'Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan, and on the Site of Ancient Nineveh; with Journal of a Voyage down the Tigris to Bagdad and an Account of a Visit to Shirauz and Persepolis.' [‎390] (425/450)

390
TOMB OF EZRA.
[APP. VI.
we passed through a small court-yard, and then entered a
large, gloomy hall, arched and supported by square masses
of brick-work, totally destitute of any ornament. From this
we entered by a low door into the chamber which contains
the object of the Jews' religious veneration. The room is
vaulted, with small grated windows placed at a great height,
and paved with tiles of white and green alternately disposed.
In a small niche there was a lamp burning. In the centre
of the room stood the tomb, which was oblong, with a
slanting roof, made of wood, and covered with green velvet.
The dimensions were about eight feet by four, and six high
to the ridge of the roof, with a passage of about three feet
between it and the walls of the room. Its corners and tops
were ornamented with large balls of copper gilt. The per
son, an Arab, who showed us the tomb, told us it was that
of Ezra, whom the Mahometans call Ozeir*, and make him
* According to Mahometan tradition, Ezra was of the race of
Jacob, of the tribe of Levi, and the fourteenth in descent from
Aaron; and the Holy Scriptures, and all the scribes and doctors
who could read and interpret them, were involved in the destruc
tion of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, excepting a few who were
taken captives to Babylon. Ezra, who was then very young, was
among this number, and continued to read and teach the law of
God to his countrymen during their captivity. At the end of
the captivity Ezra returned to Jerusalem, and some say there,
some, near Babylon, while he was occupied in weeping over
the ruined city and temple of God, he said often to himself,
" How can fallen Jerusalem ever rise again !" No sooner had he
conceived this thought when God struck him dead, and he re
mained so fpr one hundred years, when he was raised again, and
employed the rest of his days on earth iu explaining the word of
God to the Jews.
The Christians of the East say that Ezra drank three times of
a well in which the holy fire had been hid, and that thus he
received the gift of the Holy Ghost, which rendered him capable
of re-establishing the Holy Scriptures among his countrymen.