21st Century Jerusalem— Last Lecture

Israel and Palestine are having difficulty on how to divide the land equally. Israel is dominating the land while Palestine has been played on through the Oslo Accords.  Currently, there are barriers that restrict access from Palestine to Israel. There are so much hatred found between two groups. As both groups need to move on from the past to proceed, both countries cannot seem to agree on several conflicts simply because they refuse to meet up and negotiate. Currently, there is unrest in the city but it is very close to the end.

I had a pleasure of going to Dr. Cargill’s lectures. The material were very in dept and challenging due to the fact that I am not familiar with Israel and its history. After taking this class, I feel a desire to go and explore the city myself. I enjoyed this class even though there were two tough assignments. These assignments allowed me to expand my knowledge outside of the classroom. Thank you for teaching this quarter.

 

 

20th Century Jerusalem

20th century marks the beginning of modern times Jerusalem. This time period is known through several agreements that shaped this city to modern Jerusalem.  Most of these treaties occurred during the British Mandate Period. Some of these are Balfour Declaration, Sykes-Picot Agreement, and Peel Plan.  The 20th century is a very violent time period in the European countries simply because there is a rise of antisemitism and it often times would create ethnic groups to separate and fight among themselves. Hitler became extremely powerful and Jews were fleeing to find shelter and security. While the war is fueling, there is chaos with the Armenian group as they try to flee genocide. The Armenian quarter is flooded with refugees.  As the British empire becomes extremely powerful, they were able to conquer the area where the Ottoman empire own. United Kingdom and France decided to split the Ottoman empire area by using the Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916). This agreement helps to split the countries evenly.   The next important agreement that embellished the 20th century is the Peel Plan. This plan is to alleviate the violence between Jews and Arabs. This is related to the Israel and Palestine Conflict. The proposed solution is that there should be two states instead of one and this plan was approved by the United Nations. The conflict between Israel and Palestine is mostly on religious differences and how to operate the the state system. The war fought is called Six Day war.

Mamluk Jerusalem and Ottoman Jerusalem

Shortly after the Crusaders, the time period is noted as Mamluk Jerusalem.  This is the turning point for the holy city. It is finally being recognized as a religious center and many religions have “religious visits” as part of Jerusalem’s title of being holy. This is interesting how a pilgrimage or a short visit can change a perspective on a religion. During this time period, Jerusalem lacked city walls and was very open to any military attack. The Islamic rulers controlled the city at this time and they developed a settlement called Haram. Within this place, there were establishments of schools, hospices, and hostels. These rulers cultivated the way how the city ran because they developed a civilized way of living such as developing monuments through cultural aspects.  Today, there are several noticeable Mamluk architecture such as the entrance for the Cotton Market. During this development, the Dome of the rock and al- Aqsa Mosque were restored. While the Islamic aspect of Jerusalem was rapidly growing, the Jewish quarter blossomed also.

While both religions are growing through the Mamluk time period, the Ottomans took over Jerusalem. Ottomans are from Turkey and the man who captured Jerusalem is Sultan Suleiman the magnificent. He helped tremendously by respecting religious sanctuaries and understanding the importance. Generally, that is hard to do since most people fought against each other for that reason.Overall, we see Jerusalem being a sacred city for Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.

Crusader Jerusalem

This lecture was taught by Dr. Ryan Roberts. He spoke about the Crusader time period in Jerusalem. This time period is very controversial as it is a time period where Christians tried to forget and move on. They are ashamed of their past. Crusaders are people who tried to combat against the Islam rule and tried to recapture Jerusalem as a Christian city. The war between the Christians and Muslims were declared as the Holy War. But what truly sparked this holy war? Some of the causes were political and religious. For the political aspect, the crusaders felt threatened by the expansion of Islam and there some changing of Roman rule. One of the biggest contributor is that a lot of Christians felt that the decline in Christianity which sparked the religious importance.  Pope Urban II is the man who declared a crusade. The goal for this conquest is to establish religious authority and to have more followers for the religion.  A way to spread the influence is through the use of propaganda and in this case, the reestablishment of churches helped to declare the case. One of the most important reestablishment is through the Church of Holy Sepulcher. It was destroyed by Caliph Al-Hakim. But the Crusaders rebuilt it. This Church is so significant for the Christian followers simply because it contains holy and religious importance and it is considered Christians holiest church. This time period is classified through its conquest through bloody wars and trying to reestablish the title of Christianity through churches.

Islamic Jerusalem

Jerusalem was under the control by Caliph Omar in 638 CE. This marked the end of the Byzantine Empire over Jerusalem. It all started with the Sasanians take Palestine and Jerusalem in 614-628. In 614, the Jews were allowed to resettle in Jerusalem but this did not mean that there were harmony between the Jews and Christians. In 628 CE, the Byzantine Emperor orders a massacre of Jews. This finally ended when Caliph Umar takes Jerusalem and he allowed Jews to come back to the city of Jerusalem.  Muslims regarded Jerusalem as a holy city and often times would name the cities in Arabic: Aeila (Jerusalem), Bait Maqdis (house of holy place), al-Quds (the holy), and several more. In Islam, the Qur’an mentioned JErusalem as a place where to worship. It used to be the place of prayer before the night journey occured. This event utlimately changed the place of worship to Mecca. The reason why Mecca is extremely important is because the Kaaba contains a religious importance and people would make a pilgrimmage to see this black stone.  Scholars believe that people who cannot go to Mecca to fulfill their pilgrimage requirement can go to Jerusalem to satisfy it.

Islam has its own special place in Jerusalem as it contains one of the most holy spots for Muslims. The Dome of the Rock and the mosque that lies with the Dome of the Rock.  This building contains Arabic inscriptions from the Qur’an as part of the architecture and it is uniquely presented in a octagon. Why does this building carry importance to Muslims? Well, this building carries myths that this was the place where Muhammad’s  Night Journey took place, this is the connection where Hell and Earth existed, place where the Final Judgment, and the place where Isaac was sacrificed. Al- Aqsa Mosque is known to be the “Farthest Mosque”.  An interesting fact about this mosque is that a prayer there is worth 500 prayers elsewhere. Through the mosque and the Dome of the Rock, Islam established a place in Jerusalem.

Byzantine Jerusalem

Why is the Byzantine Empire so important to us today? Isn’t it just like any other empire that conquered and had a short lived success. This empire is extremely important to us because the Byzantine spread the rise of Christianity. The faith of Christianity at that time was at its infantile state and it spread like wildfire with the help of the Byzantine Empire.  The empire conquered Jerusalem and Christianity is soaring as ever. The Church of Holy Sepulcher is established to solidify the faith from the Byzantine empresses. Helena, Constantine’s mother is believed to build church over Jesus’ crucifixion spot and the spot where he is buried.  The Christian faith is becoming more spiritual and is stronger than ever. The emperor uses Christianity to unify the kingdom and he ruled with Christianity. The Christian faith believe that people die and become the children of God. Myths have it that Helena is the person who found the cross that Jesus died on and decided to dedicate that to the Church of Holy Sepulcher. Interesting fact is that Constantine never made Christianity a state religion but merely legalized it.  Christianity proved its existence through the Church of Holy Sepulcher

Jerusalem in REVOLT!

Herod’s kingdom was divided among his three sons. The power were split between each son. Archelaus is the first son and is the ethnarch of Judea. He was a very ineffective ruler and was sent to exile in 6 CE. The second son, Herod Antipas, was a tetrarch of Perea and Galilee. He ruled from 4 BCE until he was exiled in 39 CE.  Most of Jesus’ life took place in Galilee.  Interesting enough, all these coins have inanimated figures as they did not want to disrespect the people.  The third son is Herod Philip and he was a tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonititis. As a third son, he got the worst part of the kingdom as the land was all swamp area. He put picture of him on the coins because he was far away enough from Jerusalem.  The Romans took over Jerusalem and replaced Herodian rulers. The ruler that is only mentioned is Pontius Pilate, and he is the only Roman governor mentioned in the Gospels. He was very ineffective and he provoked the Jews. He tried Jesus and order Jesus’ execution. Due to this bad ruler, a revolt was ready so ignite. The Jews viewed this conquest as apocalytic and believed that there will be some mercy that God will eradicate the Romans and give Jerusalem back to the Jews.  The first step that the Jews did was to mint own coin money which is symbolic to a change of authority. Titus is the solider for the Romans and he destroyed the temple on 70 CE. Ironically, the  temple is destroyed on the same day where the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians.