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| Pipes, Daniel Ph.D. History Harvard |
2000.07.19 Daniel Pipes, The Jerusalem Post – With final-status talks between Israel and the [Palebanis] underway, [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] is finally in play. At base, the argument here consists of an argument between Jews and Moslems over who has the older, better documented, and deeper ties to the Holy City.
A cursory review of the facts shows that there is not much of a contest.
[Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] has a unique importance to Jews. It has a unique place in Jewish law and a pervasive presence in the Jewish religion. Jews pray toward [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim], mourn the destruction of their [Beit ha-Mi•qᵊdâshꞋ] there, and wishfully repeat the phrase "Next year in [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim]." It is the only capital of the Jewish state, ancient or modern.
In contrast, [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] has a distinctly secondary place for Moslems. It is not once mentioned in the Koran or in the liturgy. The Prophet Mohammed never went to the city, nor did he have ties to it. [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] never has served as the capital of any polity, and has never been an Islamic cultural center.
Rather, Mecca is the "[Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim]" of Islam. That is where Moslems believe [contrary to Ta•na"khꞋ] that Av•râ•hâmꞋ nearly sacrificed Yi•shᵊm•â•eilꞋ; where Mohammed lived most of his life; and where the key events of Islam took place. Moslems pray in its direction five times each day and it is where non-Moslems are forbidden to set foot.
[Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] being of minor importance to Islam, why do Moslems nowadays insist that the city is more important to them than to Jews? The answer has to do with politics. Moslems take religious interest in [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] when it serves practical interests. When those concerns lapse, so does the standing of [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim]. This pattern has recurred at least five times over 14 centuries.
The Prophet. When Mohammed sought to convert the Jews in the 620s C.E., he adopted several Jewish-style practices – a Yom Kippur-like fast, a synagogue-like place of worship, kosher-style food restrictions – and also tachanun-like prayers while facing [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim]. But when most Jews rejected Mohammed's overtures, the Koran changed the prayer direction to Mecca and [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] lost importance for Moslems. [Cf. Dân•iy•eilꞋ 7.25; ybd]
The Umayyad Dynasty. [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] regained stature a few decades later when rulers of the Umayyad dynasty sought ways to enhance the importance of their territories. One way was by building two monumental religious structures in [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim], the Dome of the Rock in 691 and Al-Aqsa Mosque in 715.
Then the Umayyads did something tricky: The Koran states that God took Mohammed "by night from the sacred mosque in Mecca to the furthest (al-aqsa) place of worship." When this passage was revealed (about 621), "furthest place of worship" was a turn of phrase, not a specific place. Decades later, the Umayyads built a mosque in [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] and called it Al-Aqsa. Moslems since then understand the passage about the "furthest place of worship" as referring to [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim].
But when the Umayyads fell in 750, [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] lapsed into near obscurity.
The Crusades. The Crusader conquest of [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] in 1099 evinced little Moslem reaction at first. Then, as a Moslem counter-crusade developed, so did a whole literature extolling the virtues of [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim]. As a result, at about this time [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] came to be seen as Islam's third most holy city.
Then, safely back in Moslem hands in 1187, the city lapsed into its usual obscurity. The population declined, even the defensive walls fell.
The British conquest. Only when British troops reached [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] in 1917, did Moslems reawaken to the city's importance. Palestinian leaders made [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] a centerpiece of their campaign against Zionism.
When the Jordanians won the old city in 1948, Moslems predictably lost interest again in [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim]. It reverted to a provincial backwater, deliberately degraded by the Jordanians in favor of Amman, their capital.
Taking out a bank loan, subscribing to telephone service, or registering a postal package required a trip to Amman. Jordanian radio transmitted the Friday sermon not from Al-Aqsa but from a minor mosque in Amman. [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] also fell off the Arab diplomatic map: the PLO covenant of 1964 did not mention it. No Arab leader (other than King Hussein, and he rarely) visited there.
The Israeli conquest. When Israel captured the city in June 1967, Moslem interest in [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] again surged. The 1968 PLO covenant mentioned [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] by name. Revolutionary Iran created a [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] Day and placed the city on bank notes. Money flooded into the city to build it up.
Thus have politics, more than religious sentiments, driven Moslem interest in [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] through history.
(The writer is director of the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum.)
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