The Muslim Quarter (Danny Herriges)

The tour this day consisted of visiting the Temple Mount, meeting with a Sufi sheikh, touring the Muslim Quarter, observing Mamluk architecture and concluding with a visit a library containing ancient manuscripts. The Temple Mount, called the Noble Sanctuary by Muslims is a religious epicenter in the Old City of Jerusalem. Due to its importance for Judaism and Islam it is one of the most contested religious sites in the world. The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. Jewish Midrash holds that it was from here that the world expanded into its present form, and that this was where G-d gathered the dust He used to create the first man, Adam. The Torah records that it was here that G-d commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, and the place He chose to rest His Divine Presence; consequently two Jewish Temples were built at the site. Jews believe that the Third Temple, which they hope will be the final one, will also be located here. In recent times, due to difficulties in ascertaining the precise location of the Temple's holiest spot, the Holy of Holies, which only the High Priest could enter and only on Yom Kippir, many Jews will not set foot on the Mount itself. In Islam, the site is considered to be the location of Islamic prophet Muhammad’s journey to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven; it is also associated with other local Muslim figures of antiquity. The site is the location of the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, the oldest extant Islamic structure in the world. The Temple Mount is traditionally regarded by Muslims as the third holiest site in Islam, after Mecca and Medina in Arabia. The primary reason for the Temple Mount's importance, however, is because both Kings David and Solomon are regarded as Prophets, and the Temple is one of the earliest and most noteworthy places of worship of G-d. In fact, Muslims faced the Temple Mount during prayer until Muhammad was later commanded to change the direction of prayer, the qibla, toward the Ka'aba. Thus Muslims no longer pray towards the Temple Mount, but face towards Mecca. In addition to this, the "farthest Mosque" (al-masjid al-Aqsa) in verse (17:1) of the Qur'an is traditionally interpreted by Muslims as referring to the site at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on which the mosque of that name now stands. References to Jerusalem and events there have been made mostly in various states of ambiguity, in the Quran, and many times in the Hadith. Another reason for its importance in Islam is because it is believed that in 621, Muhammad arrived there after a miraculous nocturnal journey aboard the winged steed named Buraq, to take a brief tour of heaven with the Archangel Gabriel. This happened during Muhammad's time in Mecca, years before the Muslims, after Muhammad's death, conquered Jerusalem (638).After the Muslim conquest of this region, Islamic tradition holds that when Muslims first entered the city of Jerusalem under the leadership of Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab in 637, the ruins of the Temple were being used as a rubbish dump by the Christian inhabitants perhaps in order to humiliate the Jews and try to fulfill the prophesy of Jesus that not a stone would be left standing on another there (Matthew 24:1–2); Caliph Umar (a contemporary of Muhammad, who had died a few years earlier), ordered it cleaned and performed prayer there. However, he refrained from building a mosque at the site, but instead ordered a mosque to be constructed at the southeast corner facing Mecca, near which the Al-Aqsa Mosque was built 78 years later. In 691 an octagonal Muslim building topped by a dome was built by the Caliph Abd al Malik around the rock, for political reasons, in violation of the Caliph Omar's teachings. The shrine became known as the Dome of the Rock (Qubbat as-Sakhra - In 715 the Umayyads led by the Caliph al-Walid I, rebuilt the Temple's nearby Chanuyos into a mosque (see illustrations and detailed drawing) which they named al-Masjid al-Aqsa -, the Al-Aqsa Mosque or in translation "the furthest mosque", corresponding to the Muslim belief of Muhammad's miraculous nocturnal journey as recounted in the Quran and hadith. The term al-Haram al-Sharif - (the Noble Sanctuary) refers to the whole area that surrounds that Rock as was called later by the Mamluks and Ottomans. For Muslims, the importance of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque make Jerusalem the third-holiest city after Mecca and Medina. The mosque and shrine are currently administered by a Waqf (an Islamic trust). After the Six Day War in 1967, the Israeli Government turned the control of the Mount over to a Waqf. On August 21, 1969, an Australian, Michael Dennis Rohan, set the Al-Aqsa mosque on fire. This site has also been the flash point for the Second Intifada after Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount. This act sparked waves of violence against Israel for about 5 years. Tunneling next to the Western Wall has also sparked immense controversy about the sovereignty of the area.
The Muslim Quarter is one of the four quarters of the ancient, walled Old City of Jerusalem, the other three being the Jewish Quarter, the Christian Quarter and the Armenian Quarter. The Muslim Quarter is the largest and most populous of the four quarters and is situated in the northeastern corner of the Old City, extending from the Lions' Gate in the east, along the northern wall of the Temple Mount in the south, to the Damascus Gate - Western Wall route in the west. The Via Dolorosa road also starts in the quarter. The population of the Muslim Quarter is 22,000. Like the other three quarters of the Old City, the Muslim quarter had a mixed population of Jews as well as Muslims and Christians until the riots of 1929. Today 60 Jewish families live in the Muslim Quarter, and a few yeshivot are located there. The main one is Yeshivat Ateret Cohanim. Jewish landmarks within the quarter include the Kotel Katan or Little Western Wall, and the Western Wall Tunnels, which run below the neighborhood along the Western Wall.
We met with a Sufi Sharif, who is on the forefront of peaceful interfaith relations n Jerusalem. The Center that his family founded here in Jerusalem was founded in 1616
The sheikh is of Uzbek origins which is a country in central Asia, formerly in the USSR.
The tradition is passed down the Father-son lineage of the family, meaning that each Sharif is the son of the previous one. Since 1999 he has been perusing interfaith work in regards to peace, especially in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Sufism means how to love G-d and not just the rituals and prayers. Some of the points he made were that religion is not about duty but relationship because you should pray because you want to not because you have to. It’s about Living your faith and feeling the love of G-d constantly. Think more about G-d and try to see G-d in all people. Try to embrace diversity because G-d is in everything and everybody. Religion is to obligate to remember G-d in every thing we say or do. Sufis brought Islam to Indonesia and are crucial group responsible for the spread of the faith. Humility is key because pride gets in the way of a relationship with G-d or any relationship for that matter. G-d is always watching and we must behave accordingly. We were taken to a small room where it is a shrine of sorts to the past and of the family. There have been no changes made there for over a century to remember those who worked here before. This is also a promise to carry on Uzbek traditions and a responsibility to the world.
After meeting with the Sharif, we took a glimpse at remnants of architecture from the Mamluk period here in Jerusalem .A Mamluk was a slave soldier who converted to Islam and served the Muslim caliphs and the Ayyubid sultans during the Middle Ages. Over time, they became a powerful military caste numerously defeating the Crusaders and, on more than one occasion, they seized power for themselves, for example ruling Egypt in the Mamluk Sultanate from 1250-1517. The first mamluks served the Abbasid caliphs at the end of the 9th century Baghdad. The Mamluk system was an evolution of a previous system, the Ghulam system, invented by the Caliph al-Mu'tasim, in which Turkish prisoners of war became the caliphal guard. the Mamluks were captured as children and then trained and molded within the Islamic world to ensure their loyalty to their masters. Most of those captured were of non-Muslim origin. The mamluk system gave rulers troops who had no link to any established power structure. Local non-mamluk warriors were often more loyal to their tribal sheiks, their families, or nobles than to the sultan or caliph. The mamluk slave-troops were strangers of the lowest possible status who could not conspire against the ruler and who could easily be punished if they caused trouble, making them a great military asset. After mamluks had converted to Islam, many were trained as cavalry soldiers. Mamluks had to follow the dictates of furusiyya, a code that included values such as courage and generosity, and also cavalry tactics, horsemanship, archery and treatment of wounds, etc. The intensive and rigorous training of each new recruit helped ensure continuity of mamluk practices. While they were no longer actually slaves after training, they were still obliged to serve the Sultan. The Sultan kept them as an outsider force, under his direct command, to use in the event of local tribal frictions. The Sultan could also send them as far as the Muslim regions of Iberia. At first their status remained non-hereditary and sons were strictly prevented from following their fathers. However over time, in places such as Egypt, the mamluk forces became linked to existing power structures and gained significant amounts of influence on those powers. When the Mongol troops of Hulagu Khan sacked Baghdad in 1258 and advanced towards Syria, Mamluk Emir Baibars left Damascus to Cairo where he was welcomed by Sultan Qutuz. After taking Damascus, Hulagu demanded that Qutuz surrender Egypt but Qutuz had Hulegu's envoys killed and, with Baibars' help, mobilized his troops. Although Hulegu had to leave for the East when great Khan Möngke died in action against the Southern Song, he left his lieutenant, the Christian Kitbuqa, in charge. The decline to the Mamluks was their refusal to adapt firearms, feeling that such weaponry was cowardly. They were overcome by the Ottoman Empire and the Ottomans ruled Jerusalem until the end of World War One when the British took control of the territory.
Our last stop was at a Muslim Library, packed with old texts. A lady named Haifa, who comes from a prestigious family that has been involved with the library for generations. Before entering the library proper, there are several graves at the entrance of Mamluks. The library contains 1200 manuscripts and 600 books including a gilded Koran from the 1600s and a book about the defeat of the Crusaders. They have used the current site for over a century and the collection continues to grow.