The Muslim Quarter Arabi Hebrewִ is one of the four quarters of the ancient, walled Old City Of Jerusalem It covers 31 hectares 76 acres of the northeastern sector of the Old City. The quarter is the largest and most populous and extends from the Lions Gate in the east, along the northern wall of the Temple Mount in the south, to the Damascus Gate Westem Wall route in the west. The Via Dolorosa starts in the quarter. The Old City Hebrew.The is a 0.9 square kilometers 0.35 sq mi Walled area within the modern city of Jerusalem. Until 1860, when the Jewish neighborhood Mishkenot Sha ananim was established, this area constituted the entire city of Jerusalem. The Old City is home to several sites of key religious importance. The Temple Mount and Western Wall for Jews the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christians, and the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims. It was added to the Unesco World Heritage Site List in 1981.Traditionally the Old City has been divided into four uneven quarters although the current designations were introduced only in the 19th century. Today, the Old City is roughly divided into the Muslim Quarter the Christian Quarter, the Jewish Quarter and the Armenian Quarter. Following the 1948 Arab Israeli War the Old City was captured by Jordan and Jewish residents were evicted. During the Six Day War in 1967 which saw hand-to-hand fighting on the Temple Mount, Israel captured the Old City along with the rest of East Jerusalem. subsequently annexing them as Israeli territory and reuniting them with the western part of the city. Today Israel controls the entire area which it considers part of its national capital. In 2010, Jerusalem's oldest fragment of writing was found outside the Old City's walls. The Jerusalem Law of 1980 effectively annexing East Jerusalem to Israel, was declared null and void by Un Security Council Resolution 478 and East Jerusalem is regarded by the international community as part of occupied Palestinian territory. The city of Jerusalem has been surrounded by walls for its defense since ancient times. In the middle Bronze Age a period also known as the Patriarchs period a city named Jebos was built in the location of today's Jerusalem, which was relatively small 50,000 square meters) but was fortified. Remains of this wall are located above the Hezekiah's Tunnel.According to Jewish tradition, as expressed in the Tanakh Jerusalem remained a Jebusite city until the rise of David who conquered the city and established the City of David on the site of the Jebusite City. Later on King David extended the walls, which were located on a low hill, outside of the walls of today's Old City area. Solomon, David's son, built the first temple in the city and also extended the city walls in order to protect the temple. During the First Temple period the city walls extended towards the northwest part of the city, the area where today the Jewish quarter of the City ist located.
In 516 BCE or 430 BCEAfter the Babylonian captivity and the Achaemenid EmpirecPersian conquest of Babylonia, Cyrus II of Persia allowed the Jews to return to Judea and rebuild the Temple. The construction was finished in 516 BCE or 430 BCE. Then, Artaxerxes I or possibly Darius II sent Ezra and Nehemiah to rebuild the city's walls and to govern Judea, which was ruled as Yehud province under the Persians. During the Second Temple period, especially during the Hasmonean period, the city walls were expanded and renovated. Herod the Great expanded the walls to include the West Hill. Agrippa I later began the construction of a third wall. The wall were completed just before the outbreak of the First Jewish–Roman War. Some remains of this wall are located today near the Mandelbaum Gate gas station After the Fall of Jerusalem, the walls were destroyed and were later partially restored during the Aelia Capitolina period and afterward extensively renewed by the Empress Aelia Eudocia. In 1033, most of the walls constructed by Empress Eudocia were destroyed by an earthquake. During the Crusader conquest in 1099 the walls were rebuilt but destroyed again during the conquest of Saladin. Saladin's nephew Al Malik al-Mu'azzam 'Isa, ordered the reconstruction of the city walls, but later on, in 1219 he changed his mind after most of the watchtowers were built and had the walls torn down, mainly because he feared that the Crusaders would benefit of the fortifications if they managed to reconquer the city. For the next three centuries the city remained without protective walls the Temple Mount Haram ash Sharif being the only well fortified area during this period. In 16th century, during the reign of the Ottoman empire in the region the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent decided to fully rebuild the city walls on the remains of the ancient walls. The construction lasted from 1535-1538 and thes are the walls that exist today.
Al-Aqsa MosqueAl-Aqsa Mosque al-Masjid al-Aqṣā, IPA the Farthest Mosque also known as Al-Aqsa and Bayt al Muqaddas, is the third holiest site in Islam and is located in the Old City of Jerusalem. The site on which the silver domed mosque sits, along with the Dome of the Rock also referred to as al-Haram ash-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary is the Temple Mount the holiest site in Judaism the place where the Temple is generally accepted to have stood. Muslims believe that Muhammad was transported from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to al-Aqsa during the Night Journey Isamic tradition holds that Muhammad led prayers towards this site until the seventeenth month after the emigration when God directed him to turn towards the Kaaba. The mosque was originally a small prayer house built by the Rashidun caliph Umar but was rebuilt and expanded by the Umayyad caliph Abd Al Malik and finished by his son Al Walid in 705 CE. After an earthquake in 746 the mosque was completely destroyed and rebuilt by the Abbasid caliph Al Mansur in 754 and again rebuilt by his successor Al Mahdi in 780. Another earthquake destroyed most of al-Aqsa in 1033 but two years later the Fatimind caliph Ali az Zahir built another mosque which has stood to the present-day. During the periodic renovations undertaken the various ruling dynasties of the Islamic Caliphate constructed additions to the mosque and its precincts, such as its dome facade its mindar minarets and the interior structure. When the Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099 they used the mosque as a palace and church, but its function as a mosque was restored after its recapture by Saladin in 1187 More renovations repairs and additions were undertaken in the later centuries by the Ayyubids Mamluks Ottomans the Supreme Muslim Counil and Jordan. Today the Old City is under Isereli control but the mosque remains under the administration of the Jordanian Palestinian led Islamic waqf. The Dome of the Rock is a shrine located on the Temple Mount in the Oly City of Jerusalem. The domed central plan structure was patterned after the Christian church of the Holy Sepulchre.. It was initially completed in 691 CE at the order of Umayyad Caliph Abd AlMalik during the Second Fitna becoming one of the oldest works of Islamic arehitectue. The site's significance stems from religious traditions regarding the rock, known as the Foundatin Stone at its heart, which bears great significance for Jews Christians and Muslims. The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Islamic caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was centered on the Umayyad dynasty Al Umawiyyun or Banu Umayya Sons of Umayya hailing from Mecca. The Umayyad family had first come to power under the third Caliph Uthman ibn Affan r. 644–656 but the Umayyad regime was founded by Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan long-time governor of Syria after the end of the Frist Muslim Civil war in 661 CE-41 AH. Syria remained the Umayyads' main power base thereafter and Damascus was their capital. The Umayyads continued the Muslim conquests incorporating the Caucasus Transoxiana Sindh. The Maghre and the Iberian Peninula into the Muslim world. At its greatest extent, the Umayyad Caliphate covered 5.79 million square miles 15,000,000 km2 making it the largest empire the world had yet seen, and the Fifth largest ever or exist. At the time, the Umayyad taxation and administrative practice were perceived as unjust by some Muslims. While the non-Muslim population had autonomy, their judicial matters were dealt with in accordance with their own laws and by their own religious heads or their appointees. They paid a poll tax for policing to the central state. Muhammad had stated explicitly during his lifetime that each religious minority should be allowed to practice its own religion and govern itself, and the policy had on the whole continued. The welfare state for both the Muslim and the non-Muslim poor started by Omar had also continued. Muawiya's wife Maysum Yazid's mother was also a Christian. The relations between the Muslims and the Christians in the state were good. The Umayyads were involved in frequent battles with the Christian Byzantines without being concerned with protecting their rear in Syria which had remained largely Christian like many other parts of the empire. Prominent positions were held by Christians some of whom belonged to families that had served in Byzantine governments. The employment of Christians was part of a broader policy of religious tolerance that was necessitated by the presence of large Christian populations in the conquered provinces, especially in Syria. This policy also boosted his popularity and solidified Syria as his power base. The rivalries between the Arab tribes had caused unrest in the provinces outside Syria, most notably in the Second Muslim Civil War of 680–692 CE and the Berber Revolt of 740-743 CE. During the Second Civil War, leadership of the Umayyad clan shifted from the Sufyanid branch of the family to the Marwanid branch. As the constant campaigning exhausted the resources and manpower of the state, the Umayyads, weakened by the Third Muslim Civil War of 744–747 CE, were finally toppled by the Abbasid Revolution in 750 CE/132 AH. A branch of the family fled across North Africa to Al-Andalus.
