Class Notes 04/06/17 Jerusalem: The Making Of The Holy City

• Best argument against religion
• most fought over city
• Jews, Christians, Muslims
• man's search for holiness
• 3200 BC small square houses, herded sheep
• backwater hill country
• Mount Moriah and Mount Zion 
• Ophel Hill, where Canaanites first built 
• 1350BC cuneiform, letters to Pharaoh in Egypt, asked for archers 
• became the Universal City
• Bible, divine revelation
• troublesome source for historians
• patriarch Abraham visited a Canaanite city ruled by a Canaanite priest
• 12 distinct tribes, Israel, Judah
• needed a visionary and charismatic warrior king
• David-adulterer, man of blood, sacred hero and poet 
• DC, bridge gap between North and South 
• 4,000 years ago Canaanite stronghold
• Jews Holy City
• Exists on Heaven and Earth, setting of final judgment
• Muhammad revered Jerusalem
• 13th century, unlikely for the city to become world renowned 
• crusades, Mongol hordes
• Baibars, pagan orphan, became a general, age 30 most formidable officer, ready to fight the Mongol hordes. Declared himself ruler from Egypt to Syria  
• Baibars created new religious celebration, went to shrine for Moses, 700 years
• Moses, Jewish patriarch 
• Baibars dies of poisoning at dinner
• Baibars, manic style
• Mihcael Burgoyne discovered many of the  buildings 
• can't fit a razor into the joints
• Malamuks brought back the idea of pilgrimage, greatest industry 
• 16th century Malmuk empire was exhausted by war, plague
• Sophisticated modern army from Turkey, The Ottomans 

Selim The Grim

• I am now the possessor 
• tax of submission for Christians and Jews
• killed all of his brothers and some of his sons
• Suleiman, one son who survived, shrewd, lean
• Ottomon expansion seemed unstoppable
• Dome of the Rock, site of the first Jewish Temple during the reign of King Solomon 
• Suleiman means Solomon
• restoration of the Dome of the Rock
• fading mosaics were replaced with tiles
• created a factory on the Temple Mount 
• Jews were expelled to Jerusalem by the Romans
• Zion, biblical name of David's original stronghold 
• Jews had been banned from visiting their holiest site
• for generations prayed at all of the gates and walls of the temple walls
• Ottomon's tolerated the Christian religious minority 
•  Christianity spread across Europe 
• competition between the 3 faiths and among the Christian sects themselves
• 16thcentury, 9 communities, whoever pays, stays. Georgians, Sybians dropped out. Stronger ones could consolidate their hold on the church. Only the wealthiest churches could remain. 
• Catholics, Latins supported by France
• Russians supported the Orthodox
• fee to anyone going in or out 
• key was held by Nusaybahs, Arab family
• they still unlock the door every morning 
• aristocratic Arab families allowed by Ottoman's to run the city's affairs 
• Arab families had more power than Christians or Jews
• 1802, Ottoman governor demanded a tax increase through Palestine, had to raise money to fund wars 
• tax rises were the last straw for the ruling Arab families
• some rebels allowed Ottoman soldiers in
• British, French, Russians began to compete for influence in the city's holy places
• Christian rulers promoted their interests in Jerusalem. French based Catholics. British Protestants had a reverence for Jerusalem. Protestants prayed for the return of the Jews to the biblical holy land. 
•  evangelical Christians were influential in Victorian Britain 
• biblical prophecies about the final day of judgment 
• French-based Catholics and Russian based Orthodox fought 
• priests came armed with daggers 
• Ottoman divided the church between the Christian sects 
• war in Crimea was also a war for Jerusalem 
• Russians lost the Crimean war
• 10,000 Russian Christian pilgrims visited the city every year
• British Jew named Moses Montefiore built the first suburb outside Jerusalem's walls with a windmill to encourage breadmaking
• new village in clean countryside 
• 1880s, antisemitic violence became Orthodox policy 
• Jews were expelled by Romans in 70 AD 
• The Jewish State, Theodore Herzl
• The only way Jewish could be safe was to have their own country. Project: Zionism 
• Allenby promised protection and tolerance for all religions 
• Syria and Lebanon went to the French
• British took Jordan and Palestine
• Mufti, of Jerusalem was from Husseinis elite family. Campaign against Jewish worshippers at wall. Donkeys interrupted Jewish prayers. Tried to make life impossible and unbearable. 
• Palestinians rejected resolution
• Jordanians had most effective armies