On Wednesday February 6 I went to Jerusalem to attend a seminar. I had seen in the newspaper the previous day that the Allenby Bridge would only open in the afternoon, so I left ACOR at noon. I arrived in Jerusalem at 4:00 (5:00 Jordan time) and checked into my hotel on Salah al-Din Street.
Thursday and Friday February 7-8 were the two days of the seminar on Recent Advances in Islamic Archaeology sponsored by the Albright Institute, but held at the Ecole Biblique. I had originally intended to give a presentation about Christians in Jordan in the Early Islamic Period, but I had withdrawn when it looked like my schedule would not permit me to attend. But as things turned out, I was able to come, although it was not possible to get back on the program. Unfortunately, a number of the Palestinian speakers were unable to come. The first day I spoke with my colleague Khader Salameh during the lunch break and then participated in the round-table discussion.
On Thursday February 7 I received an invitation to the wedding of Varghese, my former student and colleague at the Henry Martyn Institute in Hyderabad. The wedding was scheduled at short notice for Monday February 18 in Bangalore. I was sorely tempted to rearrange my travel plans to be able to attend, but in the end it was just too complicated to do so.
On Friday I shifted from my hotel to the Kenyon Institute, where the next day, Saturday February 9, I participated in a one-day conference about Ottoman Palestine, organized by Micaela Sinibaldi. I gave a presentation about Every-Day Life in the Masjid al-Aqsa Compound in the Ottoman Period, a shortened version of the talk I had given at ACOR a couple of weeks earlier.
On Sunday February 10, I participated in the tours organized as part of the Ottoman conference. In the morning I joined the tour for the conference speakers of the Masjid al-Aqsa compound led by Yusuf al-Natsheh, from the Awqaf Administration’s Department of Archaeology. We went to the Dome of the Rock, Solomon’s Stables, the old al-Aqsa (Double Gate passage) below the al-Aqsa Mosque, the al-Aqsa Mosque and the manuscript conservation laboratory in the Ashrafiyah Madrasah, before going to Yusuf’s nearby office. In recent years I have had a permit that enabled me come onto the compound to work in the library, but that did not allow me to go into the various other buildings, which have been closed to non-Muslims without special permission since 2000, so today’s trip was a great opportunity. I had not been into Solomon’s Stables since 1999 or the Old al-Aqsa since the mid-1990s before the renovations.
We then went to the Citadel for the tour at 11:15 given by Mahmud Hawari.
Then at 1:30 I started my own tour of the Islamic buildings in the Old City. At 2:00 we reached the Abu Shukri restaurant where we had lunch and at 2:45 we resumed my tour around the Old City and especially through the rarely visited neighborhoods in the northeast part of the Old City, ending up at Herod’s Gate at 5:00.
That evening I took a Nesher sherut taxi to Ben Gurion Airport, arriving at 10:00, and I hung out until my flight to Istanbul left at 5:20 the next morning; I was able to get a lot of internet time in as I waited.
Thursday and Friday February 7-8 were the two days of the seminar on Recent Advances in Islamic Archaeology sponsored by the Albright Institute, but held at the Ecole Biblique. I had originally intended to give a presentation about Christians in Jordan in the Early Islamic Period, but I had withdrawn when it looked like my schedule would not permit me to attend. But as things turned out, I was able to come, although it was not possible to get back on the program. Unfortunately, a number of the Palestinian speakers were unable to come. The first day I spoke with my colleague Khader Salameh during the lunch break and then participated in the round-table discussion.
On Thursday February 7 I received an invitation to the wedding of Varghese, my former student and colleague at the Henry Martyn Institute in Hyderabad. The wedding was scheduled at short notice for Monday February 18 in Bangalore. I was sorely tempted to rearrange my travel plans to be able to attend, but in the end it was just too complicated to do so.
On Friday I shifted from my hotel to the Kenyon Institute, where the next day, Saturday February 9, I participated in a one-day conference about Ottoman Palestine, organized by Micaela Sinibaldi. I gave a presentation about Every-Day Life in the Masjid al-Aqsa Compound in the Ottoman Period, a shortened version of the talk I had given at ACOR a couple of weeks earlier.
Micaela Sinibaldi introducing my lecture
On Sunday February 10, I participated in the tours organized as part of the Ottoman conference. In the morning I joined the tour for the conference speakers of the Masjid al-Aqsa compound led by Yusuf al-Natsheh, from the Awqaf Administration’s Department of Archaeology. We went to the Dome of the Rock, Solomon’s Stables, the old al-Aqsa (Double Gate passage) below the al-Aqsa Mosque, the al-Aqsa Mosque and the manuscript conservation laboratory in the Ashrafiyah Madrasah, before going to Yusuf’s nearby office. In recent years I have had a permit that enabled me come onto the compound to work in the library, but that did not allow me to go into the various other buildings, which have been closed to non-Muslims without special permission since 2000, so today’s trip was a great opportunity. I had not been into Solomon’s Stables since 1999 or the Old al-Aqsa since the mid-1990s before the renovations.
Yusuf showing the group around the Old al-Aqsa
The group near the Dome of the Rock
One of the staff speaking about the manuscript conservation laboratory
We then went to the Citadel for the tour at 11:15 given by Mahmud Hawari.
The group at the Citadel
Then at 1:30 I started my own tour of the Islamic buildings in the Old City. At 2:00 we reached the Abu Shukri restaurant where we had lunch and at 2:45 we resumed my tour around the Old City and especially through the rarely visited neighborhoods in the northeast part of the Old City, ending up at Herod’s Gate at 5:00.
Me leading the tour of the Old City with the 14th-century Tankiziyah Madrasah in the background
That evening I took a Nesher sherut taxi to Ben Gurion Airport, arriving at 10:00, and I hung out until my flight to Istanbul left at 5:20 the next morning; I was able to get a lot of internet time in as I waited.
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