Israeli archaeologists, who have found and deciphered an extremely unusal inscription in Arabic made almost 800 years ago by the Crusaders. The find was made in the vicinity of Tel Aviv, the agency KIRA-ARIS said, citing AFP.
This is a unique discovery – so far no other inscriptions in Arabic made by the Crusaders, have been discovered in the Middle East, says Professor Moshe Sharon of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The inscription includes the words:
+ Frederick II, King of Jerusalem, 1229 from the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus the Messiah +
The phrase is written in Arabic and cut into a block of gray marble which was originally part of the Jaffa city wall.
The inscription refers to the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily Frederick II Hohenstaufen, who was also appointed at that time King of Jerusalem. Interestingly, he was born and lived most of his life in southern Italy, where at that time lived many Arabs, and the emperor was a great admirer of Arabic culture.
Emperor Frederick's most important achievement was persuading the Egyptian Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil to hand over Jerusalem to the Crusaders. The Sultan had been greatly impressed with Frederick’s knowledge of the Arabic language.