I also gave a public lecture about Christian Identifications of Muslim Buildings in Medieval Jerusalem, in which I spoke about the odd and humerous Biblicizing or Christianizing identifiations that Western Christian pilgrims gave to Muslim buildings, such as the Houses of the Rich Man and Lazarus in the parable of Luke 16:19-31. This was the fourth time I have given that public lecture, and it has always been very well received. My lecture on February 4 was at the newly renovated Swedish Studies Center just inside Jaffa Gate.
An 18th-century Franciscan plan showing the Stations of the Cross in the Jerusalem. Some of the buildings shown are actually Muslim-built structures.
I have also been working on an English edition of a big picture book about the al-Aqsa Mosque compound. On February 12 there was a book launch function for the Arabic version by my Palestinian colleague Muhammad Ghosheh at the National Hotel across the street from the Albright, and I said a few words about why I thought the book was worth translating. The English version should be published in April.
Much of the month was taken up with an attempt to get an extension from the Ministry of the Interior to stay in Israel beyond the end of my current three-month tourist visa. That would have been easy to do, but my application was rejected because my passport expires in mid-June, i.e. less than six months after I intend to leave Israel in early April. So I had to go to the US consulate in East Jerusalem to submit an application for a new passport. New US passports are all processed in Washington, so it took 13 days for the new one to be delivered. Then I went back to the Ministry of the Interior, optimistically expecting straightforward approval, only to have the supervisor freak out about how often I have been coming to Jerusalem – in the last ten years typically a couple of times each year for a week or so. At the end the supervisor agreed to my request, but I would still need to get approval, which might take a week.
I also met Nikolas Jaspert, a visiting German professor who was around for a week giving some class periods for the German students at the Dormition. I spent an afternoon with him, showing him around the Old City. I also took part in the Albright field trip with Dan Bahat to the Western Wall tunnels and in the Albright field trip to the Haram al-Sharif. Khader Salameh, my colleague from the Islamic Museum, had made arrangments for the group to get into the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque building, and it turned into a great opportunity to take photographs without getting hassled by the Muslim guards.
A mihrab in a side room of the al-Aqsa Mosque building
A detail of the recently installed replica of the pulpit of Salah al-Din in the al-Aqsa Mosque building.
I also went one day with Susan Graham, a fellow at the Albright, and Khader to the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer to see the building and the excavation area from the 1970s below the church. It had taken quite a while to make arrangments to see the excavation area below the church, but I understand that there are plans to soon make it accessible to the general public.
Khader and Susan on the roof of the Church of the Redeemer
I also attended a conference about Urbanism at the Givat Ram campus of Hebrew University and then a second conference at Tel Aviv University about the archaeology of the Negev. At both conferences one of the speakers was Donald Whitcomb, the Islamic period archaeologist from the University of Chicago, whom I had not met for some years.
On that trip to Tel Aviv I went with Susan Graham and Steven Werlin from the Albright to get visas from the Jordanian Embassy that enable one to cross the Allenby / King Hussein Bridge into Jordan. The staff at the Jordanian Embassy processes applications on the spot, making at least this one application process extraordinarily quick and easy.
No comments:
Post a Comment