History of the Old Town
History of the Old Town
The history of the Old City in the heart of the occupied city of Jerusalem stretches back thousands of years, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and since its occupation by the Israelis in 1967, it has been subjected to successive Judaization campaigns that take various forms and target all its features, including the holy sites.
The Old City " or "Old Jerusalem", is the center of the city of Jerusalem, and it is the place located inside the wall of Suleiman the magnificent, its area is 871,000 M٢, that is, less than one square kilometer where more than 31,000 people live, and its height above sea level is 75 meters, and the Islamic endowments constitute 437% of its area, while the property Christian churches and endowments are 46.3% of them .
The historical fence
The Old Town is surrounded by a historical wall built by the Canaanites for the first time and then rebuilt in the Greek, Roman, crusader, Ayyubid and Mamluk eras, and its last building dates back to the Ottoman period and was ordered to be built by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the magnificent.
The Jerusalem wall extends with a length of about 4,300 meters, and its height varies between 5 and 15 meters in accordance with the geography of the place , and there are 36 defensive towers in the wall in the northern and northwestern regions, and its thickness varies between one and four meters.
The wall still stands tall, maintaining its prestige despite the passage of 500 years since its last construction, and over thousands of years of the Arab-Islamic civilization of Jerusalem, which was preceded by many rulers and civilizations that came conquered, occupied or liberated.
The gates of Old Jerusalem
* - The Jerusalem wall contains 13 doors that are considered the entrances to the Old City.
* - The number of open doors is eight: Bab al-Amud, Bab al-Asbat, Bab al-Khalil, Bab Nabi Dawud, Bab al-Daman, in addition to Bab Al-Sahra, Bab al-Maghriba and Bab al-Jadid.
* - The five closed doors are the door of mercy, the funeral door, the single door, the double door and the Triple Door.
* - The column door is the most luxurious door in terms of decorations, and it is the main passage for all commercial caravans and tourist regiments since the Ottoman era.
* - The closed door of Mercy is one of the largest and oldest doors and is a typical Umayyad building.
* - The door of the Moroccans was opened by Jordanian soldiers in 1953.
Old Town markets
*. A number of markets in the Old City of Jerusalem are still standing despite the Daily arbitrary occupation measures against merchants and their goods.
*. One of the most prominent open markets, despite the closure of some of its shops, are: Khan Al-Zeit market, Bab al-Silsila market, the market of perfumers, welders and Al-khawajat, in addition to Allon market, aftimus market and Al-qataneen.
*. Some of the Old Town's markets have completely disappeared, such as the bashoura and Al-hosr markets.
*. All markets suffer from stagnation and weak purchasing movement, and traders suffer from imposing heavy taxes that have accumulated on many of them due to their inability to pay them.
*. The merchants of the town are suffering from a systematic incitement attack from Israeli tourist guides who prevent tourists from buying from the shops of the Old Town and urge them to buy only from Israeli markets.
The Old City in Jerusalem has a special religious status, it is the land of the prophets and the home of the messengers, and it is the gate of heaven for Muslims, to which the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) secretly came and from which he was taken to heaven, and its Al-Aqsa Mosque was the first kiss for Muslims in their prayers, and it is one of three mosques Around her.
As for Christians, it is the land of the call of Christ (peace be upon him), which was a witness to his miracles, and where his enemies ordered him, and they believe that its land witnessed his resurrection to life again, and embraced his body when he was buried, and it is the Holy Land to which their pilgrimage goes every year, and the Church of the Holy As her name indicates, she is a witness to his resurrection after the conspiracy against him.
The city of Jerusalem was founded in 3000 BC.By the Jebusites, a branch of the Canaanites. Their rule of the city lasted 1325 years until 1675 BC.M. The city came under the control of the Hyksos for 163 years, witnessed in the year 1656 BC.The mission of our master Jacob. After the Hyksos, the pharaohs ruled Jerusalem for about 200 years, and then in 1004 BC.Prophet David entered Palestine and established a kingdom of truth and Justice, which was inherited by Prophet Solomon, who died923BC.The kingdoms were divided after him into Israel in the North and lasted 202 years until they fell to the Assyrians in 721 .S.Jerusalem was under their control and lasted 337 years to fall in 586 BC. M by 135 m. In 326, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, and the Empress Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, came to Palestine and built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and after the division of the Roman Empire into eastern and Western in 395, Jerusalem came under Byzantine rule.
The year 619 ad was the journey of Isra and Miraj, where the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was taken prisoner from the Grand Mosque to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and from there to heaven, to enter Jerusalem under Islamic rule with the Umayyad conquest in 636 AD, and enjoy tranquility under this rule until the Crusader occupation in 1099 ad, which lasted88years until 1187 ad, when the Muslims liberated Jerusalem under the leadership of Saladin The city then enjoyed Islamic rule until 1967, when the Zionist occupation tightened its grip. After 1243 years of Islamic rule, the Old City of Jerusalem, with all its Islamic and Christian holy sites, fell into the hands of the occupier again.
The Babylonians. After that, the Persians took turns ruling Jerusalem 184 years, Greece188years, the Maccabees, Jewish kings who received a kind of autonomy under Greek authority 117 years, and then the Romans, who ended all forms of Jews in the city when they put down the Jewish revolt in
Sacred monuments
The Old City of Jerusalem embraces the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, the first of the two tribes, the third of the Two Holy Mosques and the sanctuary of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).
* The area of the Al-Aqsa Mosque is 144 dunums and occupies a sixth of the area of the Old Town.
* The Al-Aqsa mosque includes many buildings, and the number of landmarks in it reaches two hundred, including domes, arcades, niches, pulpits, minarets and Wells.
* The Al-Aqsa Mosque has eight chapels, namely the tribal Chapel,the dome of the Rock Chapel, the Marwani, the Old Al-Aqsa, the Buraq Chapel, the Moroccans and the women's mosque.
Extremist settlers desecrate the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque five days a week, and the mosque's courtyards have witnessed serious abuses over the past year, as extremists do not hesitate to perform Talmudic rituals inside the mosque and conclude Jewish marriage contracts in its courtyards.
* The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the most prominent Christian landmark within the Old City and the church includes five stages of the journey of the passion of our Lord Jesus according to the Christian belief.
* The church is intended for tourists from many countries, and the eyes of the world turn to it on Easter, as Christians believe that the light emanates from the Holy Sepulchre and chant prayers under the slogan “Christ is truly risen”.
The settlement in the Old City formed the Israeli pillar of pressure on the Arabs, and the confiscation of land and property and the establishment of outposts began since the occupation came in 1967.
The occupation changed many of the features of the Old City, including the names of its streets, and the change included its social, economic and political structure, in parallel with the excavations and the tunnel networks below.
The occupation imposes heavy taxes on the Palestinian residents of the Old City and prevents them from building, and the town suffers from commercial stagnation, high unemployment and overcrowding in housing.
The Old City is one of the eight main neighborhoods of Jerusalem, divided by Israel since the occupation of the city in 1967, into four neighborhoods with designations that suggest that they are religious, namely, the "Islamic neighborhood, the Christian neighborhood, the Armenian neighborhood, and the Jewish neighborhood", to prove the existence of a Jewish neighborhood in the occupied city, that the occupation municipality always invents Hebrew designations for neighborhoods and towns The streets of Jerusalem, as part of their efforts to obliterate Arab-Islamic monuments, completely Judaize the city, especially its Old Town.
"The occupation municipality has replaced dozens of roads, alleys and streets in the Old City with new Hebrew names, in order to falsify history and brainwash people, and for Jerusalem to be part of the fake Jewish history,"he said.
The occupation gave the name " Islamic quarter "to denote the existence of another neighborhood, the" Jewish quarter", but in reality there is no name for these neighborhoods in the Old City, but they are historical holy neighborhoods, all their landmarks, monuments and buildings demonstrate their Arabness and Islamism.
The "Islamic quarter", according to the Israeli designation, includes the entire north-eastern region, which stretches from Bab al-Amud to Al-Wad Street, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Bab Al-Sahra and Bab al-Asbat, and includes the Saadia, Bab Hatta, Al-Wad, Bab al-Silsila, Al-ghawanmeh neighborhoods, in addition to many Islamic monuments.
As for the"Christian neighborhood", it is called the" Christian neighborhood " in Jerusalem, which is located northwest of the Old City, and extends from Bab al-Jadid north along the Western Wall of the Old City to Bab al-Hebron, and includes the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Omar ibn al-Khattab Mosque, the tanning market, and many monasteries and churches.
The "Armenian Quarter" is called the Armenian Quarter, and it is the smallest neighborhood of the holy city, and it is located southwest of the Old City on an area of about 300 dunums, and the Armenian Patriarchate is one of its most important buildings, and it was named after the Armenians who came to Jerusalem.
It includes a group of houses that were previously a shelter for pilgrims and later became houses rented to Armenians, in addition to the Armenian monastery consisting of a worship space, a school, a museum and a medical clinic.
The occupation after the 1967 war completely destroyed the honor and Moroccan neighborhoods southeast of the Old City, expelled thousands of Palestinians from it, and turned it into what is known as the"Jewish Quarter", Around which the Al-Buraq Wall Square is built.
Excavations under the Old Town
After the occupation of the city of Jerusalem in 1967, Israeli occupation excavations began under the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Beginning in 1968, large excavations began South and west of Al-Aqsa and reached a depth of 14 meters that revealed the remains of traces of Umayyad palaces.
Excavations began in the western tunnel in 1970, and the tunnel extends from the bottom of the Sharia court along the Western Wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque from south to North, passing through five of the doors of Al-Aqsa.
The western tunnel, which was opened in 1996 during the rule of Benjamin Netanyahu, is the most famous and longest, and it is the most important tunnel dug by the occupation and reaches a length of about 450 meters, and a height of two and a half meters, and contains a museum, sanatoriums, a synagogue, performances and others.
The occupation also dug a series of other tunnels such as Bab al-qatanin tunnel, Hammam Al-Ain tunnel, Silwan cave tunnel and others.
Sources
- https://tourism.ps
- https://www.marefa.org/
- https://palwiki.najah.edu
- http://awraq.birzeit.edu/
- https://www.aljazeeramubasher.net/