Ottoman Jerusalem

The Ottomans take Constantinople in 1453. Selim I defeats the Mamluks in 1517 at Marj-Dabik. Jerusalem peacefully surrenders to the Ottomans in 1516, and the Ottomans rule Jerusalem from 1516 to 1918. Under the Ottoman administration and a strong centralized government, the Turkish-Ottoman kingdom flourished in 16^th Century.  

Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent rules Jerusalem from 1520 to 1566. He builds the Sultan’s Pool in 1532, and he rebuilds the walls of Jerusalem from 1536  to 1541. He enacts an extensive campaign to refurbish the Haram and its monuments and replaces the mosaics on exterior of Dome of the Rock with Syrian tiles. He also builds the Khassaki Sultan complex, a huge public charity for Jerusalem’s inhabitants. His work in Jerusalem parallels that at Mecca and Medina. Jerusalem becomes the third great city of Islam. During his rule, Suleiman establishes a shari’a court. Jewish refugees encouraged to settle in Jerusalem to restore city. The population increases to 13,384 including 1,650 Jews.

From Suleiman to Abdulhamid II, restorations of the Haram coincide with the granting of concessions to foreign rulers and religious groups abroad and in Jerusalem. They also usually immediately preceded or followed a restoration of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

The Western Wall is given to Jews by Suleiman as a place of prayer. The Wall begins to attract myths. Suleiman himself clears the site and purifies it. The Shekhinah settles there after the destruction of the Temple. The Jews believe it is where the Gate of Heaven situated directly above the Western Wall. It is the symbol of the destruction of the Temple.

Saladin allows Jews to resettle and is proclaimed as “the New Cyrus.” Ashkelon Jews are given the Maghribi Quarter, which later comes to be known as the Jewish Quarter. Judah Halevi argues that Jews must return to Jerusalem, because Jerusalem is the “Gate of Heaven” wherein Jews need to stake their rightful claim. This idea that Jews need to go to Jerusalem and settle there becomes known as Zionism.

Mamluk Jerusalem

Saladin conquers Jerusalem on September 26, 1187. The Mamluk rules Jerusalem from 1244 to 1516. The Western Wall connecting to the Temple Mount is knocked down, but the wall of the structure becomes and remains a religious significance. During the Mamluk Period, Jerusalem is made a center of religious study with attention to schools and mosques. The population dwindles to 10,000, and the city is economically impoverished. The Jews continue to return to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem becomes politically and militarily insignificant. It is used as a place of political exile. However, Jerusalem gains religious prestige. There are also intensive development of the Haram and building of schools, hospices, and hostels. The Mamluks use Crusader structures as quarries for ston. Colonnaded madrasas are built around the Haram. During 1351 to 1353, Jerusalem suffers from the Black Death.

The Mamluk architecture consists of walls that are built of alternating red and white courses of stone. The structures are dome-shaped, and there are muqarnas decorative technique inside domes and above entrances. Entrances and walls are composed of alternating black and white inlay.

Al-Madrasa Al-Ashrafiyya is a Qur’anic school. It is called the “third jewel of Jerusalem” after the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It is built in 1482 by Sultan al-Ashraf Qaitbey. The architecture uses dome-shaped structure and black and white geometric designs. The Ghawanima minaret is on the northwestern corner of the Haram and on the foundations of an Umayyad minaret. It is built by the Chief Judge of Jerusalem.

Rabbi Moses ben Nachman makes aliyah in 1276 CE. He founds Ramban Synagogue, which becomes Jewish Center.  He argues that Aliyah is a commandment upon all Jews. He also develops Kabbalah, Jewish Mysticism. It is a vision of a spiritualized Jerusalem and it makes spiritual aliyah to God possible.

Crusader Jerusalem

The early Islamic Kingdoms ruled from 638 to 1099 BC. In 1099, Jerusalem was conquered by Godfrey de Bouillon, the beginning of the Crusaders “The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem” from 1099 to 1291 BC. The Crusades were basically Holy Wars. They were battles between Roman Catholic forces against the Muslims. Crusaders took vows and were granted penance for past sins, called indulgences. The Crusades were launched in response to westward expansion of the Muslim Seljuk Turks into Anatolia.

There were political and religious causes of the Crusades. Politically, it was a reaction against expansion of Islam in Europe. Religiously, it was a late reaction to persecution of Christian population of Jerusalem. Pope Urban the Second, preached at Clermont in 1095, called for Crusades as a mean to free the Lord’s heritage and as pilgrimage. In 1100, Baldwin became the “King of Jerusalem.”

During Crusader Jerusalem, existing Islamic monuments were modified. The Dome of the Rock became Templum Domini and the Al-Aqsa Mosque became the Templum Solomonis. There were rebuilding of ruined Byzantine churches, such as the churches of the Holy Sepulcher, the Ascension, St. Mary, and St. Lazarus. Crusader Jerusalem were separated into four quarters. The Patriarch’s quarter consisted of the Holy Sepulcher, Muristan, Tower of David, and the Tancred’s Tower. The Templar’s quarter consisted of the Templum Domini, Templum Solomonis, and Solomon’s stables. The Syrian quarter was mainly Christians from Syria after expulsion of Jews. The last was the Armenian quarter.

The Second Crusade, which went from 1147 to 1149 BC, was preached by St. Bernard at Vezelay in 1146. In July 4, 1187, Salah ad-Din routed the Crusaders at the Horns of Hattin (Galilee).

Islamic Jerusalem

The end of Byzantine Jerusalem came about when the Sasanians, which was the last pre-Islamic empire, took and reigned Palestine and Jerusalem during 614 to 628 BC. In 614, Jews were allowed to resettle in Jerusalem for the first time since end of Bar-Kokhba Revolt. However, in 628, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius retook Jerusalem and allowed massacres of Jews in Jerusalem. In 638, Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem and claimed Temple Mount for Islam. In written agreement with the Christian community he did not allow Jewish settlement. He later allowed Jews to move back into the city, and the Jewish population steadily grew.

The basic Islamic hierarchy started with Muhammad as the founder of the religion and the messenger of the Islamic god. Below were the caliphs, which were established to lead the Islamic community. The first three caliphs were Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman. After Uthman, the Islamic community was split into two divisions, the Mu’awiya and Ali. Supporters of Mu’awiya came to be known as “The People of Tradition (Sunna) and the Community” and very tradition-based. Supporters of Ali formed the “Shi’atu Ali” and very kinship based.  

The five “pillars” of Islam: 1)Shahada: “Testimony” or “witness” in which one recites the Muslim profession of faith. 2)Salat: Prayer five times a day (at the appointed times) towards Mecca. 3)Zakat: Almsgiving to the needy. 4)Sawm: Fasting in the month of Ramadan, in which the Qu’ran was first revealed. 5)Hajj: Making pilgrimage to Mecca once in one’s lifetime.

The Umayyad Dynasty ruled from Damascus during 638 to 750 BC. Caliph Umar built a wooden Mosque. Abd al-Malik built the Dome of the Rock in 691 BC to divert pilgrimage from Mecca to Jerusalem. He also improved road network that linked Jerusalem with other parts of the country.

Byzantine Jerusalem

Byxantine JerusalemThis is the chronological framework of Jerusalem during this period. The Romans rule Jerusalem from 63 BCE to 614 CE, and they rename Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina. Then, it begins the Byzantine Jerusalem from 312 to 637 CE. The Persians capture Jerusalem in 614 CE. In 638 CE, Jerusalem surrenders to Arabs.

During the Byzantine period, the Temple has decreasing influence in Jerusalem, because Jesus keeps on making predictions about the destruction of the Temple. Jesus and his apostles promote the spiritual nature of the Temple. Christianity has been very active in Jerusalem, and it has been gaining influence in the community of the non-Jews. This concept of a spiritual Jerusalem is very different from traditional religion, which usually involves taking a holy sacrifice and sacrifing it at the Temple or mountain. Christianity revolutionizes the view of religion by having people accept Jesus as the spiritualized and internalized body of the Temple. Overall, Jerusalem is important to Christianity because that is where Jesus was said to have been crucified, buried, and resurrected.

In 285 CE, Emperor Diocletian splits administration of Roman Empire between West and East. Constantine the Great comes into power because of the split in power. Constantine rules from 312 to 337 CE. The Edict of Milan legalizes Christianity. His mother, Helena, also brings rise to Christianity by finding the Church of Nativity and Church of the Ascension.

Jerusalem in Revolt

Pompey conquered Jerusalem in 63 BCE and began the Roman rule from 63 BCE to 614 CE. There were two Jewish revolts. The first Jewish revolt, also known as the “Great Revolt,” went from 66 to 73 CE. The second revolt, known as the “Bar Kokhba Revolt,” went from 132 to 135 CE. After the failure of the two revolts, Jerusalem ceased to be Jerusalem for a while and became Aelia Capitolina.

Some sources for the first revolt came from Flavius Josephus, Tacitus, and some archaeological evidences. Josephus, in the Antiquities of the Jews dated to 80 CE, tried to explained the revolts as resulting from zealot, or corrupt Roman governors, or religious infidelity, or eschatological expectations, or social polarization, or deteriorating relationships with the gentile population. Tacitus explained the revolts as arising from messianism and also from an inept administration. After Herod died in 4 BCE, his kingdom was divided among three of his sons, whose powers were much more limited. His son, Archelaus, became ethnarch of Judea. He was a very ineffective ruler, thus he was recalled to Rome and sent into exile in 6 CE. His second son, Herod Antipas, became tetrarch of Perea and Galilee. He ruled from 4 BCE until his exile in 39 CE. His third son, Herod Philip, became tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonitis, northwest of the Sea of Galilee. He rued from 4 BCE until his death in 34 CE. Only Herod Philip put human images on his coins, and he got away with it because the place the he ruled was far away from conservative Jews. In the end, the Herodian rulers were gradually replaced by Roman procurators.

Pontius Pilate was the only Roman governor of Judea mentioned in the Gospels. He was governor from 26 to 36/7 CE. He was ineffective, and he provoked the Jews. He was the one that tried Jesus and ordered his execution. He was recalled to Rome in 36/7 CE. Roman governors in Jerusalem during 6 to 66 CE were inexperienced and inept, which caused Jewish nationalism to rise.

Roman Jerusalem

Roman rule in Palestine began in 63 BCE. The fight between the Pharisees and the Sadducees were so intense that Pompey, the Roman general, didn’t have to do much to besiege Jerusalem and annex it for Rome. During 63 BCE, Pompey assumed control of Jerusalem. He appointed Hyrcanus as “ethnarch,” the ruler of the ethnicity or people. He also chose an Idumean man named Antipater to be installed as procurator and his sons as local rulers Jerusalem. Pompey chose a family from Idumea because they would be sympathetic to the Roman rule, since Idumeans were only half Jewish because they were forcefully circumcised by the Hasmoneans.

Herod the Great rose to power when he expelled the Parthians and became King of Rome and Judah. In 37 BCE, he got Jerusalem from Parthians after siege. Herod was from Idumea, so he was superficially “Jewish.” His knowledge of Jewish tradition enabled him to rule without provoking the Jews to rebel. Herod was very sensitive to his Jewish subjects. For examples, coins of Herod the Great had no pagan images. He did not defile the Temple when besieging Jerusalem, and he allowed the Jews to select their High Priest. All in all, he was a puppet king for the Romans. He terrorized the Jews, and he was a successful brutal dictator.

Hellenistic Jerusalem

There were three groups of Jews during the Hellenistic Period: the Jews that stayed behind in Babylon, the Jews that came back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple, and the Jews that were left behind in Jerusalem during the exile. There were few sources during this period.

Alexander the Great defeated Persia’s King Darius at Battle of Issus in 333 BCE. Jerusalem capitulated to Alexander. He died in 323 BCE, and the kingdom was divided between the Ptolemies (Egyptians) and the Selecuids (syrians). The line High Priest came to dominate as the noble line was fading. The High Priest oversaw administrative and religious affairs.  

The Greeks regarded the Polis as the highest and most natural Civil Institution. The Greeks were pretty successful in Hellenizing Jerusalem during 201 to 164 BCE. Political uncertainty in Jerusalem attracted social and economic experimentation, such as the construction of the gymnasium and the theatre. Every aspect of Jewish life was affected. Jewish tombs look Greek, and there were Jewish funerary inscriptions in Greek. Some Jewish homes had Greek art. Even the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek and came to be the most widely used by Greeks and Jews.

Persian Jerusalem

During the “Persian” Period, which lasted 539 to 333 BCE, the Persian king, Cyrus, prompted the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. Because Cyrus opposed and conquered the Babylonian empire, he was viewed by Judean Exiles as great deliverer. The idea of a Persian Messiah contradicted the Promise to David, because the King of Persia was not from the divine line.

The construction of the second temple occurred between 539 BCE to 70 CE. The “2^nd Temple” was destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans. Some biblical sources for the Persian Period were Book of Chronicles, Minor Prophets, Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and “Second” Isaiah. During his exile to Babylon, the Prophet Ezekiel envisioned a new temple, which gave rise to the utopian dream of the new Jerusalem, and Yahweh as a mobile God. Ezekiel declared that once the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the Temple, the Temple itself assumed the same power as the Ark. The Temple alone became the representation of God.  

During this period, there were many similarities between Judaism and Zoroastrianism. There came the introduction of another divine but evil being called Satan and angels. Some parts of the Bible were written in Aramaic.

Persian kings sent back Jewish nobles to Jerusalem to become governors, and the line of the High Priest came to replace the Davidic line. Judaism was becoming a religion that didn’t really need a temple. Now, Jews were identified through their acts of prayer, songs, holidays, laws, diet, and reading and interpretation of the Torah.

Josiah's Jerusalem

During the growing political unrest of Jerusalem, Josiah came to be the king of Jerusalem at an early age of thirteenth. In the Deuteronomy theology, Josiah was considered a good king because he enacted numerous religious reforms. He rebuilt the temples that King Manasseh destroyed, and he eliminated all the foreign cults in Jerusalem. During that time, if the king is good by faithfully worshipping God, then God will bless the king and his city.

Josiah was different from previous kings, because he was not powerful and charismatic. Thus, Josiah relied on literature and text to empower his rule. During his reign, Josiah discovered the book of the law. The book of the law completely centralized religion in Jerusalem. Instead of following their charismatic leaders, people were following the law instead. Written text and literature became more important because they could last longer than humans could. It had become tradition for the people of Jerusalem to worship only one God, in one place, and in one way. Written text, such as the law, also came to dominate over the rule of the king, because everyone was to read and obey the law.

Hezekiah during the Golden Age

Hezekiah, King of Jerusalem, was doing preparations to overthrow Assyria. He fortified Jerusalem by creating the “broad” wall and making the water supply more accessible. During the Golden Age of Hezekiah’s reign, the actual process of writing became more prevalent. Since archaic times, a lot of religions, such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, had been based on text and literature. There were two lines of people that were considered “anointed,” the high priest and the king; however, the written rule had gain more authority than the king himself, because even the king had to subject himself to the law.

Assyria tried to conquer Jerusalem but failed, thus people believed that Jerusalem was delivered from Assyria through Yahweh. It was this event, besides Solomon’s Temple and the Ark of the Covenant, that started the myth that Jerusalem was inviolable. It led people to strengthen their faith and believe in Yahweh because Yahweh had fulfilled his promise to King David. As a result, the Zion theology became popular in Jerusalem and throughout Canaan.

Hezekiah's Jerusalem

King David reigned from 1010-970 BCE. His son, Solomon, continued from 970-930 BCE. Under Solomon's son, Rehoboam (930-913 BCE), the Kingdom was divided into North (Israel/Samaria) and South (Judah) during 925 BCE. Rehoboam became the king of Judah, while Jeroboam became the king of Israel. Because the south was the main place for religious people to come and worship, Jeroboam built alternative shrines in Bethel and Dan of the north to prevent people from traveling to the south to worship. The South also built alternative shrines, like the Beer-Sheva and the Arad Temple. These places of worship in the North and the South helped flourish their economies. Jerusalem was the capital of Judah. Jerusalem expands to Western Hill in 8th Century.

The rise of the Assyrian Empire began in Jerusalem during the 8th Century. Tiglath-Pileser the Third conquered Damascus, Phoenicia, and Galilee. Shalmaneser the Fourth conquered and exiled Samaria. The fall of Assyria happened during 609 BCE to the Babylonians.

Solomon's Temple

Under Solomon, who began his reign in about 970 BCE, Jerusalem acquired a regional status and doubled in size. Solomon achieved legendary status; his wealth and wisdom were said to be prodigious, and he embarked on a massive building project. Jerusalem became a cosmopolitan city and was the scene of Solomon's most ambitious construction program. The Solomon's Temple was dedicated to Yahweh and designed to house the Ark of the Covenant. The Temple, though full of "pagan" imagery, became the most cherished institution in Israel.

Once the Ark was installed in the Temple, the site became for the Israelites a "center" that linked heaven and earth. Like the Sacred Mountain, the Temple was a symbol of the reality that sustains the life of the cosmos. It represented a bridge to the source of being, without which the fragile mundane world could not subsist. Because the Temple was built in a place where the sacred had revealed itself in the past, worshippers could hope to make contact with that divine power. The existence of the Temple let the sacred enter the world of men and women.

The Temple was also the source of the world's fertility and order. When a nation adopted the local ideal of sacral kingship, it was up to the king to uphold justice, or else, there would not be peace, harmony, and fertility in the kingdom.

City of David

David conquered the city, Jerusalem, in 1000 BCE. Because Jerusalem was a neutral territory embedded in the north by Israel and in the south by Judah, the land became David's personal property and he renamed it the City of David. David treated the existing inhabitants of the city with respect, and he even incorporated them into his own administration, which fostered the creative interaction of Jebusite and Israelite traditions.

David attempted to move the Ark of the Covenant but it ended in tragedy. Through this incident, people figured that it was not up to human beings to establish a holy place on their own initiative: the sanctity of a site had to be revealed. Yahweh had often been envisioned as a mobile god, but he could not be moved by the mere whim of a king. If Yahweh came to live in Zion it would be because he--and he along--had chosen to do so. The second time, however, Yahweh did allow David to move the Ark into Jerusalem.

Jacob's Ladder

Discussion Class with Daniel

Why would the archaic people set a place to be sacred/holy?
-to develop a feeling of closeness to God
-setting place and time apart from the mundane
-reserved for a specific purpose
for example: holy and prostitution share the same Hebrew root. How did it come to be? Prostitutions in ancient times are reserved for "specific purpose."

The place where Jacob, descendent of Abraham, received the dream of God's promise of fertility to Jacob became the cornerstone of Jerusalem.

The sacred consecration of the place where Jerusalem will be founded upon.
How does the place, and not just any other place, get chosen to be sacred? The passage (Jacob's Ladder) implies that God has preordained that Jacob will be at the place where he will receive the dream. The passage describes a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of the it reached up to heaven--signifies that the role of the sacred place is to connect heaven and earth. It is a medium through which man could understand another realm of reality. Jacob was afraid because he felt the need to treat the sacred place with reverence. Then, he took the stone that he lied upon and created a monument of the sacred experience in the sacred place. He also renamed the sacred place as Beth-el. Consecration, in this sense, represents the making of a covenant with God.

Sacred is the Opposite of Profane

ELIADE CH1-2

Hierophany is the manifestations of sacred realities. Through hierophany trees and stones are not just trees and stones but the sacred. It provides the passage from the profane to the sacred world. For example, mountains and temples become the important symbol of the connection between heaven and earth, man and God.

The "Center of the World" must be founded on a sacred foundation. The Center is a fixed point in which it is equivalent to the creation of the world. The "Center of the World" symbolizes the "religious experience of the nonhomogeneity of space" and the "revelation of an absolute reality." When establishing in a new territory or house, man transforms the place into a cosmos through the ritual repetition of the cosmogony, which is the gods' continuous victory over the absolute evil: the dragon/snake. Man constructs and consecrates their universe to be the "replica of the paradigmatic universe created and inhabited by the gods." The sacredness "fixes the limit and establishes the order of the world." The conclusion is that religious man sought to live as near as possible to the center of the world, and through the continuous repetition of the primordial act does the man's world becomes apprehensive as the world.

Jerusalem as a Sacred Space

Jerusalem as a Sacred Space

How did it come to be sacred? Ways to make a place sacred: 1) someone was born there 2)something significant happened there. 3)there were witnesses.

Why was Jerusalem built on mountains and valleys?

To enforce strategic protection, for it was unlikely for soldiers to attack a city after being exhausted from running up the mountains. Jerusalem’s north wall is the least safest.

Jerusalem is divided into four quarters

Northwest-Christians

Northeast-Islam

Southwest-Armenians

Southeast-Jude

The higher a city was placed geography, the more holy the city was, because people considered it to be closer to heaven and God.

Resources that were important for developing big cities

1.       Water

2.       Near the sea

3.       On trade routes

4.       Natural defenses

Water is the most important one.

The biggest problem in Jerusalem was the lack of water. The only water source was the Gihon Spring.

Water had always been seen as sacred because water could make a city prosper. People used literature, such as the Genesis, to classify water as sacred.