Very often, for purposes of distinction, such phrases as "Aljama de los Judíos" ("Aljama of the Jews") and "Aljama de los Moros" ("Aljama of the Moors") were used. But the circumstance that the Moors of Spain had by the term designated more especially the Jewish community has left its trace in the use of the word in the Spanish language; for in Spanish literature "Aljama", without any further specification, stands for "Sanedrin" or for "Judería" ("Jewry"), or even for the Jewish place of worship, in the concrete as well as in the abstract sense. This use occurs at a very early date. In the "Poem of Alexander", in the "Milagros de Nuestra Señora", and in the "Duelo de la Virgen" of Gonzalo de Berceo, all of the 13th century, "Aljama" or "Alfama" is employed to designate the people of ancient Jerusalem; and the historian of the 16th century, Mariana, uses "Aljama" for the synagogue: "they devastated their houses and their "aljamas"."