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In
the year 70 the Roman Emperor Titus razed Jerusalem to the ground and
destroyed the Temple. After a second Jewish revolt 60 years later,
Emperor Hadrian built a new pagan city over the ruins of Jerusalem,
which all Jews were forbidden to enter. However, Jews were not banished
from the whole region, but from the specific area of this new city (see
Early History section). Over
the years the number of Christians in Jerusalem rose, boosted by the
conversion of the Emperor Constantine. The visit and patronage of his
mother Queen Helena is still marked in buildings in Jerusalem today.
Under the subsequent Christian Byzantine Empire, Christianity flourished
in the region, but Jews were still only allowed to enter Jerusalem once
a year. It was only under Islamic rule, first Umayyad then Abbasid, when
Jews began to be allowed slowly to return once more to Jerusalem. In the early days Muslims prayed facing Jerusalem, not Makkah, demonstrating the significance of the city to Islam from the beginning. The second caliph, `Umar, captured Jerusalem in 637, and thus the Byzantine province of Palaestina Prima became known as
Falastin, a province of the Islamic Empire. Over 400 years later, in 1099, a Latin Kingdom was established in Jerusalem as a result of the European Crusades. This Western kingdom was conquered by Salahuddin (Saladin), the Islamic warrior leader of Kurdish origin, in 1187. After a period of Ayyubid rule (the descendants of Salahuddin), in 1260 power passed to the Mamluk sultans of Egypt. For
250 years Palestine was a province of the Mamluk Empire ruled from
Cairo. Jerusalem and the region flourished owing to its religious
significance and geographical position as the crossroads between Africa
and Asia. Merchants, travelers, pilgrims, and government officials
arrived in Jerusalem from far and wide. The visitor to the Old City of
Jerusalem today can still see Mamluk domes and buildings dotted among
the buildings of more recent times. |
