2/24/11 Lecture 16

In today’s lecture we discussed the period of early Islamic Jerusalem and the general background of Islam. This early Islamic period begins in 638 CE when Caliph Umar takes over Jerusalem and ends in 1099 CE with the arrival of the crusaders. When Caliph Umar takes Jerusalem, it is part of the treaty with the Christian community that Jews not be allowed to settle in the city. Eventually he backed out of this and let Jews back into the city to settle. The Muslims continued to call the city Aelia initially, which means “the city of the Temple”. They then began to call it Bait Maqdis, which means “the city of the Holy House” but eventually shortened it to al-Quds or “the Holy”. They also referred to the temple mount as the Haram al-Sharif or “the noble sanctuary”. The Dome of the Rock was first constructed in 691 CE by Abd al-Malik in order to divert pilgrimage from Mecca. The Dome was paid for with 7 years of taxes collected from Egypt. The project was finished under budget so they used the remaining money to plate the Dome in pure gold. It was later converted to a church by the crusaders in 1099 CE but taken back in 1187 CE and restored by Salah ad- Din. The Dome is said to cover the stone where Muhammad ascended heaven on the back of his winged horse. The traditions of the Dome are overlapping with Jewish and Christian tradition and the inscription even says that we are all people of the book but states that Jesus was only a Messenger of God not part of God himself. The Al-Apsa Mosque was built during the reign of Caliph Walid, around 710 CE, in the spot of the origianal wooden Mosque that Caliph Umar built. The Islamic art and architecture is said to be amazing as it highlights geometrical design and shows the beauty of the written word. They use no images of people or animals so it really brings out the design.

Next we’ll look at a quick background of Islam the Prof. Cargill gave. Jerusalem has become the third holiest city in Islam behind Mecca and Medina. There are five pillars of Islam: testimony, prayer, almsgiving, fasting, and pilgrimage. In Jerusalem when a Muslim is on pilgrimage to Mecca they paint the door of their house with bright colors and if anybody steals from them while they’re gone it is one of the worst sins. I also learned today that the division of the Shiite and Sunni sects traces back to the origins of Islam. The Shiites are a kinship-based caliphate that supports Ali, while the Sunnis are more tradition-based and support Muawiya.