Lecture 17

We started today by finishing lecutre 14. We talked about avvasid Dynasty, ruled from 750-969. Abbasids try to wipe out memory of umayyid accomplishments ike palaces. Abbasid Caliph took credit for building the dome of the rock.The next dynasty was the Fatimids, ruling from 969-1099. The rulers were form egypt. The population of Jerusalem kept increasing during this time. In 1009 Caliph al-Hakim ordered destruciton of all Jewish and Christian houses of prayer, including the holy sepulcher. It was a very bad and intollerant situation.In 1033, an earthqake damages Jerusalems walls, the dome was restored in 1035 and the city walls were rebuilt in 1034-1064. In 1070-1098 the Seljuqs occupied Jerusalem, destroying and looting the city and massascring people. In 1098, Fatimids led a 40-day siege on Jerusalem's fortifications, destroying several sections of the city wall, and eventually retaking hte city from the Seljuqs.
We then finished Saladin Conquers Jerusalem in 1187. Jews were allowed to come in if they wanted too. There were Purificaitns of hte Haram and the Church of hte Holy Sepulcher was given to Greek Orthodox.We finished the Crusades by talking about Ayyubid Jerusalem. You can start to see a partern in the crusades. They had 8 crusades. During the 5th crusade the walls fo jerusalem were dismantled, people fleed and the population shrunk to 2000. And during the 6th crusade, the crusaders actually takes back Jerusalem for ten years. The last cursader falls in 1291 ending the crusader period.
We then moved to the next topic.We then moved to a new topic about Mamluk and Ottoman Jerusalem. The Mamluk Period was from 1244-1516 and Ottoman period was from  1517-1918. We disgusted the time line from 1187 to 1948. Professor specificly told us not to write it down.Mamluk means owned. It was a soldier of slave orgin that turned to islam. It was considered to be a movement instead of a dynasty. Under Mamluke Jerusalem becomes a religious center. It also was politcally and militarily insignificant, it was "a city without walls".Under them, The haram was develoved. The specifically built schools, hospices and hostels. They used the cursaders structures to do this. However, in 1351-1353, Jerusalem suffered from the Black Death Plague.The Mamluk also provided Jerusalem with alot of new Architectre. They introduced them to muqarnas decortive techniques which can be see inside does and above entrances.Professor showed us pictures of some of the Muqarnas designs. They were cool becuase they were like 3-D images and reminded me of the honey structures bee's make.Some of the developments of the Haram were also happening. Towers on thecorners of Haram were built, Mnarets were added, Summer pulpit were built, Northen colonnade were added, and the Dome of hte rock and al-Aqsa Mosque were restored.Alot of the enhancements in what is now the islamic quarter.
Anohter thing that was interesting was that the Jewish Quarter continued to grow. Not as a political standpoint, but as a spiritual center. Synagogues were found, Jews came to study with Him, and Kabbalah (jewish Mysticism) was also developed.We then moved onto the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman took Constantinople in 1453. Selim I defeats the Mamluks in 1517 at Marj-Dabik (north Syria). The ottoman Administration was a strong centralized government. In 1831, Jersalem lost to Mohammed Ali in Egypt,but was restred in 1840.Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent was a ruler from 1520-1566. He did alot of public works like repairing and enlarging aqueducs and Sultans pool. He rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, includeing a part that is two miles long, forty feet high, 34 towers and 7 gates. He replaces the mosaics on the exterior of the Dome with Syrian tiles. His works in Jerusalem parallels that of Mecca nd Medina: he Makes Jeruslame the third great city of Islam!We finished class with the western wall and how it was a palce of prayer given by Suleiman