Chapter Two:
People of the Book
In 1078
bands of Selijuq Turks took Jerusalem. They ruled for the next
20 years, during which time
the rights of Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem were regularly
trampled, together with almost everyone else's, in the paths of
their fierce internal rivalries.
Figure 5: The Crusaders march across
Europe
In 1096, the
first Crusade was called by Pope Urban II, ostensibly to
redress violations of pilgrims' rights. Hundreds of thousands
of Christians were mobilized to defend their faith.
Sanctified by religion, spurred on by the
promise of adventure and material gain, rag – tag army of
knights, foot soldiers, women children and old men, marched
across Europe to their destination and their goal, the Holy
City of Jerusalem. Three years of marching and mayhem - - much
of it against their pockets of Jews who crossed their path –
and a remnant of the Crusaders, perhaps a tenth of those that
had set out, reached gates of Jerusalem. It was morning of
June 7th 1099.
Ironically, by the time they arrived the city was
back in the hands of the Fatimids, and the rights of Christian
pilgrims had been restored. After a five-week siege, the
city’s ramparts were stormed. The Crusaders went berserk. For
two days, the 40’000 men, women and children of al – Quds were
massacred in the streets, in the mosques, and in their homes.
Muslim soldiers were slaughtered in Al – Aqsa mosque after
being guaranteed amnesty there. The cities Jew’s were burned
alive in their main synagogue, where they had huddled together
for refuge. Al – Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock were
looted.
A golden cross was placed on top of the
Dome of the Rock. It was renamed Templum Domini. Al – Aqsa
mosque became Temple Solomonis. On their enthusiasm to link
the glory of the Noble sanctuary with their own heritage, the
new conquerors erased every trace possible of its Islamic
origin. In the Dome of the Rock, Qur’anic inscriptions were
plastered over. Steps were carved into the rock and an alter
placed on top of it. Chips of the rock were sold for their
weight in gold. Al- Aqsa mosque was subdivided into a royal
palace for the Knights Templar. The vast vaulted subterranean
area to the east of Al – Aqsa became a stable for 400 horses.
All this had not passed by entirely unnoticed by the Muslims
outside of Jerusalem. In 1146, Nuradeen Mahmud ibn Zangi,
ruler of Aleppro, commissioned master craftsmen to build an
extraordinary cedar mimbar. It was to be installed in Al –
Aqsa on the day the crusaders were expelled from al – Quds. It
was Nuradeen who, through an auspicious joining of
statesmanship, piety, humility and honour in his own
character, reunited the Muslims of Syria into a force capable
of rising Jihad against their enemies. But it was his
lieutenant and successor, Salahudeen, who was to lead them
into victory. Generous almost to a fault, shunning luxury and
ostentation, Salahudeen was merciful with those he conquered
but ruthless to anyone who maligned the Prophet and the path
of God.
On the 2nd day of October,
1187, the 27th day of Rajab, the day Muslims
celebrate the Prophet’s night journey, peace and blessings
upon him, Salahudeen entered Jerusalem after a 12-day siege.
There was no bloodshed. There were no massacres. Those who
wanted to leave were permitted to do so, with all their goods.
Those who wanted to stay were guaranteed protection for their
lives, property, and places of worship. The wisdom of the
Khalif ‘Umar was observed, the laws of Islam
restored.
Figure 6: Interior of Al - Aqsa
Mosque
The cross on the Dome of the Rock was
taken down. Al – Aqsa was purified and reinstated as a mosque.
The magnificent mimbar commissioned by Nuradeen 40 years
earlier was put into place. After 88 years of occupation, the
Jumu’a prayer was held once again on the furthest mosque. The
Crusaders dressed in black. They sought aid throughout Europe
to recapture Jerusalem and soon returned to lay siege to the
Muslim coastal stronghold of Acre. Richard the Lionheart
joined them in the Spring of 1191. By July the city of acre
surrendered into the crusaders’ hands. Two thousand seven
hundred Muslim soldiers and their families were assembled and
massacred outside the city walls. After a year of struggling
to get a toehold from which to regain Jerusalem, Richard
finally capitulated and returned to England. The rights of
Christians to worship at their holy sites were guaranteed and
Salahudeen’s authority in all but the coastal areas of
Palestine was confirmed.
The next centuries witnessed the final
expulsion of the Crusaders from Palestine and successful
resistance to the advance of the Mongols under the energetic
rule of the Mamaluks. Awesome in battle, the Mameluks were no
less vigorous in their building programs and public works. The
four minarets on the North and West boundaries of the noble
Sanctuary and the arched mawzeen surrounding the Dome of the
Rock are from the Mameluk period, as are endowments for four
madrassas on the grounds of the sanctuary and a trust fund for
maintaining Al – Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock.
After a reign of nearly 300 years Mameluk
power declined. By the early 16th Century Ottoman
Turks displaced them, in the process establishing a vast
empire which encompassed Constantinople, Damascus, Cairo,
Makkah, Medina and Jerusalem.
On entering Jerusalem in 1517 the ottoman
sultan Selim was entrusted with keys to Al –Aqsa and the Dome
of the Rock. A delegation of Christian clerics presented him
with a scroll containing the original covenant of ‘Umar, guaranteeing
them rights over the Church of the Holy places. Selim pressed
them to his face and kissed them, confirming his intention to
honour ‘Umar’s word.
Selim’s son Suleiman al – Qanuni, known
throughout Europe as Suleiman the Magnificent,
consolidated his domain into
the greatest world power of the 16th Century. drawing on his
tremendous resources, he restored and renewed all of
Jerusalem, building walls, gates, towers, and
aqueducts.
His most remembered gift to Jerusalem,
however, was the breathtakingly beautiful tile work
commisioned for the exterior of the Dome of the Rock. With the
incomparable skills of Persia's master ceramists, 40'000 tiles
were fired and put into place, crowned by the inscription of
Sura YaSeen at the top. This brilliant application of
exquisite aesthetics to celebrate the message of God has made
the Dome of the Rock a world landmark in sacred
architecture.
This was the peak of the Ottoman empire.
It soon began to deteriorate. Central authority broke down.
Regionalism rose up. Corruption by petty officials became
widespread. Military and political instructions and frontiers
began to crumble. The western powers, restrained by Ottoman
strength for so many years, were joyously anticipating its
collapse and the inevitable division of
spoils.
In 19th Century Jerusalem their dreams
began to be realized. Consular offices representing the
European powers were set up in the old city to begin exerting
influence from abroad, while a new political movement was
being cultivated that could exercise power from within
Palestine: Secular Zionism.
Figure 7: The Noble
Sanctuary
Denying the prophetic message, while at
the same time using it as the basis of their claims for a
Jewish state in the Holy Land, crying anti - semite at every
protest of their despotic actions, even as they planned
a ruthless displacement policy against the Semitic Arabs, the
European Zionists created sufficient confusion to successfully
deflect world criticism of their nationalistic goals in the
Middle East. From this apparently irreconcilable platform, the
political Zionists waged a successful campaign to gain
international sympathy and support for their bizarre concept
of a secular, and at the same time
Jewish, state in
Palestine.
Ottoman sovereignty was now seriously
threatened and with it the believers' control of the sacred
city of As- Quds.
When British forces entered Jerusalem
after its surrender by the Ottomans in 1917, it was only a
question of time until Zionist plans began to be realized. The
Balfour Declaration of the same year gave support for the idea
of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The British Mandate of 1920
helped to enforce it. But what was originally conceived of as
a more passive and politically acceptable ally in the Middle
east, turned out to be an unexpectedly impatient and violent
one. Zionist inspired terrorism and economic blackmail
combined to force the British out in 1948.
A hastily prepared UN recommendation for
the creation of seperate Arab and Jewish states with Palestine
led immediately to an escalation of hostilities. Two Jewish
terrorist groups, Irgun and the Stern gang, led a campaign of
terror and psychological warfare calculated to drive the arabs
out, culminating in their joint undertaking at the Arab
village of dayr Yasin, in which 250 men, women and children
were brutally murdered, with threats to repeat performances
broadcast throughout Palestine.
On May 14th, in 1948, David BenGurion
proclaimed the State of Israel. Lack of unity among the Arab
states in the ensuing Arab/Israeli wars led to huge losses. By
the time of the Cessation of hostilities in 1949, more than
700'000 Arabs were driven out of their
homes.
Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock
had both sustained damage from the crossfire of mortars and
bombs but remained, together with the old walled city, in the
hands of the Arabs.
The first stage of their nationalistic
plans realized, the Israelis cast a covetous eye on Gaza and
the West Bank. But the real prize, East Jerusalem, and its
jewel, the Noble sanctuary, laid tantalizingly just out of
reach. The Israelites commenced on their plans for the capture
of Al - Quds.
In 1967 they got their opportunity.
Through the din of the capricious chants of Arab nationalism
Israel carefully plotted its attack. On June 7th the Israelis
took Al - Quds.
Israeli tanks and soldiers entered the
Noble sanctuary. The Maghribi quarter was levelled. Two mosques
and 135 homes were bulldozed, leaving six hundred and fifty
Muslims homeless. The West Bank and Gaza were occupied,
demographically impossible situations, which would drive the
Jews to desperation and despicable acts of oppression in years
to come. Jerusalem was annexed.
Only the Haram ash-sahrif was returned to
the Muslims and their willingness to defend it at any
cost.
"Then We gave you once again your
turn to prevail over them. And We gave you wealth and
children, and We made you more in soldiery, saying, 'If you do
good, it is to your own souls and you do good to, and if you
do evil it is to them also'
So when the promise of the second
came to pass, We roused against you others of Our servants to
ravage you, and to enter the Temple, even as they entered it
the first time, and to lay waste to all that which they
conquered with an utter wasting. Perhaps the lord will have
mercy on you but if you return, we shall return - and We have
appointed Hell a prison for the
unbelievers."
(Surah
al-Isra)
[Next: Chapter 3 - The Furthest
Mosque]