Jerusalem January 1-31

During January I continued my NEH fellowship at the Albright Institute in Jerusalem. I have been spending most work days in the Islamic Museum on the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, cataloguing the Arabic inscriptions in the museum.

I have also been working on an English edition of a big picture book about the al-Aqsa Mosque compound. The Arabic version by my Palestinian colleague Muhammad Ghosheh will be out in a few days. We are hoping to have the English version done in time for a gala book launch in Saudi Arabia at the Riyadh book fair in March. Muhammad and I have been invited to participate in a session at the book fair on publications about Jerusalem, one event marking Jerusalem as the Arab cultural capital for 2009.

The interior of the dome of the Dome of the Rock is being renovated. Recently I had the opportunity to climb up the scaffolding in the building interior to see the work in progress.

The peak of the dome of the Dome of the Rock

I had not been up in the dome before, so I was also interested to see the inner and outer shells of the dome. I was able to take only a couple of pictures of the wooden beam on the inner shell with the inscription of the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir dating to 913 AD, before an overly officious employee stopped me because I did not have adequate permission to take photographs. I’m posting a photo of the inscription just to spite him. There is a parallel inscription of al-Muqtadir in the museum collection that I am cataloguing.

The inscription of al-Muqtadir in the dome of the Dome of the Rock

My one recent trip outside the city limits of Jerusalem was an excursion to Bethlehem to visit two former students of mine from the mid-1990s, when I taught at the Institute of Islamic Archaeology of al-Quds University.

My two former students at the entrance to the Ottoman fort at Solomon’s Pools

They took me out to Solomon’s Pools south of Bethlehem, where I saw the new big convention palace complex under construction. It is example of poor cultural heritage management by the Palestinian authorities, since the new construction impinges too much on the Ottoman fort there.

The convention palace at Solomon’s Pools with the Ottoman fort to the left

The Israeli military checkpoint between Jerusalem and Bethlehem is a large repulsive compound with deliberately obnoxious personnel, making crossing even for me with my US passport a thoroughly unpleasant experience. By contrast, crossing on Christmas Eve as part of a tourist group had been exceptionally easy.

I also recently attended a couple of lectures at the Hebrew University campus on Mount Scopus. I had not been there since the 1990s, before a minor bombing incident on the campus led the authorities to overreact with tight restrictions on access by outsiders. But security is now relaxed enough that I can get on campus again without a significant hassle.

The conflict in Gaza had only a limited impact on daily life in East Jerusalem. One noticeable effect was a new crop of graffiti that sprouted up, both by Hamas and Fatah. East Jerusalem had been largely free of graffiti in recent years.

Some fresh graffiti in East Jerusalem: Hamas to the left and Fatah to the right.

For several consecutive Fridays the Israeli authorities put tight restrictions on Muslims entering the al-Aqsa Mosque compound for the Friday congregational prayers.

Israelis blocking off access to the street leading to Lion’s Gate. Note the surveillance balloon in the upper right.

At several spots groups of Muslims who had been barred from entering would perform their prayers at the Israeli barricades.

Muslims barred from the al-Aqsa Mosque listening to the Friday sermon in front of the Israeli barricade in Gethsemane.

I have been able to get onto the al-Aqsa mosque compound each day with only a minor delay for a security check by the Israeli guards, but as this blog posting indicates, security checkpoints are an ever-present feature of life in East Jerusalem.