Muristan 2.92

The Muristan is a complex of streets and shops in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The site was the location of the first hospital of the Knights Hospitaller.Christian legendThe area just south of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has a long tradition dating to the days of Judas Maccabeus (the 2nd century BC) based on incidents recorded in the Second Book of Maccabees. According to the legend, King Antiochus V proceeded to Jerusalem to punish the High Priest for plundering David's Tomb. While on Golgotha, the king was directed in a divine vision to pardon the High Priest, and to build a hospital for the care of the sick and poor on that spot. In 1496, William Caoursin, Vice-Chancellor of the Hospitallers, wrote that Judas Maccabaeus and John Hyrcanus founded the hospital on that spot.