Mamilla Cemetery

Coordinates: 31°46′41″N 35°13′14″E / 31.77806°N 35.22056°E / 31.77806; 35.22056
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Mamilla Pool and southern portion of the cemetery in the 19th century

Ma'aman Allah (Mamilla) Cemetery (

Mamluk-era tombs.[2]
The cemetery grounds also contain the bodies of thousands of Christians killed in the pre-Islamic era, as well as several tombs from the time of the Crusades.

Its identity as an Islamic cemetery is noted by

Persian writers as early as the 11th century,[5] and it has been characterized as "the largest and most important Muslim cemetery in all of Palestine".[1] It was used as a burial site up until 1927 when the Supreme Muslim Council decided to preserve it as a historic site.[2] Following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the cemetery and other waqf properties in West Jerusalem fell under the control of Israeli governmental bodies.[6] The Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs stated in 1948 that the cemetery is: "one of the most prominent Muslim cemeteries, where seventy thousand Muslim warriors of [Saladin’s] armies are interred along with many Muslim scholars... Israel, will always know to protect and respect this site."[7]

A number of buildings, a road and other public facilities, such as a park, a parking lot and public lavatories have since been constructed on the cemetery grounds, destroying grave markers and tombs. A plan to build a

Museum of Tolerance
on part of the cemetery grounds, announced in 2004, aroused much controversy and faced several stop work orders before being given final approval in July 2011.

Name

Partial view of Mamilla Cemetery

The cemetery shares its name with the Mamilla Pool, located at its center.[2] A church dedicated to "St Mamilla" was located at the same site in the early Byzantine and Islamic periods.[8][9][10]

Vincent and Abel (1922), supported by Pringle (1993), see it as plausible that a Byzantine-period pious woman by the Latin name of Mamilla sponsored the construction of a pool connected to the Patriarch's Pool next to the Church of the Resurrection, and that she became venerated as a saint to whom a church was dedicated next to her pool.[11][12] They see it as more likely that the church was named after the pool than the other way around.[11][12]

Muslim popular etymologies

Mamilla is mentioned as an Islamic cemetery as early as the 11th century in Concerning the (religious) status of Jerusalem, a treatise penned by

Arabic for "the olive trees of the religion", which Moshe Gil says was "a commonly used distortion of the name Māmillā," along with bab al-milla (meaning, "the door of the religion").[5]

Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi writes in al-Haqiqa, based on his travels to the region in 1693–1694, that, "It is said that its original name is Ma'man Illah and sometimes it was called Bab Illah [Gate to God]. It is also called 'Zeitun il-Milla'. Its name, according to the Jews, is Beit Milo and to the Christians, Babilla. But it is known to the common people as Mamilla."[13][14] A similar description appears in James Turner Barclay's The City of the Great King (1857) and he gives the meaning of Ma'man Illah (or Ma-min-ullah, as he transcribes it) as "What is from God!"[15]

History

Byzantine period

During the

Persian siege – 4,518 according to Gregorian translations of the lost Greek original, and 24,518 according to Arabic translations of the same – were found in the Mamilla Pool and buried in caves in and around it.[16][12]

Early Islamic period

Islamic rule over

The Palestine Post said it covered an area of over 450 dunams (111 acres),[20] while Haaretz in 2010 said that at its peak, it covered an area of 200 dunams (some 50 acres).[21] A 1938 deed issued by the British mandatory authorities to the Islamic waqf outlined the size of the plot as 134.5 dunams (33 acres).[22][23]

Religious warriors or

Bernard the Monk as lying about a mile west of Jerusalem (c. 870).[10]

The cemetery is mentioned by Arab and Persian authors under its various names throughout the ages (see above). In 1020, al-Wasiti writes that the Muslim cemetery situated in zaytun al-milla and outlines the advantages of being buried in Jerusalem.[5] Ibn al-Adim, the Syrian historian, recounts visiting the cemetery several times, and on one visit in 1239–40 recalls going to the graves of Rabi' al-Mardini (d. 1205–1206), a shaykh from Mardin renowned for performing miracles, and al-'Iwaqi (d. 1232), a pious Sufi who lived in the compound of al-Aqsa mosque.[24] Al-Adim describes the grave of the former as housed in a prominent mausoleum with other pious individuals.[24]

Crusader/Ayyubid period

During Crusader rule over Jerusalem, the cemetery appears to have once again served as a burial place for Christians. Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau, the French archaeologist, described and sketched several Frankish sarcophagi that were in the cemetery in the 19th century, most of which were destroyed in 1955 (see below).[25]

Al-Quraishi, a famous Sufi mystic said to have had miraculous healing powers, immigrated to Jerusalem from

Andulasia by way of Fustat and garnered a school of disciples in his new home that numbered some 600 people before his death and burial in 1194.[26]

Mamluk period

Tomb of Mamluk emir Aidughdi Kubaki
Sketch of the Kebekiyeh where emir Aidughdi Kubaki was interred in 1289

During the period of

Mamluk rule (c. 12th–15th centuries), most of the area's notable citizens were buried in Mamilla.[8] A structure known as al-Kebekiyeh (or Zawiya Kubakiyya), a one-room square-shaped building covered with a dome and incorporating architectural materials from the Crusader era was built during this period.[25][27] It is identified as the tomb of emir Aidughdi Kubaki, a Syrian slave who rose to prominence as the governor of Safed and Aleppo, before his death in 1289.[25][27]

In the 14th century work A'lam, a collection of traditions on the value of prayer in Jerusalem, al-Zarkashi says those buried in the city will avoid fitnat al qabr or "purgatory of the tomb," and for those buried in zaytun al-milla itself, it would be as if they were buried in heaven.[5]

Ibn Arslan, who was buried alongside Al-Quraishi (d. 1194) some two and a half centuries after the Ayyubid-period Sufi master, was a charismatic Sufi

shaykh whom Muslims from surrounding countries came to visit.[26]

Mujir al-Din al-'Ulaymi in al-Uns al-Jalil (c. 1496) says, "Who ever invokes God's name while standing between the graves of Ibn Arslān and al-Quraishī [in Māmilā cemetery], God will grant all his wishes."[26]

Other notables buried in Mamilla and recalled by Mujir al-Din include two founders of

al-Ibrahimi in Hebron (d. AH 828), among others.[2][3]

Ottoman period

Pool and cemetery of Mamilla, 1864.

During the period of

Ottoman imperial rule from the early 16th to early 20th centuries, the cemetery continued to serve as a burial site, and in 1847, it was demarcated by a 2-meter-high (6.6 ft) fence.[2] By the 1860s, the borders of the cemetery were delineated from the by then encroaching urban development by a wall and surrounding road.[28]

Mandatory Palestine period

Ashbee 1921 Zonning plan for Jerusalem. Mamilla Cemetery with its pool is shown directly west of the west corner of the old city.
The "Mamillah" district of Jerusalem in 1946, including the "Mamillah Cemetery (Moslem)" and the "Mamillah Pool".

Burials in the cemetery ceased early in the period of British rule over

Mandate Palestine (1918–1948), following the 1927 decision by the Supreme Muslim Council, who oversaw the administration of waqf properties, to preserve it as a historic site.[2] By this decision, the cemetery, its tombs, and its grounds were maintained.[2]

In 1929,

Mandate Palestine, authorized the disinterment. When it was discovered what had happened, rival factions filed a suit against Husayni in the Muslim courts, arguing that he had desecrated ancient graves.[29][30]

The Islamic waqf continued to control the cemetery and in 1944, the cemetery was designated an antiquities site by the British mandatory authorities.[22]

A November 1945 article in

The Palestine Post reported on plans of the Supreme Muslim Council (SMC) and the Government Town Planning Adviser to build a commercial center on cemetery grounds and to transfer remains buried in the areas to be developed to a "40 dunams walled reserve" centered around the tomb of al Sayid al Kurashi, ancestor of the Dajani family.[31] A member of the SMC told the newspaper that, "the use of Muslim cemeteries in the public interest had many precedents both in Palestine and elsewhere."[20]
The SMC's plan, however, was never implemented.

Israel

Mamilla graveyard 1948

At the time of Israel's assertion of control over West Jerusalem in 1948, the cemetery, which contained thousands of grave markers, came under the administration of the Israeli

Custodian of Absentee Property and the Muslim Affairs Department of Israel's Ministry of Religious Affairs.[2][6][32] After the armistice, Israeli authorities destroyed the part of the cemetery closest to the armistice line.[33] Since 1948, the site has been progressively built over with carparks, and partly developed into Independence Park.[34]

By the end of the 1967 war that resulted in the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, only a handful of broken grave markers remained standing.[2] A large part of the cemetery was bulldozed and converted into a parking lot in 1964 and a public lavatory was also built on the cemetery grounds.[22][35][36]

In the 1950s, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sensitive to how the treatment of waqf properties would be viewed internationally, criticized government policy towards the cemetery.[32] A ministry representative described the vandalism to tombstones, including their use by the guard appointed by the Religious Ministry to build a henhouse beside his shelter in the cemetery, and the destruction of ancient tombs by bulldozers cleaning the Mamilla Pool.[32] Noting the site constituted waqf property and lay within sight of the American Consulate, the ministry said it viewed the situation, which included plans for new roads and the parceling out of portions to private landowners as compensation for other properties confiscated by the state, with deep regret.[32]

Israeli authorities bulldozed several tombs in the cemetery, including some of those identified as Frankish by Clermont-Ganneau, to establish Mamilla Park (or Independence Park) in 1955.[25] Two of the largest and finest tombs survived, though the lid of one was overturned when it moved from its original spot.[25] The other is the Mamluk era funerary chapel known as al-Kebekiyeh (or Zawiya Kubakiyya), now located in the eastern end of Independence Park.[25][27]

Besides Independence Park, other parts of downtown Jerusalem erected on the cemetery grounds include the Experimental School, Agron Street, Beit Agron, and Kikar Hahatulot (Cats' Square), among others.[21] Government buildings on the cemetery grounds include the main headquarters of the Israeli Ministry of Trade and Industry,[2] and the Customs Department building, which is said to be located on what was once the site of the chapel dedicated to St. Mamilla.[37]

Grave of Ahmad Agha Duzdar, Ottoman governor of Jerusalem (1838-1863), in the southern section of the Mamilla Cemetery. The headstone was refurbished by the Turkish government in consultation with the Waqf in 2005.

In 1992, the Custodian of Absentee Property sold the cemetery grounds to the Jerusalem Municipality, a sale the Mufti of Jerusalem, Ikrema Sabri, said they had no right to make.[38] The Israeli Electricity Company destroyed more tombs on 15 January 2005 in order to lay some cables.[2]

Museum of Tolerance controversy

In 2004, the

Israel Lands Administration before it was given to the SWC for the project.[40]

During excavations to prepare the ground for construction in 2005–2006, skeletons were found and removed.[21][38] The Islamic Court, a division of Israel's justice system, issued a temporary ban on work, but work continued anyway.[38] The Al Aqsa Association of the Islamic Movement moved to bring the case before Israel's Supreme Court.[38]

The SWC's plan also elicited considerable outcry from some Israeli academics and archaeologists, and work was stayed several times by the courts. After the Supreme Court rejected the Islamic Movement's petition in October 2008, work resumed.[21] Between November 2008 and April 2009, crews of 40 to 70 people per shift worked in 8-hour stints, 24-hours a day to remove an estimated 1,000 skeletons from the site slated for construction.[21][41]

In 2010, Marvin Hier, rabbi and founder and dean of the SWC, said "Our opponents would have you believe our bulldozers are preparing to desecrate ancient Muslim tombstones and historic markers. Let me be clear: The Museum of Tolerance is not being built on the Mamilla Cemetery, but on an adjacent 3-acre site where, for a half-century, hundreds of people of all faiths have parked in a three-level underground structure without any protest."[42] Hier also accused opponents of the SWC's building plans of "sheer hypocrisy,"[20] noting that the plans of the Supreme Muslim Council to build a commercial center in 1945 was evidence that substantiated the Supreme Court's ruling, "That the Mamilla Cemetery was regarded by many Muslim religious leaders as 'mundras,' or abandoned and without sanctity."[42]

Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies at Columbia University, said that, "contrary to what Rabbi Hier said, that parking lot was built over a cemetery, part of it. And so, the Israeli authorities are basically pushing ahead with the desecration of a cemetery that they have been, unfortunately, slowly nibbling away at for over three decades. We and other families are taking action as a group of families to try and stop this, after other families failed in the Israeli Supreme Court." He also said that "What they have now done is to dig down and disinter four layers, according to the chief archaeologist for the Israeli Archaeological Authority, four layers of graves. There are more probably beneath those, according to his report, which was suppressed in the submissions to the Israeli Supreme Court."[43]

Gehry resigned from the project in January 2010.[44] A new design for the museum drafted by Chyutin Architects was approved by the city of Jerusalem in June 2011, receiving an official building permit from the Interior Ministry in July 2011.[45]

In October 2011, eighty-four archaeologists called on the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Jerusalem municipality and the Israel Antiquities Authority to end construction of the Museum of Tolerance. In a letter sent to the three bodies, the archaeologists argued that the establishment of the museum on the site of the Mamilla Muslim cemetery contradicted ethical standards in the archaeological world, as well as Israeli law. "The bulldozing of historic cemeteries is the ultimate act of territorial aggrandizement: the erasure of prior residents," said Professor Harvey Weiss of Yale University, adding that "Desecration of Jerusalem's Mamilla cemetery is a continuing cultural and historical tragedy." The Simon Wiesenthal Center responded that "the arguments in the letter are old, of a mistaken nature and contain factual errors."[46]

Other developments

Plans to build new buildings to house the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court and the Jerusalem District Court on the cemetery grounds were cancelled by Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch in January 2010. The decision followed the discovery of human remains at the site, supporting critics' claims that construction in the area was offensive to Muslims.[44]

On 9 August 2010, 300 Muslim gravestones in the cemetery were bulldozed by the

Agence France Presse witnessed the destruction of 200 graves until the work was briefly suspended while the court heard a stop work petition it rejected, allowing demolitions to continue that same day.[47] The judge later issued an order prohibiting harm to ancient graves and mandating that the ILA coordinate work with the Israel Antiquities Authority and representatives of the Islamic Movement.[48]

The Jerusalem city council issued its first official response in a written statement on 12 August, saying that, "The municipality and the (Israel Lands) Authority destroyed around 300 dummy gravestones which were set up illegally in Independence Park on public land." It said these "fake" gravestones were not erected over any human remains and were placed in the park in an effort to "illegally take over state land."[47]

Mahmud Abu Atta, a spokesman for the Al-Aqsa Foundation, denied the city council's claim that new tombs were added illegally. He said that between 500 and 600 tombs had been renovated in total "with the municipality's agreement," that "some of the tombs had to be totally rebuilt," but that "all the tombs that we built or renovated contain bodies."[47]

Twenty graves were completely destroyed or had their tombstones removed by vandals in January 2011.[49] On the night of 25–26 June 2011, about 100 gravestones in an intact part of the cemetery were destroyed by Israeli bulldozers.[22][50] Footage filmed by local media and activists appeared on Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera and showed the bulldozers pulling out quickly after realizing they were being filmed; Israeli officials made no comment on the incident.[51]

Later that same year, fifteen gravestones in the cemetery were spray painted red with racist slogans reading "Death to the Arabs", as well as "

Givat Asaf", the name of an Israeli outpost slated for demolition.[52][53] The news was reported in November 2011 by Agence France Presse whose photographer saw the damage.[52] Haaretz reported that the authorities did not know exactly when the vandalism took place, nor who was responsible,[54] An Israeli Police spokeswoman told AFP that "the slogans were painted several weeks ago" and had not yet been erased by municipal authorities.[52]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b Makdisi 2010, p. 520.
  2. ^
    Jerusalem Quarterly
    . 37. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  3. ^ a b Moudjir ed-dyn (1876). Sauvaire (ed.). Histoire de Jérusalem et d'Hébron depuis Abraham jusqu'à la fin du XVe siècle de J.-C. : fragments de la Chronique de Moudjir-ed-dyn. Paris : Leroux. pp. 102, 164, 198–200, 265, 267, 269.
  4. .
  5. ^ . Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  6. ^ .
  7. ^ Visit Jerusalem's New Museum of Tolerance. Feel Your Blood Boil, Bradley Burston, 7 June 2012
  8. ^
    S2CID 162297451
    .
  9. ^ a b Gil, pp. 153, 442.
  10. ^ .
  11. ^ a b Vincent, Louis-Hugues; Abel, Félix-Marie (1922). Sainte-Mamilla. Vol. 2 (2nd part). Paris: Librairie Victor Lecoffre. pp. 868–871 [869–870]. Retrieved 14 June 2022. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  12. ^
    ISBN 0521390389. Retrieved 14 June 2022. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
    Pringle cites Vincent and Abel.
  13. Institute of Jerusalem Studies. 2003: 61. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help
    )
  14. .
  15. ^ James Turner Barclay (1857). The city of the Great King: or, Jerusalem as it was, as it is, and as it is to be. Challen. p. 404. mamilla name.
  16. .
  17. ^ a b c Mick Dumper & Craig Larkin (2009). "Political Islam in Contested Jerusalem: The Emerging Role of Islamists from within Israel" (PDF). Conflict in Cities.
  18. ^ .
  19. .
  20. ^ a b c Abe Selig (17 February 2010). "Muslims planned Mamilla project in '45". The Jerusalem Post.
  21. ^ a b c d e f Nir Hasson (18 May 2010). "Museum of Tolerance Special Report / Part I: Holes, Holiness and Hollywood". Ha'aretz. Retrieved 17 July 2011.
  22. ^ a b c d e Rashid Khalidi (5 July 2011). "Human Dignity in Jerusalem". Jadaliyya.
  23. ^ Asem Khalidi (January 2009). "Mamilla and the Museum of Intolerance". Israel Palestine Crnter for Research and Information (IPCRI). Archived from the original on 15 April 2013. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
  24. ^ .
  25. ^ .
  26. ^ .
  27. ^ .
  28. ^ Makdisi 2010, p. 521.
  29. ^ "Grand hotel". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com.
  30. ^ "A guide to buildings in Jerusalem". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com.
  31. ^ Rabbi Marvin Hier (19 February 2010). "Mamilla Cemetery Chutzpah and the Museum of Tolerance". Retrieved 18 July 2011.
  32. ^ .
  33. ^ The Meeting of Civilizations: Muslim, Christian, and Jewish edited by Moshe Ma'oz p. 103
  34. S2CID 145465276
    .
  35. .
  36. ^ Journal of Palestine studies, Volume 7, Issues 25-28. Institute for Palestine Studies and Kuwait University. 1978. p. 194.
  37. .
  38. ^ a b c d e Donald Macintyre (9 February 2006). "Israel plans to build 'museum of tolerance' on Muslim graves". The Independent. Archived from the original on 19 June 2008. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  39. ^ "Row over Israeli tolerance museum". 17 February 2006 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
  40. ^ a b Natasha Mozgovaya (18 May 2010). "Museum of Tolerance Special Report / An exhibition of Zionism". Ha'aretz. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
  41. ^ Nir Hasson (18 May 2011). "Museum of Tolerance Special Report / Part II: Secrets from the grave". Ha'aretz. Retrieved 17 July 2011.
  42. ^ a b Rabbin Marvin Hier (19 February 2010). "Hypocrisy and lies fuel enemies of a Jerusalem museum". New York Daily News.
  43. ^ Democracy Now (10 February 2010). "Palestinian families appeal to un". Retrieved 14 July 2011.
  44. ^ a b Akiva Eldar (15 January 2010). "Frank Gehry steps down from Museum of Tolerance project". Ha'aretz. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
  45. ^ "Irony Be Damned, Israel Will Build Its Museum of Tolerance Atop a Muslim Graveyard". ARTINFO. 14 July 2011. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
  46. ^ Noam Dvir (25 October 2011). "Grave concerns International archaeologists are calling for work to stop at the Museum of Tolerance". Retrieved 30 July 2011.
  47. ^ a b c d "Destroyed Muslim graves in Jerusalem were 'fake': Israel," Hazel Ward, 12 August 2010, (AFP).
  48. ^ a b Nir Hasson (15 August 2010). "Even the dead and buried enter the conflict". Haaretz.
  49. ^ "Jerusalem Web Review Jan–Feb 2011" (PDF). Conflict in Cities and the Contested State.[permanent dead link]
  50. ^ "Israel gets final permit to build "Museum of Tolerance" atop of Muslim cemetery". The Palestine Monitor. 15 July 2011.
  51. ^ Center for Constitutional Rights (30 June 2011). "Jerusalem Municipality Destroys Cemetery Headstones, Approves "Museum of Tolerance"". Axis of Logic.
  52. ^ a b c "Muslim graves vandalised at disputed Jerusalem site". AFP/France24. 10 November 2011. Archived from the original on 10 November 2011.
  53. ^ "88% of Jewish Israelis oppose price tag attacks". The Jerusalem Post. 10 November 2011.
  54. ^ Oz Rosenberg (10 November 2011). "'Death to Arabs' scrawled across Muslim gravestones in Jerusalem". Haaretz.

Sources

Further reading

External links

31°46′41″N 35°13′14″E / 31.77806°N 35.22056°E / 31.77806; 35.22056