CHAPTER II
A HISTORY OF AL-QODS FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE ADVENT OF ISLAM

Prehistoric man lived on the site of Al-Qods, in a settlement which is believed to be the present ground of the Greek Quarter, which overlooks Rephaim Valley. Many prehistoric objects have been found in that ground when diggings were undertaken for modern construction foundations and for railways ;

although the area of the settlement has not been determined, the spread of the found objects indicates that it was an extensive settlement.

J. German-Durand was the first person to have discovered this settlement; however, it was M. Stekelis, together with R. Neuville who, in 1933, undertook the first systematic excavations, funded by the Office of the Paleontology of Man in Paris.

Owing to these excavations, it was possible to find out several settlements. Stekelis was able to group the found objects into several categories according to the material used for their production. He found out through his investigations that these objects date back to the protohistoric period, and he believes that the objects he has found in Al-Qods are older than any other objects unearthed in the various caves in Palestine, notwithstanding the resemblance between all the objects found. Thus the former objects are older than the latter.

The excavations undertaken indicate that Al-Qods was already in existence early in the Bronze Age. (28) Articles of pottery dating back to that period have been found during excavations in the eastern part of the plateau. It is highly probable that this age - the Bronze Age - was one of profound mutation in civilization in Palestine. (29) However, evidence that the city really existed in the Bronze Age consists of a small part of the cut-stone ramparts built around 1800 B.C. along a line pointing to the eastern base of the plateau. Other vestiges of the middle of the Bronze Age have been found in Râs Al-'Ain. (30)

28. Encyclopedia of Excavations, Vol. II, pp. 579-580

29. Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 (1970), p. 100 d "Archeology of the Holy Land". In her work, Monuments of the Holy Land, Dame Kenyon writes on p. 236 that some of the found objects date back to the beginning of the Bronze Age, that some necropolises go back to the Proto-urban period, but that there is no evidence of human presence prior to 1800 B.C.

30. Abû-Tâlib Mamûd, (1978) Vestiges of Jordan and Palestine in Ancient Times : Some New Insights, p. 65.

In its earliest known history, Al-Qods covered an area of 11 feddâns according to the archeological findings. These findings have also established that practically no vestiges of the early middle part of the Bronze Age can be recovered because of past quarrying and extraction activities. The few ruins that remain are of little importance and situated here and there on the slopes of the hills. Al-Qods seems to have acquired its prestige towards the middle and late parts of the Bronze Age (about the 14th and 13th centuries B.C.), that is to say at the time of the Jebusites. From about this time, the city managed to ward off Israelite incursions for a long time. (31) Al-Qods was for a long time governed by the Jebusites. The Torah describes it as a very powerful Jebusite city, and it actually remained so until Dâwûd (PBUH) liberated it in 995 B.C. As the Prophet Dâwûd (David) saw it, occupying this city was vital for the continuation of his reign, which began with the decimation of his enemies and the limiting of Philistine power zone to the littoral areas.(32) Jebusite Al-Qods was situated in an area protected by valleys on all sides and located on the Ad-Dhahra Ridge, in the southern part of contemporary Al-Qods which is contained within the ramparts. In spite of the powerful control that Dâwûd (PBUH) maintained over the eastern, northern, and southern regions, he never succeeded in bringing the Palestine littoral areas under his power. This seems to have been the result of the balance of power policy that the Egyptians kept vis-à-vis Dâwûd and the Philistines. This explains why the coastal areas were never brought under Israelite rule. (33) The oldest known writing from Al-Qods is mentioned in Egyptian texts, found in Tell Al-'Amârnah, which date back to about 1370 B.C. About this date, the ruler of Al-Qods, 'Idî Haiyâ, addressed a letter to the Pharaoh, Akhenaton, asking him for help as well as military back-up against the assaults by the Khâbirû (34) (or the Habira, i.e. Hebrew), who had grown into a serious threat to peace in the land. (35) The conquest of Al-Qods by Dâwûd (PBUH) carried within it the seeds of the creation of an Israelite political entity led by the Prophet Dâwûd. In a

31. Encyclopedia Britannica, (1970), p. 1009 C.

32. Kenyon, Archeology in the Holy Land, p. 233.

33. Ibid., p. 236

34. Encyclopedia Britannica, p. 1009 a.

35. Palestine Encyclopedia, 3, p. 510.

General manner, one may say today that the infiltration of Palestine by the Israelites has been, and still is, a matter of unending controversy. Some tales have it that some ancient Israelite tribes had infiltrated from the south and others from the east (headed to the north), but without being able to make one community because the powerful city of Al-Qods maintained itself between the two until the time when Dâwûd (PBUH) conquered it. According to the tale in the Torah, once David conquered Al-Qods (Jebus at that time), he managed to gain the Jebusites' approval and had the city renovated. However, no extension of the city seems to have taken place in his time ; there is no indication of any extension of the city, and the excavations conducted on the site have yielded no evidence to that effect. The part of the ramparts, which is mentioned above and which dates back to the Bronze Age, had continued its unaltered existence in Dâwûd's time and served its function for two centuries thereafter. (36) Suleiman (Solomon) took the power after the death of his father, Dâwûd.

His reign marked the peak of the power of the city of Al-Qods, which was now getting extended under his aegis. Suleiman saw to the completion of the construction of the Temple on Mount Moriah on a land parcel which was purchased by Dâwûd from the Jesubite Ernân. (37)

When Roboam (38) succeeded Suleiman, his father, he became involved in a conflict with his brother, Jeroboam. (39) The Kingdom accordingly broke up into two parts : the part of the southern tribes, with Al-Qods as its capital, and the part of the northern tribes, with Shalem as its main centre. It was after this split that the Pharaoh Shishak seized the opportunity and subjected Al-Qods to his rule, and made its inhabitants pay the poll-tax before returning to his homeland. (40)

Subsequently to that, the Arabs and the Philistines ruled alternatively. The history of this post-Solomonic dismembered Kingdom is very complex. The enmity between the two sides persisted down to the time when the Asyrians occupied the northern region in 722 B.C. The city of Al-Qods subsequently came under greater and greater threat ; however, Hezekiah, its ruler then, somehow managed to hold the Assyrian enemy in check. A century

36. Encyclopedia Britannica, p. 1009 d.

37. Al-'Aref, The History of Al-Qods

38. Roboam, son of Suleimân and of his Ammonite wife. See Ad-Dabbâgh's, Our Land Palestine : Beit Al-Maqdis, 2/9, pp. 35 and 37.

39. Jeroboam, son of Solomon, born to him by his Egyptian wife.

40. Al-'Aref, Ibid., p. 17. Also, see Encyclopedia Britannica, p. 1009 a.

later, attacks on the city were renewed and repeated with the rise of the Neo-Babylonians (the Chaldeans), who substituted themselves for the Assyrians and ultimately ruled southern Mesopotamia and Assyria. Nebuchadnezzar, their King, toppled Jehoiakim and took Jerusalem in 587 B.C. (41) He pillaged the city, destroyed the Temple, and deported nobles and artisans to various areas. Part of the city's population migrated to the city of Babylon.

Under Nabonidus and Belshazzar, the Babylonian Empire declined and ended as a Persian province after Cyrus II conquered it. With the collusion of the Achaemenids, the Jews who were previously deported from Al-Qods played an important role in the fall of the Babylonian Empire in 538 B.C. (42) By way of rewarding them, Cyrus II terminated their captivity and allowed many of them to return to Al-Qods. Through this gesture, the Persians sought three objectives :

to get rid of those Jews, thereby hedging against any risk of treason by the latter ; to make of them allies in Al-Qods ; and finally, to tactfully gain their friendship. However, the Persians only partly succeeded in convincing these Jews to return to Al-Qods, for most of them actually stayed in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). It was the descendents of these Jews who, in 1948, were made to migrate to Israel through the concerted action of the Israeli Intelligence Service with other authorities. (43) Even though the Persian King allowed them to return to Al-Qods to settle therein and to rebuild their public institutions, he came back on his decision under pressure from Amonians, Acedonians and Arabs. (44)

The city of Al-Qods thus remained under the rule of the Persians until it was conquered by Alexander the Great (King of Macedonia). After Alexander's death and the subsequent dislocation of his empire, the city of Al-Qods fell to the Ptolemies of Egypt, and later to the Seleucids of Antioch (in 198 B.C.). The inhabitants of Al-Qods came under the influence of Greek civilization in the Seleucid Hellenistic era. About 165 B.C., Antiochus IV destroyed the Temple and seized its treasures. He appointed as successive rulers of Al-Qods 41. Al-'Aref, Ibid. p. 17

42. The Old Testament. See also in A Dictionary of the Holy Book, p. 358, the article on Daniel. The Persian King rewarded Daniel, the leader of the Jewish plotters, by making him a high minister in his Kingdom.

43. This operation was known as "Operation Ali Baba". The Iraqi Jews who were reluctant to migrate to Palestine saw their synagogues attacked by way of coercing them into migration.

44. Al-'Aref, Ibid., p. 18. He forbid them from renovating the wall, the construction of which they finished only at the time of Dara (445 B.C.).

governors whose strong dislike of the racketeering and the rare scruples of the Jews, compounded by the latter's failure to honour their agreements, imposed on them heavy taxes. (45)

In 63 B.C., Al-Qods was conquered by Pompey, the Roman general, who put an end to the anarchy which prevailed therein at the end of the reign of the Seleucids. The new rulers of the city gave some autonomy to the Jews, who chose as their ruler Herod I the Great after his conversion to Judaism and subsequent to his appointment by the Romans as the King of the Jews. Herod was friendly with Marc Antony, with Octavian, and with Augustus.

In A.D. 6, the southern part of Palestine became a second-rate Roman province governed by procurators.

In 70 A.D., the city of Al-Qods was destroyed because of the intrigues of the Jews. At the instigation of Titus, the city was besieged and demolished, but the Roman Emperor subsequently allowed the Jews to settle therein. The Jews behaved as before and thus continued to defy the law. In 115 A.D., they revolted again, but it was not until 132 A.D. that they managed to occupy the city in the aftermath of a revolt. The Emperor Hadrian put an end to this revolt in 135 A.D. by destroying the city of Al-Qods. (46) Peace was restored and Hadrian was able to rebuild the city in the image of a Roman colony, adopting a construction plan in the shape of a square with two main streets crossing it. It was then that Al-Qods took the name of Aelia Capitolina.

In 1937, Hamilton uncovered a section of the ramparts of the city close to the Bâb Dimashq (Gate of Damascus). Well before him, however, Schmick in 1878 and in 1889 was able to determine the location of these vestiges. The excavations undertaken by Hamilton demonstrated that Aelia Capitolina was built within an enclosing wall, but also that, like most Roman cities, it was accessible to all visitors. Frescoes found in the area indicate that the city was managed by the Antonines; this indication rules out any claim that these ramparts (47) may date back to the third century B.C., and this conclusion is further corroborated by ceramic finds dating from that era. (48)

45. Palestine Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 511.

46. Ad-Dabbâgh, Our Land Palestine : Beit Al-Maqdis, p. 71.

47. Encyclopedia of Excavations, Vol. II, p. 610.

48. Encyclopedia of Excavations, Vol. II, p. 610. The excavations undertaken by Kenyon between 1961 and 1967 did not enable her to uncover vestiges which date back to the era of David or Solomon. The tower and the ramparts mistakenly attributed to David in the 1930s were shown to date from the Hellenistic era according to Kenyon. See, also, Abû-Tâleb, Ancient Monuments of Jordan, p. 90.

Subsequent to the division of the Roman Empire into the Christian Empire of the East and the pagan Empire of the West, Aelia became a part of the former, which later became known as the Byzantine Empire. The city suffered a great deal from the political and doctrinal scissions which undermined and ultimately weakened the unity of this Empire. The Sassanians took advantage of this situation and occupied Aelia in 614 A.D. Hence, they slayed many of the city's inhabitants, demolished its churches and monasteries, and captured its patriarch. It is reported that these acts were fomented by the Jews, who were strongly opposed to the Christians.

However, the Byzantines soon regained their strength and recovered Al-Qods. In the aftermath of the restitution of this city, the belligerents were reconciled with each other and Heraclius entered Aelia in 629 A.D. and wreaked vengeance upon the Jews for their treachery. Under his rule, the Empire recovered for some time but was not altogether able to stand by to the Arabs, who, setting off from the Arabian Peninsula ten years later, had the mission to spread a new faith among men. Thus, they liberated all of Bilâd Ash-Shâm (roughly Syria, Lebanon and Palestine) (636-639 A.D.). Aelia, too, was liberated, but the other religions were tolerated and the dignity of those who practised them was respected. From that time on, Al-Qods, which was conquered by Omar bin Al-Khattâb, a Muslim Caliph, became both an Islamic and an Arab city. (49)

49. Al-'Aref, Ibid., pp. 38 and 40.

49. Encyclopedia Britannica (1970), 1009 F.

50. Some historians think that the Arab conquest took place in 636 A.D. This is noted by Ad-Dabbâgh, who in his work Beit Al-Maqdis (p. 91), cites At-Tabari to this effect. The same belief is expressed in Palestine Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 511.

51. Historians report the following incident, which indicates Caliph Omar's discernment and perceptiveness : while Omar was visiting one of the churches, he had to accomplish one of his daily prayers as the hour for it was on. The priests showing him round offered the invitation that he could perform his prayer within that church if he wanted to; however, Omar insisted on praying outside the church premises for fear that Muslims should turn these into a mosque. Later in time, Muslims erected a mosque on the site where Omar had performed that prayer ; they called it the Mosque of Omar.

52. Ad-Dabbâgh, Beit Al-Maqdis, p. 118, citing At-Tabari, pp. 158-161.