The Importance of Jerusalem

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THE IMPORTANCE OF JERUSALEM
(Jerusalem Day - Continued)

The lack of importance of Jerusalem to the Arabs throughout history can best be illustrated by the following:

The Arab caliph, Sulayman, founded Ramleh and made it his capital. Jerusalem was neither the center of a provincial Arab administration nor the location of a strong garrison. Arab trade routes did not even reach it. To the Arabs, Jerusalem was totally unimportant. This is a simple historical fact.

When the Abbasid caliphs came to power in 750, the long period of decay and neglect continued in Jerusalem. The caliphs resided in Baghdad and did not show any interest at all in far-away Jerusalem. The Caliph al-Mahdi visited Jerusalem only once, in 780. He had the Dome of the Rock/al-Aksa mosque repaired. It had been almost completely destroyed in an earthquake years before, and no one until then had thought to do anything about it. Obviously, this mosque on the Temple Mount was not on anyone's priority list.

Caliph al-Ma'mun never even bothered visiting Jerusalem, not even once. You would think that if Jerusalem was such a holy place to the Moslems, he would take the time to get off his behind and visit the holy city at least once in his lifetime. And yet, history records that he never bothered visiting the city.

In 941, Jerusalem fell under the control of an Egyptian dynasty called the Ikhshidids. Jerusalem is rarely mentioned in the chronicles of the period. Arab historians of the time did not even mention the city. Now what are we to think of all this? How important is Jerusalem to the Moslems? From a historical viewpoint, the answer here is fairly obvious.

In September 1260, Jews fought alongside the Mamluk army to successfully defeat Kublai Khan's Mongol hordes at Ein-Harod, Israel. The Mamluks, however, never attached any importance to Jerusalem and did not care to fortify the city. Up until the end of the 14th century, Jerusalem was administered by a low-ranking Mamluk appointed by the deputy of the Sultan of far-away Damascus. How unimportant can you get?

Under Ottoman Moslem rule (1517-1917), the development of Jerusalem was halted, with the exception of rebuilding the wall around the city for defensive reasons. The central Ottoman authorities regarded Jerusalem as no more than a dusty town bordering on the land of the Bedouin.

To the Ottoman rulers, Jerusalem was insignificant from a strategic and political point of view. When the Ottomans conquered Eretz Israel in 1516, they did not even bother making note of the exact date of Jerusalem's capture. That's how insignificant Jerusalem was to the Moslems.

Jerusalem was so insignificant, that the various Moslem rebels and invaders did not even attempt to conquer it. To them, it wasn't even worth the effort. Perhaps the final insult came during Napoleon's conquests in the Middle East. Napoleon did not consider it necessary to conquer Jerusalem, and satisfied himself by capturing only the towns of the coastal strip and the towns of the plain.

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