tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339341627655003640.post5180320215314862023..comments2024-02-28T12:16:32.546+01:00Comments on Helena Schrader's Historical Fiction: Places for the Imagination: BethlehemHelena P. Schraderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06535398166485310212noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339341627655003640.post-59105002359522331062017-07-30T06:44:18.176+02:002017-07-30T06:44:18.176+02:00Sounds reasonable. Thanks for enlightening me.Sounds reasonable. Thanks for enlightening me.Mystic Scholarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07593826779432906953noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339341627655003640.post-48746470369555940272017-07-02T18:12:41.264+02:002017-07-02T18:12:41.264+02:00No! That's a very good question. It seems that...No! That's a very good question. It seems that the mosaic depiction of the adoration of the Magi over the portal portrayed the three wise men as Persians -- so accurately, in fact that when when the Persians came in 614 they recognized three "kings" over the portal and did not destroy the church out of respect for their kings! Then in 640 the Caliph Omar prayed in the southern aspis, that faces Mecca, and thereafter the that chapel was used by the Muslims as a mosque, although the rest of the church continued to be a church. Nevertheless, that one prayer room saved it from destruction. Helena P. Schraderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06535398166485310212noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339341627655003640.post-1992634438619685012017-07-02T13:48:37.859+02:002017-07-02T13:48:37.859+02:00". . . preserved in the Church of the Nativit...". . . preserved in the Church of the Nativity are mosaics dating back to the reign of Constantine the Great -- an examples of the kind of mosaics that were even more common in crusader times."<br /><br />I'm sure the answer is simpler than I realize, but . . . how did these survive Saladin and the Muslim occupation of the land?Today, the extremists seem to destroy anything of a religious nature that isn't Islam.Mystic Scholarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07593826779432906953noreply@blogger.com