Clash at Jerusalem sacred site

by Sean McLachlan on

Police and Palestinian protesters have clashed at the entrance to Al-Aqsa mosque, part of the Temple Mount, Jerusalem’s holy spot for both Jews and Muslims.

Details are unclear. Palestinian sources say the protesters threw rocks at a Jewish prayer group trying to enter the area in defiance to Israeli law, which reserves the top of the Temple Mount for Muslims. Jews are supposed to pray at the Western Wall on the other side. Israeli sources say the Palestinians threw rocks at a group of tourists who were dressed inappropriately.

We may never know what really happened, but the result was that several Palestinians and Israeli police were injured and a holy spot was once again marred by violence.

I’ve been to the Temple Mount several times and despite the palpable tension it’s well worth a visit. The eleventh-century Al-Aqsa mosque has attractive medieval stained glass and an elaborately carved minbar (pulpit). Of greater interest is the Dome of the Rock next door. Its golden dome is a Jerusalem landmark and covers the spot where Mohammad is believed to have ascended to heaven. The building is decorated with beautiful multicolored tiles. Nearby is the Western Wall, also called the Wailing Wall, said to be part of the original Jewish Temple and a place of great spiritual importance for Jews.

Visiting the Temple Mount is a quick lesson in religious politics. Police crowd every entrance and signs warn members of opposing religions from worshiping at each other’s sites. On one visit during the Nineties I went with my girlfriend of the time, who was Muslim. The soldiers eyed us suspiciously and hovered close by as we waited outside for the prayer service to end. She wanted us to go in together but I wasn’t allowed in during services. Once the service was over, we entered and she did her prayers as I admired the building. Nobody objected to the strange sight of an agnostic and a Muslim visiting Islam’s third holiest site together, but we got plenty of curious looks. I wonder if we could have pulled it off today? I’m not sure I’d try. Too bad everyone can’t just chill out and accept that there are different types of people in the world.

No chance. I can’t even blog about Ottoman architecture without getting grumpy comments. Ah well.

Lost city found in Ethiopia

by Sean McLachlan on

One of Africa’s most interesting countries has just got a new site to visit.

An ancient Muslim city thought lost for a thousand years has recently been discovered. A team of French archaeologists have found the location of the medieval trading center of Gendebelo.

While Ethiopia is famous for being the second oldest Christian country in the world (after Armenia), about half of the population is Muslim and the two communities have lived side by side for centuries, sometimes peacefully, sometimes not.

Gendebelo was part of the more peaceful exchange, acting as a focus for trade between the two cultures.

The archaeologists puzzled out the location of the city with the help of an old manuscript that an earlier researcher had found in the Muslim city of Harar, where it was being used for wrapping sugar. The manuscript told the tale of a 16th century Venetian explorer who had found the ruins of Gendebelo in the desert and gave vague references to the city being “the place where mules are to be unloaded and camels take over.”

That was enough for the archaeologists, who realized the explorer meant the escarpment that marks the borderland between the rough highlands and the arid Danakil Depression. It was here that merchants who used mules (the Christians) and those who used camels (the Muslims) met for mutual profit.

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The French team was able to pinpoint the site as being a medieval city now known as Nora. It’s been abandoned for years except for the mosque, which is still used by local farmers. Legends say that in ancient times the people of Nora were so rich that on his wedding day one young man paved the road to his bride’s town with injera bread. Allah grew so angry at this conspicuous consumption that he destroyed the town with a rain of ash.

The ruins of Nora are a bit out of the way for modern travel, but planned excavations will almost certainly reveal some fine remains, and the town may become a new tourist sight. In the meantime, one great Muslim center of civilization, Harar, is still very much in use. The city is in the eastern part of Ethiopia and is considered the fourth holiest sight for Muslims after Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. The people of Harar are majority Muslim, but there’s a large Christian population too. Both speak Harari, a Semitic language related to Arabic and Hebrew. Jews also used to live in the area, but they fled to Israel and other countries during Ethiopia’s civil war in the 1980s.

Harar was founded more than a thousand years ago and is still enclosed by a city wall, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Besides the walls, there are three mosques dating to the tenth century, and the house of the French poet Rimbaud, who lived here when we was working as a gun runner and hanging out with the local governor, who was the father of Haile Selassie. Another weird sight is the nightly feeding of the hyenas.

Have you been to Ethiopia? Tell us about your experiences in the comments section. I’m taking my wife there for our tenth anniversary and I’m open to suggestions of places to go!

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Museum Junkie: Museum of the Good Samaritan opens in Israel

by Sean McLachlan on

One of the world’s largest mosaic museums recently opened in Israel.

The Museum of the Good Samaritan displays artifacts from the many cultures that lived in the region. The main attractions are the intricate mosaics found in synagogues in the West Bank and Gaza.

The museum is located on the highway between Jerusalem and Jericho near the ancient town of Ma’ale Adumim in the West Bank, believed to be the site of the inn where the parable of the Good Samaritan took place. According to the story, told by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke (10:25-37) a man is beaten up by robbers and left for dead on the side of the road. Nobody will help him but a Samaritan, a member of a rival Jewish sect that was persecuted in ancient times. His act of mercy has become synonymous with the kindness of strangers and the ability of goodness to reach across social boundaries.

This being Israel, history is politics, and officials were quick to put a spin on the museum’s opening. In an article in the Jerusalem Post, Knesset Speaker Reuvlen Rivlin said the museum underscores Israel’s historic ties to the West Bank and Gaza and its devotion to keeping a presence in them. The Knesset is the Israeli parliament, and Rivlin is one of the most powerful members of the ruling Likud party, so his words carry significant political weight.

Some of the mosaics come from Samaritan synagogues, offering a rare look at a faith that few people know still exists.

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Museum Junkie: Royal Ontario Museum hosts Dead Sea Scrolls

by Sean McLachlan on

Visitors to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto this summer will have a chance to see the famous Dead Sea Scrolls.

“Dead Sea Scrolls: Words that Changed the World” will showcase some scrolls that have never before been seen by the general public as well as numerous artifacts from the period. There will also be a series of lectures by leading religious and secular scholars.

The scrolls, found in caves near the Dead Sea, date from about 150 BC to 70 AD. and include all the books of what is now known as the Old Testament. Many are close to later versions of the same books of the Bible, but there are a few surprises as well. The collection of scrolls includes some previously unknown psalms as well as numerous Apocryphal books that were never incorporated into the standard version of the Bible. Some of the more accepted books, such as Exodus, are quite different from later versions. Controversy has raged over the scrolls since their first discovery, but one thing they do prove is that there were several different variations of the Old Testament until the books became canonized in about 100 AD.

In an interesting article in HalogenLife, Dr. Risa Levitt Kohn, the curator of the exhibit, said that the scrolls concern themselves with philosophical issues that we still wrestle with today.

The show starts June 27 and runs six months.