Mamilla Cemetery
Ma'aman Allah (Mamilla) Cemetery (
Its identity as an Islamic cemetery is noted by
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
Name
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
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
Early Islamic period
Islamic rule over
Religious warriors or
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
Mamluk period
During the period of
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
Other notables buried in Mamilla and recalled by Mujir al-Din include two founders of
Ottoman period
During the period of
Mandatory Palestine period
Burials in the cemetery ceased early in the period of British rule over
In 1929,
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
Israel
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
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]
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
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
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 "
References
Citations
- ^ a b Makdisi 2010, p. 520.
- ^ Jerusalem Quarterly. 37. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
- ^ 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.
- ISBN 9780816057641.
- ^ ISBN 9780521404372. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
- ^ ISBN 9780231106405.
- ^ Visit Jerusalem's New Museum of Tolerance. Feel Your Blood Boil, Bradley Burston, 7 June 2012
- ^ S2CID 162297451.
- ^ a b Gil, pp. 153, 442.
- ^ ISBN 9789068317923.
- ^ 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) - ^ ) Pringle cites Vincent and Abel.
- Institute of Jerusalem Studies. 2003: 61.)
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help - ISBN 9789774162473.
- ^ 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.
- ISBN 9780199208593.
- ^ 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.
- ^ ISBN 9789652292544.
- ISBN 9781901435030.
- ^ a b c Abe Selig (17 February 2010). "Muslims planned Mamilla project in '45". The Jerusalem Post.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c d e Rashid Khalidi (5 July 2011). "Human Dignity in Jerusalem". Jadaliyya.
- ^ 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.
- ^ ISBN 9789004099562.
- ^ ISBN 9780415173612.
- ^ ISBN 9780674032019.
- ^ ISBN 9780192880130.
- ^ Makdisi 2010, p. 521.
- ^ "Grand hotel". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com.
- ^ "A guide to buildings in Jerusalem". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com.
- ^ Rabbi Marvin Hier (19 February 2010). "Mamilla Cemetery Chutzpah and the Museum of Tolerance". Retrieved 18 July 2011.
- ^ ISBN 9780791450789.
- ^ The Meeting of Civilizations: Muslim, Christian, and Jewish edited by Moshe Ma'oz p. 103
- S2CID 145465276.
- ISBN 9780709948605.
- ^ Journal of Palestine studies, Volume 7, Issues 25-28. Institute for Palestine Studies and Kuwait University. 1978. p. 194.
- ISBN 9789652210166.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Row over Israeli tolerance museum". 17 February 2006 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
- ^ a b Natasha Mozgovaya (18 May 2010). "Museum of Tolerance Special Report / An exhibition of Zionism". Ha'aretz. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
- ^ Nir Hasson (18 May 2011). "Museum of Tolerance Special Report / Part II: Secrets from the grave". Ha'aretz. Retrieved 17 July 2011.
- ^ a b Rabbin Marvin Hier (19 February 2010). "Hypocrisy and lies fuel enemies of a Jerusalem museum". New York Daily News.
- ^ Democracy Now (10 February 2010). "Palestinian families appeal to un". Retrieved 14 July 2011.
- ^ a b Akiva Eldar (15 January 2010). "Frank Gehry steps down from Museum of Tolerance project". Ha'aretz. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
- ^ "Irony Be Damned, Israel Will Build Its Museum of Tolerance Atop a Muslim Graveyard". ARTINFO. 14 July 2011. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
- ^ Noam Dvir (25 October 2011). "Grave concerns International archaeologists are calling for work to stop at the Museum of Tolerance". Retrieved 30 July 2011.
- ^ a b c d "Destroyed Muslim graves in Jerusalem were 'fake': Israel," Hazel Ward, 12 August 2010, (AFP).
- ^ a b Nir Hasson (15 August 2010). "Even the dead and buried enter the conflict". Haaretz.
- ^ "Jerusalem Web Review Jan–Feb 2011" (PDF). Conflict in Cities and the Contested State.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Israel gets final permit to build "Museum of Tolerance" atop of Muslim cemetery". The Palestine Monitor. 15 July 2011.
- ^ Center for Constitutional Rights (30 June 2011). "Jerusalem Municipality Destroys Cemetery Headstones, Approves "Museum of Tolerance"". Axis of Logic.
- ^ a b c "Muslim graves vandalised at disputed Jerusalem site". AFP/France24. 10 November 2011. Archived from the original on 10 November 2011.
- ^ "88% of Jewish Israelis oppose price tag attacks". The Jerusalem Post. 10 November 2011.
- ^ Oz Rosenberg (10 November 2011). "'Death to Arabs' scrawled across Muslim gravestones in Jerusalem". Haaretz.
Sources
- Makdisi, S. (2010). "The Architecture of Erasure". Critical Inquiry. 36 (3). S2CID 162250956.
Further reading
- Clermont-Ganneau, Charles Simon (1896): Archaeological Researches in Palestine 1873–1874, [ARP], translated from the French by J. McFarlane, Palestine Exploration Fund, London. Volume 1.
- p. 279 ff: The cemetery of Mamilla
- Hidden Heritage: A Guide to the Mamilla Cemetery, Emek Shaveh (2016)
- Sulimani, G., & Kletter, R. (2017). Bone Considerations: Archaeology, Heritage, and Ethics at Mamilla, Jerusalem. International Journal of Cultural Property, 24(3), 321–350.
External links
- A Museum of Tolerance we don't need LA Times
- Museum Creates New Jerusalem Divide NYTimes