Muslim chroniclers provide several related accounts of an alleged collapse or discovery at the Cave (or Tomb) of the Patriarchs in Hebron during A.H. 513 (14 April 1119 CE – 1 April 1120 CE), when the city was under Crusader rule. The stories describe the supposed exposure or rediscovery of the bodies of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Ibn al‑Qalanisi wrote that travelers from Jerusalem told of the discovery of the tombs of the Patriarchs, “as if alive, no part of their bodies having decayed, and no bones rotted,” with gold and silver lamps hanging above them. The graves were then restored to their former condition, though, as he remarked, “God is more knowing of the truth than any other.” Ibn al‑Athir similarly reported that “in this year was opened the tomb of Abraham, and those of his two sons Isaac and Jacob, at a place near the Holy City,” adding that “their limbs had nowise been disturbed, and beside them were placed lamps of gold and of silver.” Yaqut al-Hamawi, citing ʿAlī of Herat, provides the most detailed version. ʿAlī states that he visited Jerusalem in 1172 CE and learned from local shaikhs that during the reign of Baldwin II of Jerusalem (r. 1118-1131) in Hebron during A.H. 513 (14 April 1119 CE – 1 April 1120 CE) a portion of the structure above the Cave had collapsed, permitting the Franks to enter. Inside they found Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, their shrouds decayed but their bodies upright against a wall, with napkins or lamps above their heads. The king provided new shrouds and ordered the place resealed.

These narratives—told more than a century apart and drawing on second-hand reports from Jerusalem and Hebron—differ in details but share the theme of incorrupt patriarchal bodies illuminated by sacred lamps. The version transmitted by ʿAlī of Herat introduces a structural collapse as the means of exposure, though no cause is given. The absence of corroborating evidence and the theological tone of the accounts suggest that the “collapse” may reflect later embellishment of an intentional probing or excavation. A Western perspective, preserved in Kohler (1896), may correspond to this episode and describe a deliberate excavation rather than a natural or accidental collapse. Whether any actual subsidence occurred cannot be confirmed, but the stories provide a glimpse of medieval curiosity about sacred burial places and the interplay between Christian and Muslim traditions in Crusader-era Hebron.