HISTORY OF JERUSALEM AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE
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| Jerusalem city |
Religion is the most important cardinal virtue of human history, which was congenital to bring peace and stability to human life. All the religions edify us in different ways for lasting peace and stability. The world has endured respective religious founders, leaders, and their teachings in the Auld Lang Syne. The People also applied the teachings of their respective religious leaders in their lives in order to alter spiritually in creating values like love, altruism, reverence, and harmony. Some historians say that many power-hungry and influential leaders used religion for their self-interest, which led to many violent conflicts.
History: Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities located in the Middle East between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. It is known as ‘Yerushalem’ in Hebrew language and ‘Al-Quds' in Arabic. For a thousand years, Jerusalem is the holiest site for Abrahamic religions i.e. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. It is also central to 55% of the entire world’s religious population. Jerusalem is the foreground of the religious conflict of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. The conflict of Jerusalem is not only for a religious place, but also because of geopolitics and political warfare. All the major religion claims the ownership of Jerusalem. The conflict is mainly for the Temple Mount or Haram Al-Sharif, which was situated in Eastern Jerusalem. The Temple Mount or Haram Al-Sharif is a sacred compound within which the ‘Al-Aqsa Mosque’, the ‘Dome of the Rock’, and the’ Holy Wall’ are located. The ‘Al-Aqsa Mosque’ and the ‘Dome of the Rock’ are the third holiest site for Islam besides Mecca and Medina, while the Jews consider the ‘Holy Wall’ to be a sacred place for Judaism. The Muslim dibs proprietorship of ‘Al-Aqsa Mosque’ and the ‘Dome of the Rock’ and the Jewish claim ownership of the ‘Holy Wall’. The Jews have also claimed the other parts of the compound as well.
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| Temple Mount |
Why Jerusalem is so important for Christian, Jews, and Muslims?
Jerusalem is the holiest site for Christians because it was here that Jesus was crucified in 30 AD. They also believe that Jesus was resurrected at this place. The ‘Church of the Holy Sepulchre' located in Jerusalem where Jesus was resurrected.
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| Israeli Flag |
According to the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), God wanted to test Abraham whether he obeyed him or not. God told him to sacrifice Isaac on a mountain. It was at Mount Moriah That Abraham attempted to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, to God, and then later God revealed himself to Abraham at this place. Jews also believed that King Solomon builds the first capital to stow the ‘Ark of Covenant’ in 1000 B.C in Jerusalem, which we know as Temple Mount or Haram Al-Sharif. The Temple Mount was scourged by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II in 586-587 B.C later Jews rebuilt the temple in 516 B.C. and renamed it as the ‘Second Temple’.
In Islam, it is believed that Jerusalem is the last place on earth that Prophet Muhammad visited with the forestall of a creature called Buraq and then went to heaven. The site is located in the compound of the Temple Mount where the ‘Aqsa Mosque’ and the ‘Dome of the Rock’ were situated.
Religious war:
After Alexander’s invasion, the Greek Pagan religion spread in Jerusalem. Greek paganism is a polytheistic religion whose followers believe in not one god but many gods. But Judaism is a monotheistic religion that believes in one god, therefore, idolatry is prohibited. The conflict was sparked by religious differences between the Jews orthodox and the Greeks. In 167 B.C, the Jews orthodox launched the first armed rebellion in Jerusalem. The Sassanid Empire recaptured Jerusalem in 619 A.D and took the entire region under Jew's control.
The Arab era in Jerusalem began in 1637 A.D. The construction of the ‘Al-Aqsa’ mosque was started by Rashidun Caliph Umar and finished by Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid. The ‘Doom of the Rock’ was built by Caliph Abdul-Malik in 691 AD. After the control by Arabs, the temple Mount was known as Haram Al-Sharif.
The Crusades were started by Western European Christians in the 11th century with the aim of stopping Muslim expansions and capturing the old territory of the Holy Land of Jerusalem. The inter-religious war took place between 1096 A.D and 1291 A.D. The war was mainly between Christians and Muslims. The Crusades or religious wars ended in the 16th century after the birth of Protestantism and the decline of the power of the Church. By the end of the 11th century, nearly two-thirds of Christian territory was captured by the Muslims.
1n 1516 A.D the Jerusalem was invaded by the Ottoman Empire, which was headed by king Suleiman the Magnificent. King Suleiman’s rule was largely peaceful and it is also called the era of religious peace. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire began in the mid-19th century, and Palestine is under British rule. The first wave of European Jews started to immigrate, ideally with the beginning of the Zionist movement in Europe to establish an independent Jewish state in Palestine. It is in 1917, the British declare support for a Jewish Homeland in Palestine, as the number of Jews settlers rises and the tension between Arabs and Jews also increase. The violence between the two sides caused the British to bow down and the United Nations seized the power of Palestine. The United Nations General Assembly approved the two-state theories and approved to divide Palestine into two states: the Jews Israel and the Arabs Palestine. The Jews accepted the partition plan and declared an independent state, but the Arabs did not accept the two-state principles, so a war broke out between the Jews and the Muslims, Israel emerged victorious in the first Jewish Arabs war. The state of Israel takes over 78% of the Palestinian state’s total land, including west Jerusalem. In 1967, the six-day war broke out between Israel and neighbouring Arab countries, and Israel emerged victorious. The Palestinians maintain that Israel’s habitation in Jerusalem is illegal, but Israel declared Jerusalem as its official capital. The claims of ownership of Jerusalem remain in dispute these days, resulting in conflicts and wars between the Muslims and the Jews that continue today.