandon his plan when expected support did not arrive. In 1730, the Turks built a mosque here, incorporating the graceful arches and walls of the Crusader church. Turkish shells badly damaged the mosque in 1917, but it was restored afterwards during the British Mandate. Lying in the cellar of the mosque, Samuel's cloth-covered cenotaph (dictionary definition: "a monument to a deceased person whose remains lie elsewhere") (right) has been a place of pilgrimage and prayer for Muslims, Jews and Christians alike since the 6th century AD.