AN N EA 10W Lecture 20 (Wk 10) LAST LECTURE >:)

THIS IS THE LAST LECTURE for this course. I am happy because it means that I can finally go home. But I am also quite sad since this means I cannot learn anymore about Jerusalem. And the thing is, I really really really enjoyed these last two lectures. Too bad this class is over. I would have loved to learn about modern day Jerusalem, there is something about World War I and beyond that is just so intriguing. It finally puts all the current events in the Middle East into perspective, and now I can discuss these issues with my other friends. Because now I know the whole background of the situation. Which I am very happy about.

So today, okay... yesterday, in class we talked about Jerusalem in the present day. Basically modern Jerusalem conflicts mainly deal with the 6-day War and the War of Independence. It is the conflict between the Israeli and Palestinians over lands of Jerusalem. Now I know the reason why there is so much animosity in the Middle East. I mean I have always knew that conflicts were going on in Middle East but I never realize that it is actually because of Jerusalem. I know this is a bad generalization, but every time something regarding the Middle East pops up on the news, I just kind of ignore it. Because I have associated the Middle East with constant fighting. So to me it is nothing new, no new development.But now I kind of feel bad for making such harsh generalizations.

Intifada was an important topic in this very last class. It is defined as an uprising, a mass protest (from the Palestinians against the Israeli) that tries to disrupt daily life as much as possible. These intifadas were violent with lives being lost. The second intifada was triggered by Ariel Sharon’s visit on Temple Mount which is a No No to Jewish people. He later admitted that it was a mistake. Also the PLO was also an important part with Yasser Arafat as the group founder. He declared the sate of Palestine although there were no physical or geographical state at that time. I think he declared that just to win support. But he was an important figure because he is considered to be the one who held 2 sides (peace and revolt) of Palestinians in peace.

Also the Oslo Accords were a main event that really heat up the conflict. Palestinian trusted leader, Yasser Arafat, did not help Palestinians with a state of Palestine. Instead he signed the treaty acknowledging the existence of the Israel state while failed to create a State if Palestine. The treaty just acknowledge that Arafat is the leader of Palestine (still no official state). Many people believed that Arafat sold Palestinians out.

AN N EA 10W Lecture 19 (Wk 10)

During this lecture we moved to late 19th and early 20th Century of Jerusalem. We started discussing the beginning of WW1 and the end of the Ottoman empire after the war. Also we began to see the rise of the Anti-Semintism which was the Catholic effort to make life miserable to the new Jews settled. I thought the movment was like a “peace war” where there were no physical fighting but still destroy people’s lives. Would that be called violence? I think so because it did cause damage to people even though not physcially. So as the result of this movement because now Jews began to flee to Jerusalem to escape this anti-Semitism. Moreover, this also led to the rise of Zionism which is the idea of Jews going back to Jerusalem, back to their homeland. Zionism encouraged Jews to establish their own “state for Jews”. And the person involved here is Theodor Herzl. However, he originally didn’t suggest Jerusalem. Instead he suggested Uganda as the “home for Jews.” But I guess overtime things change and Jerusalem still holy for the Jews since Uganda doesn’t have any religious significance to the Jews.

One of the more interesting topics is the Pool Commission in 1937. It mark the “terrorist” attack from the Jewish Militarian group to drive the British out. They actually succeed. So i think this event is the beginning of thinking Middle East = terrorists. Also the War of Independence in 1948 was also important because it created the “Green Line” which separate Israeli and Palestinians in Jerusalem. The Palestinians were fighting a losing battle because they didn’t have that many financial support from Europe like the Israeli did. The Green Line gave control of the West bank to Jordanians and the rest of Palestine to Israeli. So the Palestinians actually got nothing. No state for them!!!! I believe this is what started the modern conflict between Palestinians and Israeli.

AN N EA 10W Lecture 18 (Wk 9)

This lecture is about post crusade to 20th Century Jerusalem. This is still an Islamic period within Jerusalem. The Mamluk Dynasty was the result of a successful revolution of slave. It is quite (at least in my mind) interesting how slaves can break their chain and not only achieve freedom but also obtain a whole dynasty. So I guess we should never look down on anyone even slaves (well.. I hope we don’t have slaves anymore). In this period, the city is transforming from a political power to a city with great religious importance and meaning to all three faiths. However after the Mamluk period, the city gradually became less important for Islam. Mamluk buildings were generally built on top of Crusade building. There were lots of charitable building around that time: more schools, public water fountain, and hospital. I guess the slaves really knows how to take care of people due to their life experience. Also this is especially true when the Mamluk allows Jewish to come back, practice their religion, and form a Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem. As a result, the city became important again for Judaism.

After the Mamluk, we have Ottoman Jerusalem. Selim I defeated the Mamluk. This is the period of Sultan Suleiman The Magnificent: the greatest ruler of Ottoman Dynasty. He rebuilt the Wall of Jerusalem which added more security for the city occupants. He was the one who made Jerusalem became  the 3rd important for Muslim. Also just like the Mumluk, he allowed not only Jews but also Christians to practice their religions in Jerusalem. This led to the birth of the Christian Quarter. During this period, we see a growth of Jews living in Jerusalem while a slight decline of Muslim (since the city had lost its importance). I think he is in fact a pretty good ruler with tolerance and respect to different religions. Without this religious policy, I doubt his reign and even the Ottoman Dynasty can last long. He also gave Western Wall back to Jews for them to pray because the Muslim had taken Temple Mount for Islam.  Because of this, we see the attraction of various traditions that were originally associate with Temple Mount onto Western Wall.

AN N EA 10W Lecture 17 (Wk 9)

In today's lecture, we have a special guest speaker by the name of Ryan Roberts. I actually really enjoyed listening to his lecture. It was a bit fast paced but the content he went over was amazing, giving very good examples to explain events and concepts. During this lecture we discussed the Crusader period of Jerusalem (1099-1187). 

First of all, the word Crusader in this context means a “Holy War” of the Christians. It was a war mainly between Christianity and Islam although both religious group were also fighting with Judaism and those who opposed them. The cause of the Crusader can be split into: political, religious, and social -economic. The Crusader was an attempt to stop the political expansion of Islam into Europe. The investiture controversy between the Church and the King also caused the rise of the Crusader. This controversy is the King’s reaction to the Church’s attempt to grab both national and religious power into the hand of the Pope. On the other hand, the religious cause of the Crusader is to protect the Christians pilgrimage back to Jerusalem. Obviously during this time of tension, any Jews or Muslim who saw a Christians walking back to their Holy City would got angry and attack. Also the Social- Economic cause was the phenomena of the 2nd and 3rd son.

Seeing all these causes, one can see that the religions were used as merely political tools.

AN N EA 10W Lecture 16 (Wk 8)

In this lecture we taled about how the beginning of the early Islamic Jerusalem (638-1099) marked the decline of Rome and the rise of Persian (again). In 614, Jews are allowed back to the city for the 1st time since the Barhoka Revolt (not sure if I spell that correctly). In 628, Heraclius from the Byzantine retook Jerusalem and ordered a massacre of Jews. 10 years later, in 638, Caliph Umar retook Jerusalem and this is the official start of Jerusalem under Islamic rulers. Umar claimed Temple Mount for Islam and Jerusalem underwent a series of name changes (Aelia to “Bait Maqdis” to “al-Quds”). Temple Mount was renamed to Haran al-sharif (noble sanctuary). This is also the period of Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque. Before the Muslim began to pray toward Macca, they actually prayed toward Jerusalem at first. It was not until Muhammad received his revelation that Musalim began to pray toward Macca. While in Macca, people prayed toward the Kaaba (in Macca too).

The first Islamic dynasty is the Umayyad (638-750) with Abd al-Malik as the King. He built the Dome of the Rock in his attempt to redirect Pilgrimage from Macca to Jerusalem (for $). His son, Caliph Walid built the Al Aqsa Mosque (the farthest Mosque). The Umayyad period used religious tolerance to keep people from revolt and help the economy. The Dome of Rock was built by Christian and Byzantine architectures. This is because the Muslim wanted to show Christians that they are better. This is why the Dome looked like Christian church. The inscriptions on the Dome was about Muslim view toward Christianity and Jesus. They accepted the fact that Jesus is a great prophet but they reject the idea of Jesus as God or the son of God because this idea would be opposed to monotheism. Dome of the Rock, just like the Church of Holy Sepulcher, attracted different, old traditions: Muhammad’s last stop, place of final Judgment, etc. The Al-Aqsa Mosque became the “farthest Mosque” in the “Night Journey” (Qu’ran 17).

AN N EA 10W Lecture 15 (Wk 8)

In this lecture we learned about the Christianity since most Jews were banned from the city after the Bar-Kokhba revolt. Even though Rome is considered to the most important city of Western Christianity, Jerusalem still maintains its holiness. Part of the reason is because Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected in Jerusalem. Also Christianity was born out of Judaism and since the city is very important to Judaism, Jerusalem still need to maintain its holiness in order for Christianity to be legit. That is why the earliest Christian church is said to be born in Jerusalem. Moreover Jesus predicted the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem after he received the revelation.

Under Rome, the city is renamed to Aelia and became a Roman city. Back in Rome, during Constantine period (312-337), Christianity became the dominate religion but with many different beliefs. So Constantine set up the Council of Nicaea to unify this religion. This council created the Orthodoxy Christianity. Constantine unified Christianity to aid his political domination. So under Constantine, Christianity became a conquest religions.

Back to Jerusalem, Helena, Constantine’s Mom, came to the city in her attempt to “prove” Christianity. During her pilgrimage, she claimed to have a vision of the tomb of Jesus. Thus she tore down the temple of Venus to build the Church of Holy Sepulcher. This is why Helena is credited with the 1st Christian Pilgrimage. The Church of Holy Sepulcher then became a new magnet that attracted old traditions such as Tomb of Adam, the binding of Isaac, etc. But beside this Church, the Rome build another Church called the New Church that has lots of similarity w/ the Solomon’s Temple. This is an evidence of Justinia trying to apply old tradition (Solomon’s Temple) to Christianity.

AN N EA 10W Lecture 14 (Wk 7)

After Herod the Great’s death, his three sons took over the three parts of Israel. They are Archelaus (Judea and Samaria areas), Herod Antipas (Perea and Galille areas), and Herod Philip (Iturea and Trachonitis: far away from Jerusalem). In general they are all ineffective rulers and Roman eventually replaced them by Roman procurators. So Israel now is under direct Roman rule. But Roman is so insensitive to the Jewish religious practices and beliefs. As expected, revolt broke out. There were probably lots of revolt at that time, but there are only 2 big ones that we study: The Great Revolt (1st revolt) and the Bar-Kokhba revolt.

During the Great Revolt (66-70 CE), people made their own revolt coins as a image of authority and to raise the revolt spirit. However this revolt was not successful (of course since we have a 2nd revolt) and eventually led to the destruction of the temple in 73CE (the 9th of Ab again) by Titus. In the same year, the remaining revolt people suicide in Masada; thus ending the revolt. By the way, we know all of this from Josephus. But his account may contain biases since he works for the Roman in some sense. The destruction of temple brings a new cognitive dissonance to the Jewish people at that time. Also this destruction, like the first one in 586BCE, changes Judaism forever. Now because they don’t have a temple to make blood sacrifice, Judaism turned from being a sacrificial religion to a religion of the text: studying the Torah! Moreover, since they don’t have the temple to pray at, they are now allowed to pray everywhere!

The second revolt (132-135CE) is also a failure. After the revolt, Hadrian rebuilt the temple and convert it to a temple for the Rome. He then banished the Jews from Jerusalem except the 9th of Ab. During the revolt, Bar-Kokhba minted coins too, but there are lots of misspelling because Hebrew was almost dead at that time.