Bulletin of Palestine Studies

Abstract

Jerusalem is the third holy city of the Muslims after Mecca and Medina, which are called Ḥaramayn. For this reason, many sources refer to it as Thālith-i Ḥaramullah. The verses in the Qur'ān about the al-Masjid al-Aqsā and the Prophet Muḥammad's and other prophets' acquaintance with the city were influential in the recognition of Jerusalem as a holy city. After the city came under Muslim rule for the first time in 638, the Umayyads built two magnificent buildings, the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsā Mosque, in the al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf area of the city. Later, especially during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods, the city was adorned with Islamic buildings such as masjids, dervish lodges (zawiyahs), madrasahs and fountains. When the Ottoman Empire annexed the city from the Mamluks in 1517, the responsibility for maintaining and repairing these buildings passed to the Ottoman sulṭāns. Sulṭān Suleiman I was the first to initiate reconstruction and renovation work in Jerusalem, and many of the city's buildings were overhauled. Similar to the repairs of this period, the repairs of 1780, 1812 and 1848 were extensive repairs that overhauled many buildings in al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf of Jerusalem. It can be seen that the Ottoman sulṭāns acted with the understanding of Khādim al-Ḥaramayn al-Sharīfayn in a total of twenty repair works in Jerusalem under Ottoman rule. With this understanding, the Ottoman Sulṭāns did not separate Jerusalem from the Ḥaramayn and showed their allegiance to the Muslims of Jerusalem by protecting the Islamic buildings in Jerusalem. The most important factor that mobilised the Ottoman sulṭāns in this regard were the scholars of Jerusalem. It has been noted that the scholars of Jerusalem wrote petitions from time to time to prevent any delay in the repair of the buildings in need of repair in the area of al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf region. In particular, those buildings that could not be repaired by the waqfs to which they belonged were repaired thanks to the reminders of the Jerusalem scholars to the Ottoman Sulṭāns. As a result, the Islamic buildings in Jerusalem, one of the three holiest places for Muslims, have survived for centuries and continue to serve Muslims.