One of the archaeological neighborhoods in Old Jerusalem is located to the west of the Al-Aqsa mosque adjacent to the Buraq Wall, which was stopped by King Nur al-Din bin Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi in 1193 on the Moroccans who participated in the defeat of the Crusaders and the conquest of Jerusalem, as well as their arrivals to Jerusalem from students of Science and pilgrims.

The Moroccan Quarter has played a fundamental role in the history of the city of Jerusalem and its economic, social, spiritual and cultural life for several centuries.
In June 1967, the Israeli occupation demolished the entire Moroccan Quarter and displaced its inhabitants, turning 8 centuries of rich Islamic history into rubble, and created in its place the "weeping Square", which was dedicated to Jewish prayers and celebrations.
Location and architectural construction
The Moorish Lane is located in the Old City on the southwestern side of Jerusalem, to the west of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.
According to her, her limit:
* South it ends to the Jerusalem city wall and the road leading to Ein Silwan.
* East to the Western Wall of the Al-Aqsa mosque, known as the"wall of the Buraq".
* North to Qantara Umm al-banat.
* West to the House of Judge Shams al-Din and then to the House of Imad al-Din ibn Muski.

Its area is estimated at 45 thousand square meters, and it makes up 5% of the area of Old Jerusalem.
It was expanded in subsequent eras and its borders varied from time to time, as it extended before the Ottoman era to include areas outside the wall, so it was known as the "Al-Maghrib Al-baraniya neighborhood" (outer).
The lane drops below the ground level of the squares of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and before its demolition, it took a square shape interspersed with ancient archaeological and historical structures, some of which date back to the Ayyubid era, and these structures are interspersed with obstacles and crooked and narrow alleys connecting the parts of the lane with each other.
On both sides of each obstacle or alley there are a number of adjacent buildings, sometimes topped with arches, domes and porticoes (a set of columns in a straight line connected at the top by arches holding the roof), famous for their wells, small rooms, thick walls and small entrances.

Naming
King Nur al-Din ibn Salah al-Din took over the rule -he was nicknamed the best King-and a number of Moroccans had settled in Jerusalem after coming to it for jihad during the Crusades or to seek knowledge or pilgrimage, and then adjacent to the Al-Aqsa mosque near the southwestern corner of the Haram.
The King stopped the houses surrounding the Buraq Wall for them, and since that date this neighborhood of the city of Jerusalem has been known as the" neighborhood of the Moroccans", after its inhabitants, the majority of whom were Moroccans.
Importance
Before its demolition, it was adjacent to the Buraq Wall, where it was mentioned that the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) connected the Buraq with the night of Isra and Miraj.some historical accounts also mention that he entered the city of Jerusalem from its Yemeni gate, the location of which later became known as the door of the Moroccans.

On the other hand, the lane was one of the 4 lanes that formed the Old City of Jerusalem, and it was the closest to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the only one that leads directly to the Holy Temple Mount.
It was also a kiss for the people of the Maghreb who wanted to be near the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Rabat in Jerusalem all his life, and it was a destination for Sufis from the followers of Abu Madin Al-Ghawth and the followers of the grandson and the ascetic Sheikh Omar al-Masmoudi and others.
Moreover, Al-Hara was a meeting place for the followers of the Maliki school because of their location there and the existence of the preferential school, which was stopped by the better King.
At the same time, Jews claim that the Lightning wall-which they call the "Wailing Wall"- is part of Solomon's temple and is known to them as the place where the Lord "manifests himself", and that it has been regularly used as a prayer site since the time of the Prophet Solomon (peace be upon him).

History
The history of the Moorish lane dates back to the Umayyad era, who established a number of palaces called "Dar Al-Imara", they were adjacent to the wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the south and south-west sides.
The Moroccan presence in Al-Hara became prominent after the conquest of Jerusalem, as the Moroccans made up between 20% and 25% of the army led by Saladin and won the Battle of Hattin, in which Jerusalem was recaptured from the Crusaders in July 1187.
After the end of the war and the victory of the Muslims, Saladin adhered to the Moroccans, who had an honorable role in both sea and land battles, so he asked them to settle permanently in the city and assigned them the southwestern corner of the Haram wall.
This corner was a plain area, it is easy to attack the city from one side, while the other three sides of the city are mountainous and rugged, so Saladin Said, "I lived there who are standing on land and swimming in the sea, who I trust over this great mosque and this city".
When the best King Nur ad-Din came to power in 1193, he stopped the neighborhood around the Buraq Wall and related lands for the Moroccans, founded a school for them and built a university, and by 1300 the neighborhood was home to a thriving population of Moroccans of different countries and varieties.
The migration of Moroccans to Jerusalem expanded during the Mamluk era, and they also retained a special status with the Ottomans, who entered the city in 1517, and annexed it to their state, and the sheikh of the Moroccans remained the representative of his community and his people before the Ottoman authorities and the judiciary, and he was also an overseer and responsible for their Waqfs, which diversified and flourished and abounded inside Jerusalem and in the villages and orchards adjacent to it.
During this period, the features of the residential area of the moors in Jerusalem were formed, and the neighborhood became a prosperous intellectual center and attracted scholars and jurists, especially the Maliki and Sufi sheikhs, in addition to pilgrims, merchants and others, and also witnessed remarkable growth in the 16th century.
For several centuries, this vibrant and diverse community has played a key role in the history of the city and its economic, social, spiritual and cultural life.in addition to prominent religious monuments and the book School, the neighborhood hosted a court, local commercial enterprises, a mill and kilns, and Moroccan craftsmen produced paper, belts, rugs and handmade metalwork.

The population of the neighborhood became more diverse in the centuries following its establishment, and the majority of the families that inhabited it had their origins in the Islamic Maghreb: they were mostly Tunisians, Algerians, Moroccans, some marrakeshis, Libyans and Andalusians.
Pilgrimage or persecution-as happened after the fall of Al - Andalus in 1492-brought many Moroccans to Jerusalem, and for centuries Jews, Christians and Arab Muslims from Palestine and elsewhere stayed in the neighborhood.
This corner of the Old City became the site of a number of facilities and embraced religious and endowment institutions that played a prominent role in the scientific, intellectual and religious movement in Jerusalem during the Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman eras.
Endowments
The official one is the Waqf of the best King Nur al-Din, who stood the entire Hara for the benefit of Moroccans and built them a mosque where prayers are held on the Maliki doctrine.
He established the preferred school 75 meters from the Western Wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and he entrusted it to the Maliki jurists, so it played an important role in the intellectual and scientific movement among the Moroccan Maliki residing in Jerusalem and coming to it for centuries, and then it was one of the archaeological buildings demolished by the occupation.
After the official Waqf, the popular Awqaf continued to be established as charitable institutions, including a number of large awqafs, which ensured the continued flow of aid, funds and alms to the beneficiaries of Maghreb assets residing in Al-Hara and those coming to it from residents of Sufi corners.

These endowments flourished in the Mamluk era, schools, buildings, chapels and corners were established in Al-Hara, and its inhabitants began to engage in religious life in Jerusalem, and scholars, jurists and religious sheikhs emerged from them who played a prominent role in the history of the city.
The most important of these popular poses are:
Waqf Sheikh Abu Madin relief grandson
It was recorded in 1320 and included the entire Ein Karem, a village on the borders of Jerusalem, as well as the annexation of buildings on the Bab al-Silsila road adjacent to the AL-Maghriba lane from the north side, thereby expanding the neighborhood of Al-Maghriba and grew through the revenues of the village and including houses, orchards and trees.
The Waqf was reserved for the benefit of Moroccans passing through and residing in Jerusalem, and the proceeds from the lands of Ein Karem were a major source of funds for the functioning of the Moroccan Waqf in Jerusalem.
The Sheikh also stopped the Moroccan corner that he allocated to Moroccan males, and allocated them everything they needed from food, drink and clothing.
Waqf Al-Mujahid Omar al-Masmoudi
It was recorded in 1330, it consists of 3 houses located in the AL-Maghriba lane and a corner created by him at the top of the lane from the north-west side, it consisted of two floors and included a mosque and 10 rooms with all its facilities and buildings.
The Sultan of Morocco Ali bin Othman al-Marini stood up
He allocated a huge amount of 16,500 dinars to buy a waqf in Jerusalem and the Two Holy Mosques in 1337.

The mosque of the moors
It gains its importance from being part of the Holy Temple Mount, and some historical sources stated that it was built by order of Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab, and it was said that it was built during the Umayyad era.

Conflict with the occupation

The story of the conflict with the Zionists began when Sultan Abdul Hamid II allowed Jews to stand near the Buraq Wall - an Islamic Waqf-to perform their religious rituals in a narrow alley 3.75 meters wide.
In the second half of the 19th century, the ambitions of the Zionist movements began to increase in relation to the place, Baron Rothschild tried in 1887 to buy the entire neighborhood with the aim of demolishing it and creating a square dedicated to Jewish prayer, Rabbi Chaim Hirshenson and the"Zionist company for the development of the Palestinian Territories" tried to buy the wall in 1895, as well as in 1914 the Jews offered 20 thousand pounds sterling to buy the neighborhood, but all their attempts failed.
Months after the Balfour Declaration was issued (in 1917), Chaim Weizmann wrote to Balfour in May 1918 describing the neighborhood as "miserable huts and abandoned buildings", proposing to hand over the Wailing Wall (wall of lightning), promising that the Jews would pay for it generously, and again Mufti Kamal al-Husseini refused this offer.
After the league of Nations granted Britain the right to mandate Palestine, the Zionist leader Haim Weizmann in 1919 sought to raise 75 thousand pounds sterling to buy the Maghrib neighborhood, demolish it and transfer its inhabitants, but the British government supported the status quo at that time and refused to change it.
Tensions worsened and demonstrations, Jewish crowds and marches demanding the Wailing Wall began throughout the twenties, thirties and forties of the twentieth century, but these demands also did not bear fruit and the wall and the neighborhood remained an Islamic Waqf.
Since the declaration of the establishment of the state of Israel in the occupied territories of Palestine in 1948, the Zionist targeting of the neighborhood began with the arrival of Jews to West Jerusalem, they attacked the Abu Madin relief stop in the village of Ain karm, inhabited by Moroccans and effectively deprived the Waqf of its resources.
In 1955, on behalf of the Maghreb countries, France was able to obtain a judicial decision halting the process of registering the lands of the village of Ein Karem with Israeli names, and also obtained Israeli approval to pay compensation for the proceeds of Moroccan endowments retroactively, starting in 1948 in the amount of 3 thousand Israeli liras for each year.
The lawsuit filed by France before the Israeli judiciary remained pending until the independence of Morocco and Tunisia, so France took the initiative to write to the two countries informing them of Israel's acceptance of the payment of compensation and that it would be a temporary solution.
The two countries rejected the offer and the Moroccan Ministry of Awqaf said in its official letter that it could not enter into a transaction with the occupation of any kind, so as not to understand any recognition of the legitimacy of Israel.

lane demolition

After the 1967 war, in which Israel won against the Arab armies, the occupation took a decision that the area in front of the lane hinders architectural plans and its inhabitants should be expelled.
The occupation quickly confiscated the Maghriba neighborhood and imposed a curfew law on the tenth of June 1967, and the evacuation of residents began already that day, as residents in Al-Hara were informed to evacuate their homes within hours, and those who refused orders were forced to evacuate their homes by force when bulldozers moved to destroy the area.
In a 3-day operation between June 11 and 13, 1967, Israeli occupation bulldozers demolished the hotbed and razed it to the ground, committed an archaeological, architectural and humanitarian massacre, and turned 8 centuries of Jerusalem's history into mere rubble.
The total number of buildings that were washed away at that time was 135 archaeological structures belonging to various historical eras, starting from the Ayyubid era to the Ottoman era, including the Al-Buraq mosque, the AL-Maghriba mosque, the preference school and the honorary corner, and some facilities were preserved at the outer limit of the lane, the most important of which are the mosque near the door of the Maghriba and the honorary corner, but these two buildings were finally destroyed in 1969.
The aim of destroying the Moroccan Quarter and expelling its inhabitants was to reshape the space it occupies for the benefit of Jews and accommodate the expected influx of visitors to the wall from them, as the maximum number of people able to pray at the wall during the British Mandate was 12 thousand people a day, so the occupation wanted to increase the number to 40 thousand.
On the other hand, the occupation went ahead with the project of Judaizing Jerusalem and expanding the so-called"Jewish Quarter" at the expense of neighboring Muslim neighborhoods, as this neighborhood has already swelled by 4 times what it was before 1948.

Reconfiguration

The contours of the newly formed area in front of the wall were changed within weeks after the destruction of the Moroccan lane, and the place was expanded to include the area occupied by the demolished lane, and through a quick reconstruction process, the place was transformed into a square that the occupation called "Weeping square".
A section directly in front of the Western Wall with a length of 50 meters and a width of about 50 meters was allocated to serve as a synagogue for Orthodox believers, this space surrounded by barriers was promised the status of a sacred space and divided into two sectors: one for women and one for men.
The space behind the synagogue has also become the site of oath-taking ceremonies for Israeli soldiers and the final stop of the annual Jerusalem March, an Israeli rally organized to demonstrate"the right of the Jewish state to claim its united capital," as the Israelis claim.