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Al Qods: Past, Present and Future
Dr. Mohamed Imara(*)
In the fourth century BC, the Canaanites -people of Palestine- founded the city of Urosalem or Yuroshalem. From this western name was derived the name of Jerusalem in Greek, Latin, German, French, English and other languages, and from this same name was also derived the name of this city in "ancient times," Oroshalem.
Hebrews began to identify with this Canaanite city when David, peace be upon him, conquered it in the tenth century BC, almost three thousand years after its founding by the Canaanites. However, the reign of the Hebrews over this city lasted little more than four centuries (415 years exactly), until its demolition by the Babylonians who annihilated the Kingdom of Judah in 580 BC and launched the era of Hebrew Captivity.
Even after the Persians allowed Hebrews to return to the land of Canaan, the latter regained the land as simple settlers who had no state and no sovereignty over Oroshalem.
Still, this Jewish presence once again provoked the ire of the Roman Empire which proceeded to destroy this city on two occasions. The first attack was carried out by Emperor Titus (39-81) in the year 70 AD, and the second one in 125 AD by Emperor Hadrian who, after totally annihilating the city, renamed it "Aelia Capitolina" or the Great Elia. This name remained in use until the Islamic conquest (15AH/626AD) during the caliphate of Omar Ibn Al Khattab (40BH-24AH/584-644AD).
During their four hundred years of reign over the city, the Hebrews claimed monopoly over the sanctity of the city for their own religious rites to the exclusion of all other populations living at the time in the land of Canaan, the same people who had built the city three thousand years before its conquest by David, peace be upon him. The Hebrews maintained their monopoly and even persecuted the newly converted Christians after the divine revelation was sent to Jesus, son of Mariam, peace be upon him.
When the Roman Empire converted to Christianity in the 4th century AD, the sacredness of Elia became the sole privilege of the Christians who in turn persecuted the Jews. After demolishing the "Temple," the Christians turned its site into a refuse dump to which rubbish was brought from all over the city and its surrounding areas. Even after they handed the city over to Omar Ibn Al Khattab after the conquest, the Christians requested that "no Jew be allowed to share the city with them."
This was the history of the city prior to the arrival of Islam.
The conquest by Islam and Muslims of the city of (Yoroshalem, Urushalem-Aelia) heralded the dawn of a new era. It was Islam and Muslims that gave this city holiness and sacredness which started with the new name they give it, Bayt Al Maqdis and Al Qods. For the first time in its history, the holiness of the city was generalized to all the nations of the Book -Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and stopped being the monopoly of the followers of one religion to the exclusion of all others.
After the city was surrendered to him, Omar went to the desecrated Jewish places of worship turned by the Christians into rubbish dumps during the Roman reign. He concluded with the city's population the famous Omari Pact. "At the rock he found much refuse that had been discarded there by the Romans to spite the Israelites. He removed his cloak, began to sweep the rubbish and made the Muslims clean the refuse with him. Muslims followed up on the places of worship of previous prophets, starting with Abraham and on to the last one to have been buried in Palestine and Bayt Al Maqdis. There, they built mosques, restored the holiness of the city and cleansed it thoroughly" (Dr Ishaq Mussa Al Husseini, "Status of Al Qods in Islam," papers of the 4th Conference of the Islamic Research Academy, pages 52-58, Cairo, 1968).
Muslims bestowed on this city a unique status which gave it distinction over all the cities they had conquered. This began the day when, instead of handing it over to the conquering military commander "Ameen Al Umma" Abu Ubaida Ibn Al Jarrah (40 BH-18AH/629-584AD), everyone waited for caliph Omar Ibn Al Khattab who rode out from Medinah to take over the reins of the city. There, he personally concluded the Omari Pact with the city's patriarch Sophronius (17AH-628AD). Through this distinction, the city acquired the status of the "trust" safely deposited by Al Farouk in the hands of the Ummah of Islam, an honour that no other city conquered by Muslims through their history of conquests could ever aspire to.
The name of the city thus changed to Al Qods and Bayt Al Maqdiss where the Muslims raised high the banner of sanctity and holiness. Omar Ibn Al Khattab, sitting with Sophronius in the Church of the Resurrection, declined the invitation to pray in the church despite the invitation to do so made by the Patriarch, for fear that Muslims nurture notions of owning church land. With this typically Omari stance, Omar Ibn Al Khattab reiterated the respect advocated by Islam for the sanctities of Christians. This was not an innovation or a piece of jurisprudence on the part of Omar. He was simply adhering to the faith of Islam of which the five pillars only become complete with the profession of faith in all prophets, all revelations and all books that preceded the message of Mohamed (PBUH) on the path of divine-human relationship: "This is the Book; in it is guidance sure, without doubt, to those who fear Allah. Who believe in the Unseen, are steadfast in prayer, and spend out of what We have provided for them; And who believe in the Revelation sent to thee, and sent before thy time, and (in their hearts) have the assurance of the Hereafter. They are on (true) guidance, from their Lord, and it is these who will prosper." (Al Baqara, verses 5-6). "The Messenger believeth in what hath been revealed to him from his Lord, as do the men of faith. Each one (of them) believeth in Allah, His angels, His books, and His apostles. We make no distinction (they say) between one and another of His apostles." (Al Baqara, verse 285). This was Omar who worshipped with the Holy Quran which addressed the places of worship of all nations of divine faith, starting with the monasteries and finishing with mosques "Did not Allah check one set of people by means of another, there would surely have been pulled down monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques, in which the name of Allah is commemorated in abundant measure. Allah will certainly aid those who aid his (cause);- for verily Allah is full of Strength, Exalted in Might, (able to enforce His Will). (Al Hajj, verse 40).
With this stance on Omar's part began a new era in the history of the city. Its holy character was thus guaranteed for the followers of all divine religions. The Church of the Resurrection held its mass for Christians, Jewish temples regained their purity and cleanness thanks to Omar and the Muslims who cleared the rubbish away, and the minarets of Islamic mosques soared high in the city's skyline.
Muslims achieved this because they are the nation of the seal of all messages, the nation that inherited the legacy of all prophets and messengers. The message of their prophet was the final brick in the edifice of monotheism, and as such this nation became responsible of preserving all the bricks of this edifice. The Ummah of the charia which came to fulfil the one divine religion is the custodian of the sanctities of all the manifestations of the One religion. It alone recognizes the legitimacy of all the laws decreed by these religions.
Muslims achieved this through "Al Qods" in particular because their Holy Quran wove a link between Al Qods and the Mekkan holy place, the qibla of the seal nation. This was a divine miracle, and not only a political or sovereignty link established by conquerors and broken by invaders. "Glory to ((Allah)) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless,- in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things)." (Al Israa, verse 1). This ascension was the Nightly Journey of Allah's slave and Messenger from the Holy Mosque to the Aqsa Mosque, then crossing the rock to the seventh heaven. It was also the divine proclamation of the completion, through this sacred journey, of the mission of all prophets and messengers on the path of Allah. It meant that the seal nation was henceforth entrusted with the mission of jihad as a way of preserving the sanctity of all divine messages, more embodied in the city of Al Qods than in any other city or place.
The Islamic history of Al Qods stands witness, in letters of light, to the loyalty and dedication of the Islamic Ummah to the mission entrusted to it by Allah, symbolised in the Nightly Journey, and concretised by Omar Ibn Al Khattab. Since then, Al Qods has become the shining source of all sacredness, opening its arms to the followers of all divine creeds. Standing side by side with mosques, churches flourished and Jews begun to trek back to the city after a ban that lasted through the Roman, pagan and Christian reigns. Muslim families were even set the task of managing the "waqfs" or religious endowments that Christians made in favour of their churches. The Christians themselves chose them for this task and they have administered Christian holy places throughout the history of Islam.
This quality of "trustworthiness" has remained, by the grace of Allah, one of the characteristics of the Islamic Ummah and of Islamic states.
The sovereignty of the Islamic Ummah over Al Qods has lasted a long time because this Ummah did not decree a monopoly over religious belief in Allah, nor over prophecies and divine messages. It was not motivated by discrimination in limiting holiness to its own places of worship. And as long as this lasted, the gates of Al Qods remained open to all the nations believing in divine messages.
But in the times of Muslim regression and weakness, times when the Muslim claim to sovereignty over Al Qods slackened, as it did during the old Crusades wars and in the modern Israeli ones, monopoly over the sanctity of Al Qods reared its ugly head again.
And this is what has happened time and again in the history of Al Qods, becoming almost a law which can neither be changed nor repealed.
In the Crusades Era:
The three powers that shared reign over the Islamic Orient, namely the Abbasids, the Fatimids and the Seljuks, had become enfeebled. The West seized the opportunity to reclaim its control over the East, control that had been gained by Alexander the Great (356-364 BC) and lost to the Islamic conquests.
In the town of Clerment in the South of France, the Western alliance came together under the leadership of Pope Urban II (1088-1099 AD). It was financed by the trading towns of Italy which aspired to take control of the international trading routes crossing the Islamic-dominated Orient. The striking force of this invading power were the knights of feudal Europe for whom the Pope set the mission of crusading when he addressed them in Clerment in these words: "Let those who have formerly been accustomed to contend wickedly in private warfare against the faithful fight against the infidel (Muslims).Let those who have hitherto been robbers now become soldiers. Let those who have formerly contended against their brothers and relatives now fight against the barbarians as they ought. Let those who have formerly been mercenaries at low wages now gain eternal rewards. Enter upon the road to the Holy Sepulchre-, wrest that land from the wicked race, and subject it to yourselves. That land which, as the Scripture says, "floweth with milk and honey." If you vanquish your enemy you shall inherit the kingdoms of the Orient."
Thus, and despite his papal status, the religious motivation and words about the cradle of Christ, the words of the Pope exposed the true purpose of the campaign; the aim of the "contract" was to inherit the kingdoms of the orient which flowed with milk and honey. He resolved the conflicts opposing the feudal princes by channelling their forces to destroy Muslims-infidels. In 489AH/1096AD, the first crusade war broke out. In these battles which lasted for two centuries, killing Muslims, plundering their lands, occupying their homelands and creating Latin principalities and kingdoms in Palestine and around it, all of this became a profession - the profession of the European feudal knights. In the words of the Christian historian Maxime de Montrond, author of The Crusade War, many noble and great men began to consider the war as a craft and a means of amassing wealth. Greed for war booty was enough to draw armies to the fight(1).
By the 11th century, the Crusader principalities set up by the invaders in the Arab East had broken the geographical unity of the Islamic world. In the north of Iraq and Syria, the principalities of Alraha and Antakia were founded. After the invasion of Al Qods, the Kingdom of Urushalem was created and stretched as far as the Bay of Aqaba, isolating Egypt, Morocco and Andalusia from the eastern parts of the Arab and Islamic worlds.
The occupation of Al Qods was an eloquent example of the "robbers turned soldiers." The city was surrounded by seventy thousand men while the troops defending it did not exceed one thousand Egyptian soldiers. The city fell in the hands of the Crusaders after a thirty-eight days-long siege.
De Montrond narrates how "the Crusades military advisory council convened at the same spot where our saviour forgave those who had crucified him. There and then it was decided that every Muslim who remained in the holy city would be put to the sword." The massacre lasted a whole week. Those who had taken refuge in houses and cellars were arrested and cast from the roofs of houses and towers into the fire. The blood of those who had sought asylum in the mosque of Omar Ibn Al Khattab flowed in knee-high rivers or even as "high as a camel's bridle" as Maximus wrote. In the message they sent to the Pope, giving him the glad tidings of what they had achieved, they boasted "If you wish to know what happened to the city's enemies, rest assured that at the Temple of Solomon (mosque of Omar), our horses waded to the knees in the rivers of blood of the Orientals."
After a period of consolidating the Crusader entities embedded in the usurped land, another phase began, namely that of economic monopoly over the whole region. This involved controlling trade and its routes, and levying taxes and jizya on Islamic states and principalities.
Once Egypt was isolated from the rest of the Mashreq, attempts were made to conquer and dominate it. Many factors helped the enemy in this process, namely the weakness of the ruling Fatimid dynasty whose Batini Ismaili sectarianism helped isolate it from the general Sunni public of Muslims, as did the intestinal fights among its multi-ethnic soldiers and among vizirs Shawar (564AH/1169AD) and Dergham (559AH/1164AD). A Crusader's expedition set up camp outside the walls of Egypt and held the keys to its gates and fortifications. The vizir Shawar signed a truce with the Crusaders and agreed to pay a jizya of one million dinars. Guillaume de Tyr described the control that the Crusaders held over economy in the Orient at that time: "We had at our disposal the treasures of Egypt, the kingdom of Jerusalem had nothing to fear from the Mediterranean fronts, the sea was safe and open and all the Egyptian ports were open to our vessels. Egyptian traders brought their products to our ports and the trade was profitable to all; tributes and taxes were regularly paid to us."
However, the challenge that had ripped the land apart, plundered its treasures and laid claim to all the economy had also sparked the spirit of resistance among the nation's children. The Islamic principalities began to stand up to the Christian entities. The Zanki state which was led by Imad Eddine Zanki (565AH/1117AD) in Mosul, freed the north of Iraq and Syria and banished the Al Raha State, almost half a century after the beginning of the Crusades. It then moved its capital to Aleppo under Nureddine Ach-chahid (511-569AH/1118-1174AD) to increase its pressure on the Crusade entities and usher a new era of military-political confrontation between the two parties over Egypt. Nureddine wished to annex Egypt and thus rule from the south by encircling the Crusaders' dominion and increasing the pressure from north, east, west and south, leaving the Mediterranean ports of the Syrian coasts unencumbered in order to leave from there as he came. The Christians wanted Egypt to prevent its resources from serving the interests of their opponents, and to remain as a buffer zone separating the region from the towns of Morocco and Andalusia, and thus thwart Nureddine's strategy.
Through 559-564AH/1162-1168AD, confrontations between the armies of the two parties took place in Egypt but in their third round, the army of Nureedine came out victorious. The troops were under the command of Asad-Eddine Sikrokoh who had been appointed as vizir over Egypt by the Fatimid Caliph Al Aadid (544-567AH/1149-1171AD). When Asad Eddine passed away, he was replaced in command and as vizir by Annasser Salaheddine El Ayyoubi (532-589AH-1127-1192AD) on 25 Jumada II in the year 564 AH. And thus began a new and glorious chapter in the history of this conflict, or maybe in all history of all times.
In those days, poetry was a tool used by the Ummah to express and spread its culture. When the unity of Egypt and the Mashreq was finally achieved, poems described the role that this feat was to play in concretising the strategy of liberating Palestine with its most sacred symbol, Al Qods. As he congratulates Asad Eddine Sirkarkoh over his victory in Egypt, Imad Al Katib reminds him that that conquest was part of the mission of liberating Al Qods:
You conquered Egypt and I hope this victory
Will aid you, once there, in conquering Bayt Al Maqdis
When he congratulated Nureddine, he reminded him that the condition for liberating Al Qods, meaning the unity of Egypt and the Greater Syria, had been fulfilled:
Conquer the Franks for ripe is the time
Shatter their ranks with fire and brimstone
For Egypt and Syria are now
Gems in the glorious crown of Islam
The poet Ibn Assaker Ali Ibn Al Hassan Hibat Allah proclaimed that there could be no excuse for delaying war after the circle had been tightened around the Christians. He addresses Nureddine saying:
An excuse to relinquish Jihad you have not
Now that lands from Egypt to Aleppo you own
The ruler of beautiful Mosul is amenable
To all your desires so hasten to a quick strike
But time did not allow Nureddine to enact the strategy the poets wrote about. After his death, Salaheddine El Ayyoubi found himself face to face with the logistical task of carrying out this strategy and make it more than mere poetry lines.
The tremendous resources and capacities of Egypt were stagnant, isolated and dwindling amidst a Fatimid weakness that lasted almost a century. Salaheddine had to revive and channel these resources to guarantee victory in his battles against the Crusaders.
After closing the chapter of the Fatimid reign and recovered Egypt's allegiance to the Abbassid fold, Salaheddine led a major and drawn-out battle at the intellectual and cultural front to uproot the Ismaili-batini doctrine and replace it with the Sunni one. He began building sunni schools such as the Nassiriyya, the Qamhiyya, the Qotbiyya, and the Soyoufiyya, etc. During his own rule, he built six of these schools which were prestigious and comprehensive institutions. The globe trotter Ibn Jubayr (540-614AH/1145-1217AD) describes the building of the Nassiriyya school saying: "It is a school of which the like has never been seen in the land. No other school could be larger or more lavish. Anyone wandering around its premises can easily imagine it to be a country in its own right. Located in its vicinity are the bathhouse and many other amenities". Many stories are told about the generosity of Saleheddine towards this school and how he told the person in charge of its building: "Make it more lavish and more celebratory and we shall provide for all that." The Sunni thought of these schools which taught all four doctrines, filled the intellectual void which had previously been satisfied by the Ismaili-Batini thought. The doctrinal affiliation of both Ummah and state replaced the break and division that had prevailed before, making possible the emergence and shining of Egyptian competencies in theology-related fields. The commitment and inflexibility of Salaheddine in this regard reached such extents that he closed down Al Azhar -which had more of a popular following- for five years and till its Shii Fatimid curricula changed in content and migrated to the Sunni thought. Along with the state, science, thought and education, the juridical system also changed to the Sunni doctrine.
At the economic front, the military regime of farmland exploitation replaced the tax farming one (iltizam). In today's language, this regime could be referred to as the economy of war and battle, and in the language of Islamic fiqh as "land endowment for Jihad in the name of Allah." The territory of Egypt was divided into twenty-three economic regions and units. Some regions were dedicated to covering the expenses of troops, princes and soldiers. All economic resources were placed in full mobilization. This revival also affected the intellectual front, as once again loyalty and allegiance were established between the ruled and the ruling.
Salaheddine paved the way for his decisive battles by encircling the Christian principalities that had been forcibly embedded by force in the heart of the Ummah, and launched his first campaigns against the Crusader defences in Al Karak Fortress, south of Palestine. The purpose was to enlarge and secure the roads linking Egypt to the East and tighten the siege around Christian entities. To this end, Salaheddine organised four military expeditions in 568, 579, 580 and 582 AH.
To restore unity on the Eastern front which had fallen prey to division and strife after the death of Nureddine Ash-Shahid, Salaheddine concluded a pact with the princes of Mosul, Aleppo, the Peninsula, Arbil, Mardin, Kuniya and Armenia, by virtue of which, the signatories pledged not to fight each other. Salaheddine showed no qualms about fighting those who breached the pact, as he did with the prince of Aleppo in 579AH/1182AD.
To fortify the main front which was dedicating all its power and resources to fulfilling the liberation strategy, Salaheddine reached new heights in fighting any thought, philosophy or ideology that differed from the majority's doctrine and ideology. He crushed the Ismaili-Batini preachers, and ordered his son - governor of Aleppo- to execute the Ishraqia Agnostic philosopher Sahrourdi (549-587AH/1154-1191AD) in punishment for the intellectual turmoil he had created through his debates with scholars. In these debates, he failed to differentiate between cultures and civilisations, placing Zarathustra and Plato on par with the Prophet of Islam and confusing one of Plato's Dialogues with the Caledonian awareness of the Holy Quran. Such acts threatened to weaken the intellectual front by favouring an approach of the "similar and equal" at a time when conflict with the enemy required an approach of 'differentiation' so that one can stand apart from the other and fill one's heart with hatred towards him, a crucial factor in unconditional mobilization and victory.
Through these political, economic and military achievements, Salaheddine El Ayyubi led troops with whom he entertained an intimate father-to-son relationship into the great battle that reversed the course of the conflict with the Crusaders, the Battle of Hittin, on 11 Rabie II of 582AH/1 July 1187AD, ninety years after the first invasion by the Crusaders of the lands of Islam.
On the land of Hittin in Palestine, the Christians rallied sixty-three thousand cavalry and infantry troops. The two sides knew very well that it was what we call today a decisive battle, and in the words of Ibn Shadddad (612-684AH/1217-1285AD), chronicler of those times: "Each party knew that the defeated one will lose all pride in nation and the last shred of dignity." Hittin was the gateway to Al Qods which epitomized the whole conflict.
The summer heat of July intensified the flames of the fires that Salaheddine started in the shrubs close to the Christian formations, and the fury of battle and clash of fighters. Maxime de Montrond described "The arrows which soared in the air like birds, alight with burning fire, the blood from swords, congealed in the middle of the battle field, pooled on the ground like rainwater."
When the tent of the Frankish king Guy of Lusignan tumbled, announcing the defeat of his army, Saladin dismounted, prostrated himself and kissed the ground in gratitude to Allah for the victory which thus opened the way for him to Al Qods Al Sharif.
Describing the events at Hittin on that day, historian Abu Shama (599-665AH/1202-1267AD) says: "Those who saw the slain could not believe that anyone could have been taken alive, and those who saw the prisoners could not believe that anyone had been killed. From the day the Franks assaulted the coast of Syria, the Muslim's thirst for victory had not been quenched as it did on the day of Hittin."
After several expeditions in which he freed many villages, fortresses and forts, Salaheddine advanced with his army on Al Qods Al Sharif, the symbol of all conflict and the subject of every poem- information system of the times- composed after a victory. After his victory in Gaza, Al Imad Al Katib says of Salaheddine:
They conquered the heart of the infidels in Gaza
In broad daylight and the infidels in defeat bowed heads
Awakening the yearning for Bayt Al Maqdis
Yearning for you that only intensifies with waiting
That is the Bayt which if you conquered and by Allah you shall
No other gate in Syria would remain locked to you
Yes, Al Qods was the symbol, the goal and the key.
On Sunday, 20 September 1187AD, Salaheddine began his siege outside the walls of the Holy City, setting camp at the same spot from where the Crusaders had invaded it in 1099AD. He increased pressures to force the city's Christian defence force- sixty thousand men- to plead for a truce, and thus spare the city's holy places from destruction. At the negotiations which took place during the siege, the Franks threatened to launch a desperate attack in which they would ransack these holy places. To Salaheddine they said: If we see that death is inevitable, we shall:
- Destroy the Temple and burn the Royal Palace to the ground ;
- Burn all possessions, treasures and money held in the coffers of the city ;
- Pull down the Sanctuary of the Rock and the Masjid al-Aqsa and the other sacred places ;
- Slaughter the Muslim prisoners we hold-5,000 of them-;
- Kill our children and our wives so as not to leave you a single man or woman to enslave ;
- And once the Holy city has become no more than mounds of rubble and an immense graveyard, we shall then come out to fight you like men fighting for their lives. Grant us safe-conduct and we shall surrender the city to you without any harm to it from any party.
Salaheddine acquiesced to their request and granted them safe conduct. The invaders left the city with all their possessions while the Muslims and eastern Christians remained there. Al Qods was liberated on the anniversary of the Nightly Journey of the Prophet, 27 Rajab 583AH/October 1187AD, without a single drop of blood, a far cry from when the horses of the Crusaders had swam in the blood of Muslims in Omar's mosque, ninety years earlier.
After the liberation of Al Qods, and as the poet said, no gate in Mesopotamia remained closed to the Muslims.
But this did not dissuade Europe from rallying its armies to fight Salaheddine. European rulers even imposed a tax on their subjects called the war tax (the Saladin tithe). The armies and armadas of England and Europe and their kings organised many onslaughts. The conflict lasted for many years and until the day Salaheddine and Richard Lion Heart (1157-1199AD), King of Britain, signed a truce for three years and three months in Shaaban 588AH/September 1192AD.
Salaheddine spent the times of peace rebuilding what the war had destroyed and what the Crusaders had demolished. He laid down the foundations for revival in architecture, thought, education and economy, foundations that consolidated the spirit of belonging and stimulated progress on the path of liberation of the remaining forts and fortresses. In rebuilding Al Qods, Salaheddine carried the bricks himself, working side by side with the builders.
Then he marched to Damascus where he fell ill with yellow fever and died on 26 Safar 589AH/March 1192AD, entering not only the history of the Islamic Ummah but also its conscience, as one of the greatest figures of Islam, the most famous of heroes since the apogee of Islam and until present history.
Contemporary fall of Al Qods:
The western powers which had initiated, organised and led the Crusades came back at a later stage, always in pursuit of the old mission: "Wrest that land that floweth with milk and honey, lay claim to the sanctity of Al Qods and destroy its sanctity for the others."
After Islam was uprooted from Andalusia with the fall of Granada (897AH/ 1492AD), the occupation powers began the process of encircling the Islamic world.
When Columbus strayed from his route and set anchor at the American continent, the Portuguese expedition set sail to achieve what Columbus had failed to do. Indeed, they found a way around the Islamic world through the Cape of Good hope (903AH/1497AD), five years after the fall of Granada.
On the coasts of Muslim India, confrontations broke out between the Portuguese and the Egyptian Mamluke-led army (910AH/1504AD), resulting in the victory of the Portuguese over the Mamlukes.
With the increased pace of siege campaigns around the Indian coasts, in the Arabian Sea, the Gulf, and the Red Sea and the growing weakness of the Mamluke State, the Ottoman Empire focused on the East and the South and brought the Arab world within its military fold (923AH/1517AD) in an attempt to contain the encirclement which had managed to firmly set the feet of the European invaders in Indonesia, India and the Philippines (in the 10th century AH - 16th century AD).
Once the encircling strategy had come to a full circle, Europe began to prepare its strike against the heart of the Islamic world.
By fuelling the conflict between the Safavids and the Shiites in Iran, and between the powerful Ottoman state which embodied the striking force and military shield of the Islamic world, a conflict fabricated and kindled by Europe, the Ottoman military power was mobilised and exhausted in an Islamic-Islamic conflict, leaving the gate wide open for a strike against the core of the Islamic world once the siege policy came to a full circle.
Then the expedition of Bonaparte to Egypt was launched place (1213AH/ 1798AD).
After the failure of the Bonaparte Expedition, the English expedition of Fraser took place in 1222AH/1807AD.
Then Algeria was occupied by France (1246AH/1830AD).
Eden was next in line for occupation by Britain (1254AH/1838AD).
Bound by the London Treaty, Egypt, led by Mohamed Ali Pasha, was prevented from giving a new lease of life to the Ottoman Empire (1254AH/ 1804AD).
France then occupied Tunisia (1298AH/1881AD).
The British managed to occupy Egypt (1299AH/1882AD). Italy occupied Libya (1329AH/1911AD).
France declared the state of protectorate in Morocco (1330AH/1912AD).
The provinces of the Islamic caliphate were then divided among colonial powers according to the Sykes-Bicot Agreement (1324AH/1916AD).
To set Al Qods as the symbol of conflict was one of the purposes of this division. Sykes even erected in his Sledmere village in Yorkshire a bronze statute depicting him, dressed in full battle armour, holding a sword with a Muslim cowering at his feet, with a scroll on top of him on which the words: "rejoice Jerusalem!" are written.
England subsequently occupied Iraq (1225AH/1917AD).
Then Balfour made his promise which consecrated the Zionist-Western partnership through this colonial campaign (1226AH/1799AD).
Napoleon Bonaparte had called for this same alliance during his siege of the city of Akka (1212AH/ 1799AD).
The English then entered Al Qods (1226/1917AD). On that day, British General Allenby said that the Crusades had finally come to an end. Punch magazine carried a caricature titled "The Last Crusade". The drawing showed Richard Lion Heart (1189AH/1899AD) gazing at Al Qods and saying: "At last, my dream comes true!"
Then France occupied Syria (1338AH/1920AD) and French General Gouraud went to the tomb of Salaheddine El Eyyoubi, kicked it and said: "Here we come back, Saladin!"
The Treaty of Lausanne (1341AH/1923AD) between the European allies and Turkey consecrated the end of the Ottoman State and the fall of the caliphate (1342AH/1924AD).
The creation of the state of Israel gave body to the Jewish-Western alliance for the occupation of the Arab and Islamic world (1367AH/1948AD).
The total occupation of Al-Qods in 1387AH/1967AD was the starting signal for the process of its judaization.
The world celebrated the passing of 500th anniversary of the first spark of this historical and civilizational conflict with the organisation of the Olympic Games in Barcelona, on the land of Andalusia, on the anniversary of the fall of Granada and the uprooting of Islam from that land. The first spark was in 897AH/1492AD and the anniversary was celebrated in 1412AH/1992AD.
With the celebration of 500 years since the uprooting of Islam from the West of Europe, and in the same year (1992AD), the Bosnian War broke out, this time seeking to uproot Islam from the heart of Europe. This was the war that the Serbian information minister placed in its rightful context on the pages of this historical civilizational conflict when he said: "We are the forerunners of the new Crusades."
Al Qods stood out during these times of conflict as it did in the Crusades, the symbol, the goal and the key. Its judaization and the tentacles of monopoly over its sanctity are steadily progressing.
If the Ummah's collective memory has remained, through culture, conscious of the status of Al Qods in this historical conflict which has spawned many phases and episodes, the contemporary phase of our national and Islamic culture is about keeping the conscience of the Ummah fully aware of the importance of Al Qods Al Sharif, until a new dawn arises with a new Salaheddine.
The general public had taken to calling the issue of Al Qods and Palestine the Middle East Crisis, and it is important to remain conscious of the background and history of this crisis of the Middle East.
The British author and commander Glupp Pasha very eloquently summed it up when he said that the problem of the Middle East has started way back in the seventh century AD, i.e. with the birth of Islam.
(*) Member of the Academy of Islamic Research affiliated to Al Azhar, Arab Republic of Egypt.
(1) Maxime de Montrond: History of the Holy Wars in the Orient called the Crusades, Vol 1, pp. 12-14, translated by Maximus Madhloum, Urushalem (Al Qods) Press, 1865.
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