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Ottoman Jerusalem |
- Relations
Between Muslims and Christians in Ottoman Jerusalem
By Dr. Hala
Fattah
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Although the opening up
of the Ottoman archives to scholars has resulted in the revision of
many flawed arguments on Ottoman history, the remarkable thing is
that many biases remain in the literature. Among the most persistent
have been the periodic attempts to portray the empire as inherently
anti-Christian and, of course, anti-Jewish. The presumption is that
because the Ottomans upheld Islam as the state religion, and fought
against Christian states to expand their territories, they
automatically discriminated against other faiths in the empire.
And yet, archival history tells a different story. Amnon Cohen's
article on Muslim policies with regard to the Christian community of
16th century Jerusalem explores the complexity of relations between
state and religion without resort to simplistic arguments.
Although Christians were not considered as equal to Muslims in many
instances, the state never "prevented any of the Christian
communities from exercising their historically acknowledged rights
of free passage into Jerusalem" nor interfered in any way with their
religious conduct.
Moreover, even though several incidents throughout this period
gravely affected this relationship, Cohen puts them into
perspective. He concludes that, overall, the expulsion of the
Franciscan monks from Mt. Zion in 1551, Muslim attempts to legally
seize parts of the Monastery of the Cross and threats to the Coptic
monastery in Jerusalem were not so much the work of official policy
as they were the actions of Muslim "zealots".
In any case, Istanbul reimbursed the monks' loss by providing them
with other properties on which to build monasteries. The important
thing is that these episodes never formed part of Ottoman ideology.
Quite to the contrary, the state continued to treat all its citizens
with justice and to uphold their rights throughout the Ottoman
period, even though the empire itself was constantly prey to
anti-Muslim prejudice (and potential dismemberment) from Christian
Europe.
Further evidence that the Ottoman empire kept to its contract with
ahl al-kitab (people of the Book) is provided in Ottoman church
documents. They reveal the systematic building, renovation and
upkeep of churches and monasteries in Jerusalem and beyond. This is
apparent even in times of inter-communal friction.
For instance, an interesting phenomenon is the permission granted to
the Armenian Catholic community in Jerusalem in 1887 to build a
church on property close to a Muslim mystic fellowship, even though
the Armenian Catholics in Jerusalem numbered but four houses
comprising 22 men and women. What is extraordinary about the
incident is that this permission was given to the Armenians of
Jerusalem at about the same time as state elements were massacring
Armenians in Anatolia.
In another instance, when the Greek Orthodox community asked the
Porte for allowance to renovate their church in 1881, they were
automatically allowed to do so. Even on the rare occasions when
Istanbul initially refused permission, as it did in 1894 when the
30-odd Greek Catholic rite wanted to erect a second church in
Jerusalem (on property already inhabited by Muslims), eventually
official consent was given for a second church to be built.
Significantly, all permission was granted based on the same formula:
that the governor of Jerusalem ascertain that the property on which
the churches would be built belonged to the community in question,
that it did not infringe on Muslim property, and most important of
all, that no force would be used to extract contributions from
community members to build the churches.
March 24, 1999
Of Iraqi origin, Dr. Hala Fattah is a historian of the Arab
provinces of the Ottoman empire, especially Iraq. She is the author
of The Politics of Regional Trade of Iraq, Arabia and the Gulf,
1745-1900 (S.U.N.Y Press, 1996). Presently, she is an Independent
Scholar.
References:
Abu-Husayn, Abdul-Rahim and Saadawi, Salih eds., Al-kana'is al-arabiyya
fi al-sijjil al-kanasi al-uthmani, 1868-1922 (Arab Churches in
Ottoman Church Documents, 1868-1922), Amman : Royal Institute for
Interfaith Studies, 1998.
Cohen, Amnon, "The Ottoman Approach to Christians and Christianity
in Sixteenth Century Jerusalem", Islam and Christian-Muslim
Relations, vol.7, no.2, June 1996.
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