The End of Praying Together? Jewish-Muslim Relations at Shrines and Tombs in the Levant from the Crusades to the Present Day (original) (raw)

'Reconstructing the Past: The Creation of Jewish Sacred Space in the State of Israel

The outcome of Israel's War of Independence was the main catalyst for the creation of a new map of Jewish pilgrimage sites. Places of only secondary importance before the war now turned into central cult centers. Several categories of the sacred sites are discussed herein: sites in the possession of Jews before the 1948 war that were developed during the 1950s as central cult centers; sacred sites owned by Muslims prior to the war, which were "converted" into Jewish sacred sites during the 1950s; and new Jewish pilgrimage sites created only after the establishment of the State of Israel, whose importance relied exclusively on newly created sacred traditions. The research demonstrates how various official, semi-official, and popular powers took part in the shaping of the Jewish sacred space.  Veneration of saints is a universal phenomenon in both monotheistic and polytheistic creeds.³ e saints were perceived as intermediaries between a petitioner and god-and in this sense Judaism was not different. From at least the Crusader period until today, Jewish pilgrims venerated the different sacred sites, most of them tombs of Jewish saints. e graves functioned as cairns, claim stakes to assert Judaism's historical presence in this region. ey were also perceived as tangible evidence that Judaism once flourished in this holy landscape.

ABSTRACT: Hillenbrand and Silvia Auld (eds.), Ayyubid Jerusalem, The Holy City in Context 1187-1250, al-Tajir World of Islam, London, 2009.

2009

Ayyubid rule marks a new beginning for Islamic Jerusalem, after almost a century of Crusader domination, and it served as a curtain-raiser for the thorough transformation which the city experienced under the Mamluks. This renewed interest in Jerusalem was triggered by the Crusader presence and by the supreme effort that it took to dislodge them from the city. Nevertheless, it proved problematic to sustain the momentum generated by Saladin's victory at Hattin in July 1187 and his capture of Jerusalem a few months later. This was a time of transition, when-after the shock administered by the Crusaders-Jerusalem reclaimed its Islamic identity once more. This work, edited by Robert Hillenbrand and Sylvia Auld, looks at the city, its history and its monuments, and at Ayyubid art in general during this critical period; it examines their context and what influenced them. It draws on the expertise of a wide range of disciplines represented by internationally acknowledged academics and specialists who have produced a corpus of material which will serve as a standard work on the subject for the foreseeable future. This monumental work stands as the third element in a great trilogy on the Islamic heritage of Jerusalem which the Altajir Trust (and its predecessor The World of Islam Festival Trust) has published in the last 25 years. Thus Ayyubid Jerusalem takes its place alongside Mamluk Jerusalem (1987) and Ottoman Jerusalem (2000)-three works which will endure as a magisterial record of the fortunes and achievements of the city from the 12th to the 20th centuries.

Jerusalem (religious aspects)

Encyclopaedia of Islam Three, 2023

The outstanding feature of Jerusalem, in terms of religious aspects, is its shared, yet contested, sacredness to many diverse Jewish, Christian, and Muslim groups and subgroups. This sacredness is expressed in a number of intertwined discourses on the Temple of Jerusalem and on pilgrimage and travelling to, settlement and burial in, and ruling over Jerusalem. The real challenge is how these many groups can combine, on the ground, their cherished but di fering conceptions of the ideal Jerusalem-how each group might accommodate the others while still remaining distinct. 1. The background: Pre-Islamic and Qurʾānic Jerusalem (until 635 C.E.) 2. Jerusalem in early Islam (13-492/635-1099) 3. The Crusader interlude and the Sunnī reconquest of Jerusalem (492-583/1099-1187) 4. Jerusalem in fully articulated Islam (583-1247/1187-1832) 5. Jerusalem in the age of nationalism (1832-present) Bibliography

Joint Jewish and Muslim Holy Places, Religious Beliefs and Festivals in Jerusalem between the Late 19th Century and 1948

Religions

Whereas the conflict over Palestine’s’ holy places and their role in forming Israeli or Palestinian national identity is well studied, this article brings to the fore an absent perspective. It shows that in the first half of the 20th century Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem shared holy sites, religious beliefs and feasts. Jewish–Muslim encounters of that period went much beyond pre-modern practices of cohabitation, to the extent of developing joint local patriotism. On the other hand, religious and other holy sites were instrumental in the Jewish and Palestinian exclusive nation building process rather than an inclusive one, thus contributing to escalate the national conflict.

Holy Men in a Holy Land: Christian, Muslim and Jewish Religiosity in the Near East at the Time of the Crusades

2005

The time is June 1119; twenty years have passed since the warriors of the First Crusade conquered Jerusalem and established the Frankish – or Latin, or crusader – kingdom of Jerusalem. The place is Hebron, about 25 miles south of Jerusalem. A huge rectangular shrine, built by King Herod the Great a few years before the birth of Jesus, dominates the small, hilly town. According to Jewish, Christian and Muslim tradition, the three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their wives, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah, are buried in the Cave of Machpela, the Double Cave of the Book of Genesis situated somewhere underneath the massively walled shrine, but no one knows the cave’s location. The Byzantines, who ruled the area until 638, endeavored to discover it, but failed to do so. The Muslims, who ruled Hebron from 638 until the arrival of the crusaders, or Franks in 1099, erected a mosque within the shrine and allowed Jews to build a synagogue in front of it; but neither Muslims nor Jews knew t...

“… And the Ishmaelites Honour the Site”: Images of Encounters Between Jews and Muslims at Jewish Sacred Places in Medieval Hebrew Travelogues

Archiv Orientální, 2018

The anonymous author of Elleh ha-Massa'ot (These Are the Travel Routes), a vademecum for Jewish pilgrims originating from the Holy Land (between the mid-thirteenth century and 1291), mentions that on the altar of Elijah on Mt. Carmel "the Ishmaelites [i.e., Muslims] kindle lights to the glory of the holy place." 1 Similar statements are made by him, as well as others, concerning a number of sacred places. Both Jewish and Muslim medieval sources frequently mention or allude to the fact that the graves of Jewish saints were also revered by Muslims, and, in the period of the Crusades, also by Christians. 2 Followers of the three Abrahamic religions intermingled easily, not only at the graves of saints but also at holy places in general, or on the holy days of a particular community. Pilgrimage to the tombs of saints, i.e., ziyāra (lit. "visitation") was a fundamental aspect of religious life throughout the medieval Near East and an expression of both elite status and popular piety.

Umayyad Jerusalem: From a religious capital to a religious town

The city of Jerusalem is crowned with one of the world's most impressive architectural structures, the Dome of the Rock. This octagonal sanctuary, capped by its eponymous dome, has symbolized Islam's unequivocal link to the town that sits at the center of the religious universe of Judaism and Christianity. The Umayyads were literally the architects who cemented Islam's link to Jerusalem with their project of rebuilding the Temple Mount (known in Arabic as the Haram al-Sharif), including the construction of the Dome of the Rock and the Aqsa Mosque (see Figures. and .). Their religious and political interest in Jerusalem reflected their eagerness to present themselves as protectors and sponsors of the city and addressed both Muslims and Christians, as the two largest communities that they ruled. The Umayyads believed that their patronage would translate into popular support for the dynasty. Hence, the architecture they patronized carried religious symbolisms that resonated with two traditions, and directly shaped one-the long-standing Judeo-Christian tradition and the newly forming Islamic one. The appropriation of the Judeo-Christian tradition took the form of narratives and practices that were common among Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity. They range from Biblical narratives about Jerusalem and its Temple and Temple Mount, to events and religious lore associated with precise locations and sites there, to pilgrimage and popular veneration. It is true that by the seventh century, the Christians had generally refocused their veneration away from the Temple Mount (a process that had started in the late fourth century). However, Christians still visited at least one location there-the Pinnacle where James the brother of Jesus was killed. As for the Jews, some kept coming to mourn the loss of their Temple at the site of the Foundation Stone (even ha-shtiyya). What is not clear is how much of this Judeo-Christian lore the early Muslims knew. Obviously, as early as the eighth century, most of this knowledge became widespread. Before that, one can only speculate that it must have resulted from direct exposure and from the eagerness of Muslims to shape the new religion of Islam in ways that elevated it above its other monotheistic siblings (in the same way Christian groups drew on the ancient Biblical traditions to shape their respective forms of Christianity vis-à-vis Judaism). With respect to the Islamic tradition, it makes sense to start with the Qur an. However, the Qur an does not make any explicit reference to Jerusalem. There are