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In the ongoing occupation of Paestine and, in particull
ar, the city of alQuds (Jerusaem), not a singe aspect of the
Musim and Arab character of the and has been eft unconll
tested. The scope of the disputation and resuting distortions
about the character of the and has not ony enabed the occupall
tion but has aso caused a disservice to the schoarship required
for understanding the history of a and hoding enormous reillgious signicance for many peope.
With its many names throughout the ages, alQuds reects
various periods of human history and the many civiizations that
made their way to the area; the origina Canaanites, the Hittites,
the Arabs, the Egyptians, the Romans, the Persians, and the
Hebrews are ony a few of the peopes that chose a particuar
name for the city. Our concern here is not to argue for or against
any given name; rather it is to expore the names that Musims
have commony used for this important city.1
AlQuds or Jerusaem
Whats in a Name?hatem baz ian
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Here, a note of caution is needed, in that
a name by itsef does not convey rights to or
ownership of a given and or country; rather,
a name is a signpost that indicates a particull
ar groups afnity and reationship with a
ocation, which may or may not incude ega
caims of possession.
A second important note reative to al
Quds, Paestine, and the Arab word in genllera is that this geographica area is often
understood and imagined through a parll
ticuar reading of the Bibe, which privieges
the Bibica narrative over archeoogica or
other schoary research in the discourse
reating to the region.2
Finay, before tracing the deveopment
of the name alQuds, it is worthwhie to
briey discuss the Isamic traditions treatll
ment and understanding of the essence and
concept of a name. For exampe, the name
of the Prophet Mu^ammadsis considered
neither arbitrary nor equa to any other. For
Musims, the name Mu^ammad is underll
stood to have a reaity and existence that
is higher than any other name given to the
mutitude of divine creation and its utterll
ance is beieved to be a cause for the bestowll
a of bessings on the one who utters it.3InIsam, names do not necessariy share the
same eves of reaity, which is why, to fuy
understand the Isamic roots of the name
alQuds and the Musim feeings towards it,
we must rst examine the Isamic concept
of a name, and then expore the inguistic
foundations upon which the Arabic name
of Jerusaem is based.
w h y d o w e n e e d a n a m e ?
Phiosophers and thinkers of a ages andtraditions have grapped with understandll
ing the meaning and signicance of a name
by asking whether names have meanings
independent of the giver of those names or
whether names have reaities not contingent
upon the consensus of a given community.
And, aside from the theoretica impicall
tions of the naming process, namesespell
ciay the actof naming a person, pace, or
thinghave aways been a source of dispull
tation, which indicates the seriousness that
humanity has given the naming proll
cess. Names constitute the essence of the
way humans mentay reate to the thing
named.
Like their counterparts from other trall
ditions, Musim schoars have aso had to
dene what is meant by a name, not east in
order to better comprehend Quranic revellations. Three phrases appear in the Quran
that necessitate dening what is meant by
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a name for a proper exegesis: The beautiful
names of Allah;4The names of all things;5and
Names that you and your fathers had named.6
Musim exegetes coud not comment on
verses that contained these phrases before
investigating the concept of a name. In each
of the three cases, the schoars abstract defll
inition of a name served as a basis for the
articuation of foundationa theoogicapoints, which made the concept of a name
centra in Isamic schoarship.
In Arabic, a human being is dened as
al-^ayawn al-n~iq, or the rationa anima
(speaking anima is aso used), because reall
son (or speech) is a characteristic that difll
ferentiates humans from other animas. The
semina Musim thinker, Imam alGhazz,
in writing about the ninetylnine names of
God, maintains that the name is different
from both the act of naming and the object
named, and that those three terms (name,
act of naming, and the named) are distinct
and not synonymous.7He further argues
that things have existence as individuas,
in speech, or in the mind,8and that these
three types of existence are not the same.
He points out that existence as individull
as is the fundamenta and rea existence,whie existence in the mind is cognitive
forma existence; and existence in speech
is verba and indicative. About speech, al
Ghazz comments:
Our saying indicates what is in the mind, and
what is in the mind is a representation of that
which corresponds to it. For if there were
no existence in individuas, there woud
be no form impressed on the mind, and if
there were no form impressed on the mind
and no man conscious of it, it woud not be
expressed in speech. So the word, the knowll
edge, and the object known are three distinct
things, though they mutuay conform and
correspond; and are sometimes confused by
the dulwitted, and one of them may fai to
distinguish from the other.9
From alGhazz, we can see that man has a
rea existence distinct from that expressed
in speech. To speak, then, is ony to be abe
to reate to others through the use of a comll
mon set of agreed upon symbos, which he
says can differ over time and aso vary
according to the usage of countries.10
At its core, communication is a process
of mediation for a meaning that is shared by
a group of peope; if no meaning is found,
then another process of naming mustoccur for communication to take pace.
On the theoretica eve, communication
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is impossibe between two peope who canll
not agree on a shared or mediated meaning.
In Isamic thought, this mediated meaning
can be deduced either from divine reveall
tion or human agency, which is dependent
upon God permitting its production and
its appication by humans. For Musims, a
mediated meaning comes from God; howll
ever, Musims maintain that the possibiityfor mans production or action by means of
a perceived independent agency is Gods gift
to mankind.
AlGhazz denes words as consisting of
segmented etters, which posited by human
choice indicate individua things,11meanll
ing that anguage is an indicator of somell
thing that resuts from human agency. The
posited indicator for alGhazz must have
a positor, a positing, and the thing posited
itsef.12From the Quranic text, we can see
that when Adam ewas created, God rst
spoke of teaching His new creation the
names of a things.13The fact that God
made this the starting point for differentiall
tion between Adameand the angeic ream
ed Musim schoars to the concusion that
the use of names, and by extension anguage
itsef, is fundamenta to mans mission in theword. Moreover, earning the names of a
things (from God) further cements mans
abiity to acquire both wordy and otherll
wordy knowedge, taught to him directy by
God. In the Quranic narrative, Adam eis
the student, the names of a things are the
subject taught, and God is the teacher and
the utimate source of knowedge, which is
the basis for the eevation of mankind abovea other creation. Mans honor, however, is
restricted in this narrative by being proporll
tiona to his adherence to his reationship
with God.
This ed Quranic commentators to aso
concude that Adams centra roe in the
creation narrative did not appy ony to a
singe eement of the naming process, the
seection of a name; the trilpart Ghazzanparadigm of a positor, a positing, and the
thing posited can be found in the process
of teaching Adam e.14Whie schoars difll
fered on what was meant by the names of
a things, one interpretation advanced was
that man was endowed by God with the abiity
to give names to eements in creation.15This
interpretation eads to the concusion that
mans knowedge of the word must rst passthrough the agency of the name, the named,
and namer, and that what is known by man
is that which he can reate to by means of a
given name.
Aso of great signicance to Musim exell
getes was that the rst object God created was
the Pen, an instrument used to convey a given
meaning through the agency of anguage.16
The second object God created was the
Tabet, an instrument used to store informall
tion conveyed through the agency of the Pen.
In other words, the rst objects of creation
that God brought forth in the wordy ream
coud be used for the transmission of meanll
ing, and the creation of the rst human was
initiated with an eement of anguage, the
imperative verb Be, foowed by him being
taught the names of a things. In addition,
the rst reveation to the Prophets
was thecommand Read!17For Musims, this signill
es an agency for the reception of meaning,
THIS INTERPRETATION LEADS TO
THE CONCLUSION THAT MANS
KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD MUST
FIRST PASS THROUGH THE
AGENCY OF THE NAME, THE NAMED,
AND NAMER, AND THAT WHAT IS
KNOWN BY MAN IS THAT WHICH HE
CAN RELATE TO BY MEANS OF A
GIVEN NAME.
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which is a prerequisite for the transmission
of meaning.
In short, God created the Pen, the Tabet,
taught the Prophet Adam ethe names
of a things, and gave the imperative comll
mand to His Prophet Mu^ammadsto read.
So what are we to make of the various anllguages used by humans around the word
and through the ages? Musim schoars
maintain that God, by referring to them as
His signs, answers this in the Quran: the difll
ferences in tongues and modes of speech
are a reection of the divine act of creation.
And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and
earth, and the differences of your languages and
colors! Lo! Herein indeed are portents for men ofknowledge.18Therefore, from among the
signs of God is the embedment of the prinll
cipe of diversity in the human famiy, which
gives rise to the mutipicity of anguages
and the manifestation of the divine act that
brought them into existence.
Another verse in the Quran indicates
that prophetic missions were carried out in
the mutipicity of anguages that God crellated: And We never sent a messenger except with
the language of his people in order that he might
make (the message)clear for them. But Allah
leaves in error whom He will and guides whom He
pleases. He is the Mighty, the Wise.19
Because of these Quranic assertions
that have made diversity in creation sacred
and the anguage of reveation not xed,
Musim schoars have historicay honored
humanitys various anguages, regardess of
who uses a given anguage.20Whie modern
discourse on anguage has been divorced
from the Divine, connecting anguage to the
Divine remains centra to mans existence
and understanding in Isam. Differences in
anguage have served as the basis for sepall
ration in the modern nationlstate structure,
which is contrary to Isams sacred ethics
concerning inguistic diversity. This ethillca vision may not have aways been uphed,
but the principes supporting the vision are
independenty vaid and not contested in
the Isamic tradition.21
Thus far, we can say every anguage devell
oped a way of understanding and reating
to the word around it and that this historill
ca interaction within and outside the given
group resuted in the emergence of an epislltemoogica map for each anguage. The
Quranic text estabishing that messengers
had been sent to every nation with the anll
guage of their peope eads us to concude
that each nation or group had a concept of
the Divine, conveyed to them by the agenll
cy of reveation in their own anguage. By
extension, a name by itsef is the resut of a
historica process dependent upon a givensocietys epistemoogy that has its roots in an
ancient prophetic tradition.
It is precisey this abiity of each society to
deveop a particuar epistemoogy founded
upon a anguage diviney bestowed upon
it that sits at the center of the purpose of
diversity, to give humans the abiity to view
the word through different divine enses.
It is the coectivity of enses that fosters an
understanding of the divine meaning. The
demise of a anguage, then, is a oss not ony
to the particuar society that used that anll
Hatem Bazian is currently a senior lecturer in the Department of Near Eastern Studiesand an adjunct professor at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California,Berkeley. He teaches courses on Islamic law and society, Islam in America, religiousstudies, and Arabic language. He has also taught Middle Eastern politics at the Saint
Marys College of California and Arabic and Malik qh at the Zaytuna Institute. Hegraduated with a Ph.D. in Islamic studies from UC Berkeley, specializing in Islamiclaw and the history of Muslims in Jerusalem. His book about the Islamic history ofal-Quds, from which this essay is adapted, is forthcoming.
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guage, but to a of humanity, which oses
not merey a spoken tongue but an epistell
moogica map that connects to other simill
ar human maps. We ose part of ourseves,
which is the understanding that informs the
Isamic perspective on anguage.
Every anguage group uses a different
symbo to reate to the same object. Here,
we see the reevance of the aforementionedquestion about whether a name has an indell
pendent reaity outside the agency through
which it achieved its name, and if it does,
then how do we know this name? The Isamic
concept of creation suggests that every creatll
ed thing has an independent reaity separate
and distinct from the names given it by varill
ous anguages. Ony God knows this reaity,
and ony those among His creation who He
permits experience this reaity.
More signicanty, ony God knows withll
out conjecture the essence of His created
eements and the names He gave them at the
moment of their creation. Our human act of
naming is based upon a conjecture that may
or may not correspond to the essence and
the reaity with which God has endowed a
given creation. This human conjecture arisll
es in part from the mutipicity of the humanagents that produce diverse possibiities for
the name of a given object. For exampe,
each anguage uses a different word to name
a horse, a cup, or a wa. On a menta eve,
each anguage group has its own abstract
notion of what a cup ooks ike. The function
of a cup can be a possibe point of agreement
among different groups; however, even in
this area, groups may have differences about
the exact functionaity of a given cup. For
Musims, the ony exception to this apparenthuman probem is reveation, which might
provide a specic name, such as the name
dam, for an eement of creation that tranll
scends inguistic diversity.
Precisey this aspect of the human act of
naming is at issue in the discussion of the
name alQuds. As a and, alQuds has a disll
tinct and specic reaity, and in the Arabic
anguage it aso has a reaity that corresponds
to that of the and. Musims contend that
God endowed the and with a specic reall
ity, and that the name alQuds is organicay
based upon and emerges from Quranic revll
eation and prophetic hadith, which possess
a historica continuity to the present.
e a r l y m u s l i m n a m e s f o r
a l - q u d s
In terms of estabished research, the eariestwritten reference to alQuds is contained in
six cuneiform tabets that are part of a group
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of more than three hundred and fty such
tabets dating to approximatey 1400bcdisll
covered in Egypt. The tabets were found in
Akhetaten, then the Egyptian capita, and
contain records of communication between
Egypts pharaoh, various Asiatic kings, and
Canaans petty ruers. Signicanty for the
history of alQuds, the tabets contain etters
and correspondence written by AbdilHeba,the King of Urushaim, the ate Bronze Age
name for Jerusaem, and they revea the
character of his kingdom as a thiny setted
highand region, oosey supervised from
the roya citade in Jerusaem.22Many scholl
ars consider this to be the citys rst recordll
ed name whie aowing for the possibiity of
an even earier name because the area has
been inhabited since the eariest periods of
human existence.
Eary Musims recognized that a number
of traditions that existed in Paestinebefore
the Musim era gave the and different
names. In his book, It^f al-akhi|| bi fa\il
al-Masjid al-Aq|23(The Enthraing of the
Eite in the Virtues of the alAq| Mosque),
Imam alSuy~ mentions coecting sevll
enteen names for presentlday alQuds.
AlSuy~ ists the Musim name for the cityrst, then incudes the nonlMusim names
Iia and Urushaim.24
AlSuy~ coud have written about ony
the name he identied with and negated
the presence of a the others, but this woud
have been contrary to Isamic schoary ethll
ics. In fact alSuy~ considered a the names
incuded in his work to be importanty
precious.25He aso does not contest or disll
miss any earier or contemporary name; for
alSuy~, alQuds various names were simllpy a matter of schoary record.26
In addition to alSuy~, another promill
nent Musim schoar of the eighth/fteenth
century, Imam Badr alDn Mu^ammad b.
Abdaah alZarkashi, aso isted a tota of
seventeen names for the area and traced, in
a imited fashion, the background of each
name.27When confronted with earier knowll
edge, Musim schoars such as alSuy~ and
alZarkashi understood their position to be
the conrmation of what came before them;
they aso understood that Isams purpose
was to summon individuas and communill
ties to rectify their ways, not to negate the
contributions of earier civiizations.
Whie eary Musim writings about al
Quds have aways traced the historica
foundations of previous names for the city,
tracing the chronoogica history of Musimnames for the city is somewhat difcut, even
though the names are readiy avaiabe.
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Some names are easier to identify and pace
in a particuar historica context than others,
which ack the evidence required to pinpoint
a date. For the atter category, we can ony
approximate the period of usage, which can
be used with quaication. One major reason
is the constant strife associated with the area,which often resuted in the destruction of usell
fu materias. In the cassica period, the area
witnessed major conict among competing
Musim dynasties, with poor record keeping
being a byproduct. Aso, the Mongo ranll
sacking of Baghdad eiminated virtuay a
of the Abbasid records whie the onsaught
of the Crusades even furll
ther fragmented the hislltorica record. Finay, the
modern conict that began
as eary as 1800with the
French campaign in Egypt
and Paestine has made our
abiity to stitch together an
accurate record even more
difcut.
What we are certainabout are eary and conll
stant references to the area
in Isamic sources. The
record aso points out shifts
and changes in the exact
terms used to reference
the area, caused by a variety
of inuences, both interna and externa.
These changes can be seen as part of a ong
process of adjustment and renement by
Musims that began with the prophetic perill
od and continues unti the present, athough
under difcut circumstances.
Any discussion of Isamic names for the
area must begin with the prophetic period
and the Quranic references. A number of
names for the region appear in the Quran
and in hadith,28but there is no expanation
about whether those names were in comllmon currency among peope of the period.
Aso, Quranic reveation took pace primarll
iy in Mecca and Medina, somewhat far from
Paestine; this has prompted the question of
whether the names used in the Quran and
hadith shoud even be considered in the
study of the history of Musim name usage for
Jerusaem. It is uncear if these terms of referll
ence were common among a arger commullnity that incuded not just Musims and Arabs
in Mecca and Medina but aso Arabs iving in
Paestine at the time.
In the rst verse of the seventeenth chapll
ter of the Quran, the reference is made to
alMasjid alAq| (the Farthest Mosque),
which by consensus commentators identill
ed as ocated in Paestine
and the city of Jerusaemand which is the rst name
used for the area by Musims
during the prophetic perill
od. The sources reated to
this usage indicate that the
Arabs of Mecca knew of the
pace bearing this name.
Paestine and its main cities
were known to the Meccansas reguar way stations for
merchant caravans travell
ing on trade routes that prel
dated the advent of Isam by
hundreds of years and conll
tinued thereafter; the exisll
tence of these routes is conll
rmed even from the Bibica narrative.29
Schoars are certain that the term al
Masjid alAq| had no currency among the
Roman inhabitants of Jerusaem at the time,
the proper name of the city being Iia. The
Meccans, though, seem to have understood
this reference; in a famous tradition, the
Prophets companionslargued whether or
not it was possibe for the Prophetsto have
competed his Night Journey (al-isr), which
they understood to require a month each
way under norma circumstances.30In thisusage and appication of the name alMasjid
alAq| taken from the Quran and hadith,
HE LISTS THE MUSLIM NAME
FOR THE CITY FIRST, THEN
INCLUDES THE NON-MUSLIM
NAMES ILIA AND URUSHALIM.
HE COULD HAVE WRITTEN
ABOUT ONLY THE NAME HE
IDENTIFIED WITH AND NEGATED
THE PRESENCE OF ALL THE
OTHERS, BUT THIS WOULD
HAVE BEEN CONTRARY TO
ISLAMIC SCHOLARLY ETHICS.
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the evidence points to the Meccan popuall
tion having some acquaintance with both
the term and its exact ocation.
But how were the Meccans abe to connect
these references to Jerusaem from Isams
sacred history to their existing references
for the city? One possibe expanation is thatthe Arabs of the Hijaz and their counterparts
in Paestine (who had triba inks) had used
a common name for the cityalMasjid al
Aq|that was distinct from the name given
to the area by the Romans. The triba inks
between the Arabs of Paestine and those of
the Hijaz end some support to this possibill
ity of a shared name operating in an inforll
ma way. Roman controof the city and their new
name might have been
adhered to by a ofcia
eves, but it is highy posll
sibe that alMasjid al
Aq| was known and used
informay by the Arabs
among themseves.
Because no written evilldence of this exists, we
advance it ony as edull
cated specuation.
This, in turn, eads to
the more important quesll
tion of why this Quranic
term (alMasjid alAq|)
was understood to be Jerusaem by the prel
Quranic Arabs even though the city at the
time was known as Iia.
The recorded evidence about this is rathll
er scant. There is a statement attributed to
the Prophet sthat appears in a tradition
in which he is asked about the rst mosque
paced on earth for mankind. He answers
that the rst mosque was in Mecca; he is subll
sequenty asked about the second, to which
he is reported to have repied alMasjid al
Aq|, with forty years between them.31Aso,as noted earier, alMasjid alAq| appears in
the seventeenth chapter of the Quran and
then is narrated in the hadith in reference
to the Prophets Night Journey. There is no
prior written or ora record of any usage of
the term. Despite a the references to this
term being interna to the Isamic tradition,
this shoud not impy a ack of recognition of
the area by the Musims or that the term wasnot used by the Arabs in the prelQuranic
era; indeed, from the prophetic period to
the present, Musims have unanimousy
agreed that alMasjid alAq| has referred
to Jerusaem. This certainty argey rests on
the Meccans response of shock and mockll
ery to the Prophets tae of a night journey;
they deemed it impossibe for the Prophet
s
to trave to Jerusaemand back in one night.
That the Meccans knew
the reference to the
area does not necessill
tate them estabishing a
historica record for the
usage of the reference,
which is in our hands
ony through the Quranand hadith.
In the Isamic sourcll
es, there are three major
theories that attempt to
address why the term
woud have been used in
the prelQuranic perill
od, the rst two being that God created the
two rst foca points of worship (alMasjid al
arm and alMasjid alAq|) referenced in
the prophetic tradition in the prelAdamic era
or that the Prophet Adamehimsef sought
to estabish these points of worship, making
the rst concern after his exit from Paradise
an attempt to ink again to the Divine.32
The third possibe expanation for the use
and knowedge of alMasjid alAq| by the
Meccans is their rmy estabished ineage,
which extends through Ishmae e
and isdirecty connected to Abrahame, who ived
in Paestine in cose proximity to Jerusaem.
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The Bibe refers to Ishmae taking part in
Abrahams buria in alKha (Hebron),
which points to possibe contact, if not
actua reations, between the inhabitants of
Jerusaem and Mecca amost two thousand
years prior to the advent of Isam.33We aso
know that Ishmaeeived among and marll
ried into the Arabs. If we take the possibill
ity of Ishmaes contact and reations withAbrahameand the rest of the famiy, then
the reference might impy an Arab connecll
tion to Paestine onger than the written
or ora record might indicate. Meanwhie,
the second chapter of the Quran rmy
estabishes that bothIshmae and Abraham
fparticipated in the raising of the founll
dation of the sacred house in Mecca,
which aso dates the spiritua connections
between Jerusaem and Mecca to about the
same period.34It is possibe that alMasjid
alAq| was used in reference to Jerusaem
by Ishmae ebecause Jerusaem was far
from his vicinity. Whether the name was
ikewise used by Abrahameis more specull
ative because neither the Bibe nor those
who ived in the area recorded its usage.
What is raised is a distinct possibiity, based
upon Abraham and Ishmaes connectionto Mecca (and Ishmaes connection to the
buria of Abrahame), that might expain
the introduction of a term to describe the
distance between Mecca and Jerusaem,
with Jerusaem being the farthest mosque
from Mecca, a designation ater conrmed
through Quranic terminoogy.
Another name in the Isamic sources,
after this rst term, is Bayt alMaqdis, which
appears in the hadith coections and can
be dened as the Sacred, Hoy, or SanctiedHouse.35During the prophetic period, Bayt
alMaqdis was used in reference to Paestine
on a number of occasions by the Prophets;
it aso seems that his contemporaries underll
stood the term to refer to the and in Paestine
because there are no reports of his companll
ions inquiring about it. This name from
the hadith has connections to the Quranic
references to alAr\ alMuqaddasah (the
Sacred/Hoy Land), which was known to
the Arabs through their reations with the
surrounding Christian and Jewish
popuations.36AlAr\ alMuqaddasah was
understood to incude more than Jerusaem,
and the areas it encompasses are subject to
various interpretations not ony by Musim
schoars but by Christian and Jewish schoars
as we. For Musims, alAr\ alMuqaddasah
referred to the entirety of the and ofPaestine and its adjacent regions.
References to the Sacred/Hoy Land
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are associated with the narratives of earier
prophets, such as Abraham, Lot, Ishmae,
Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and Jesus f,
which coud be taken to impy that Musims,
represented by the Prophet Mu^ammads,
do not have an immediate or direct connecll
tion to this spiritua and. The appropriate
response to this notion is that Musims view
any reference in the Quran to alAr\ alMuqaddasah as pertaining to them, whether
the reference reates directy to the Prophet
Mu^ammad sor to one of his prophetic
ancestors. This view is permitted by the
canonica Musim beief that Isam conrms
a earier prophets and reveations; Musims,
thus, see themseves not as outsiders ooking
at past traditions but as inheritors of a the
spiritua meaning and signicance associll
ated with the term.
Another name, this one being uniquey
Isamic, aso emerged for Jerusaem durll
ing the eary prophetic period. For sevenll
teen months during the prophetic mission,
the Musim prayer was oriented toward
Jerusaem, not Mecca (a Quranic injuncll
tion ater commanded the Prophet s to
direct the prayer toward Mecca). During this
period, Jerusaem was known as the qiba, orthe point of orientation for the prayer. After
the redirection of the prayer toward Mecca,
the city kept the name but had added to it the
quaier of being the rst qiba, and therell
after became known as a alQibatayn
(the First of Two Qibas). This appears in
commentaries on the second chapter of the
Quran, in which verses expain the shift
from Jerusaem to Mecca seventeen months
after the Hijrah.37Some have argued that
the Prophets
directed his foowers towardJerusaem as a way of gaining support from
the Jewish communities in Medina after the
migration;38however, the direction of prayer
was instituted prior to the migration, and the
change took pace once the migrants setted
in their new city.39
Another term appearing in the hadith is al
Ar\ alMa^shar (the Land of Ingathering),
which is a reference to Jerusaem, and posll
siby Paestine as a whoe, and is the ocall
tion where a humanity wi be gathered
together. The term appears in commenll
taries on Quranic verses pertaining to the
End of Time and awaiting Gods judgment
of humanity. Many Sus deveoped a pracll
tice of seeking to spend time in alQuds to
await the moment of ingathering and prell
pare themseves to meet God. The Land of
Ingathering aso compemented the Sunotions offan(compete erasure or annill
hiation of sef) and baq (the subsequent
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return to existence or being) because the
notion of dying before one dies is intimatey
connected to the Fina Judgment.
p o s t - p r o p h e t i c p e r i o d
Between the seventeenth and nineteenth
years of the Hijrah, Musim armies conll
quered Iia and most of Greater Syria. TheMusims, in particuar the second caiph
Umar g, estabished a status for the city
that was expressed in the surrender treaty
agreed upon with the citys inhabitants. The
treaty used Iia as the citys proper name,
and Umargdid not ask that it be changed.
Furthermore, during his tour of Iia, Umar
gasked to be shown the rock, the Mosque
of David e, and the ocation of Prophet
Mu^ammads prayers and ascension to the
heavens. Once he arrived at the ocation,
the caiph caed it alMasjid alAq|, recall
ing chapter seventeen of the Quran. We
can see that Umarg made reference to the
period of the Chidren of Israe through the
connection with the Mosque of David and to
the Prophets Night Journey, two areas reatll
ing to Musim name usage and identicall
tion. Aso, Umars requests show that earyMusims had knowedge of the signicance
of alQuds and its spiritua history.
In the eary years foowing the prophetic
period, the most common name used by
Musims for the city was Bayt alMaqdis;
often, however, it was accompanied by an
expanation that it referred to Iia. The
sources are not cear why Musims did so, but
a possibe expanation coud be the dynamll
ics between the oca popuation, which wassti accustomed to an earier name, and
the Musims from Arabia who ferventy foll
owed the teachings of the Prophets. Aso,
maintaining the name coud have been the
fument of the artices of the treaty, which
referred to the city as Iia. Additionay, it
woud have been difcut to administer a
city or an area where the oca popuation was
not accustomed to the new name, a fact that
coud have ed the administrators to resort to
a dua usage. The rate of conversion, which
was initiay sow after the Musim conquest
of Paestine, aso may have contributed to
the use of doube names for a period. Finay,
we can perhaps ass ume that some in
Paestine might have used the name Iia to
spite the new Musim ruers, who, after a,
were not Christians. Whatever the reasons,
it appears that the Musims did not mindusing both names, Iia and Bayt alMaqdis.
Some writers with i intentions take this
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doube usage to mean that the Musims did
not have a name for the city before they conll
quered it, and ony acquired it after interll
action with the oca popuation. The argull
ment is pausibe but runs contrary to ogic;
if the conquering Musims took a name from
oca Christian sources, they woud haveikey used Iia, the operative name of the city
for some ve hundred years, the name sancll
tioned by the ruing authorities in Paestine,
and the name used in the treaty.
The Musims maintained Bayt alMaqdis
as the name of the city for centuries, but
during the Ottoman period a new name,
alQuds, surfaced in many documents.
Schoars are certain the city was referredto as alQuds, but there is no evidence that
dates the emergence of this name; ikewise,
no specic decree, Ottoman or otherwise,
for its institution has been found. The ack
of evidence has caused uncertainty about
the underying cause for the introduction
(or continuing use) of the name. The name
alQuds does have inguistic afnity with al
Ar\ alMuqaddasah and Bayt alMaqdis, butbeyond this we know itte of the background
for the change.
Historians are aso not sure whether the
name alQuds originated with the Ottomans
or prior to their entering Paestine around
1517ad. The name remained throughout
Ottoman rue over Paestine and was kept
during the British Mandate (19201948).
One possibe expanation is that alQuds was
current among the popuation to refer to the
historica city ony, and Musims viewed Bayt
alMaqdisto be a region arger than the city
proper, with the Ottomans continuing this
practice once they arrived. It is ikey that the
name alQuds was imited to the city proper,
that Bayt alMaqdis constituted the arger
area of what we ca today the West Bank,
and that alAr\ alMuqaddasah was sti a
arger region, possiby encompassing aof Paestine, parts of Syria, Jordan, and the
northern parts of Egypt. This use of the three
designations emerges more ceary during
the Ottoman period and might be reated
to the systematic and bureaucratic nature of
their rue.40
Meanwhie, some maintain that the name
alQuds actuay comes from Hebrew and
not from Arabic. In the Jewish tradition wend the use of the term Ir HalQadesh (the
Hoy City), which appears ve times in the
Hebrew Bibe.41There are aso ruins caed
Qadesh, south of Lake Tabris (this is perhaps
better known as Lake Tiberias, or Tiberius in
the West) in northeast Paestine and near a
river in the northern part of Lebanon. What
we have possiby is an actua ocation known
to Jews as Ir HalQadesh that is distinct from
Jerusaem. Even though the term appears
in the Hebrew Bibe in reference to the
city, it was not the name most used by Jewish
communities to refer to the city, and it was
not the name used for the city when it was
occupied by Zionists in 1948; the choice was
Urushaim not Ir HalQadesh.
Even though Urushaim was the most frell
quenty used name for the city by the Jewish
community, Mohammed Abdu Hameed
alKhateeb, who considered the question
about the origin of the name, wrote: Al
Quds, which became its standard designalltion in Isamic sources, recas the ancient
Hebrew name Ir Ha-Qadesh, iteray City
HISTORIANS ARE ALSO NOT SURE
WHETHER THE NAME AL-QUDS
ORIGINATED WITH THE OTTOMANS
OR PRIOR TO THEIR ENTERING
PALESTINE AROUND 1517 . THE
NAME REMAINED THROUGHOUT
OTTOMAN RULE OVER PALESTINE
AND WAS KEPT DURING THE
BRITISH MANDATE.
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of Hoiness.42Whie alKhateebs work iscritica and provides vauabe information
about the name of the city, his supporting
evidence is not concusive in this case. Thename alQuds, as we wi see beow, can be
just as easiy derived from the Quranic and
Arabic term alAr\ alMuqaddasah (the
Hoy Land), which is the term found in eary
Musim references to the city, together with
other names used in the prelIsamic period.
Another possibiity is that alQuds in Arabic
and Ir HalQadesh in Hebrew are simiar
because both anguages come from the same
inguistic tree and share a number of comll
mon words.
Another distinct possibii ty points to
a Yemeni origin for alQuds. There is a
pyramidlshaped mountain to the south of
Yemens Sabr mountain identied as Qads
that coud be a connection because many
of the eary Arab inhabitants of Paestine
had direct inks and triba afiations with
Yemen. Aso, a simiary named mountain,the Qads in Najd, exists in the eastern part of
presentlday Saudi Arabia. It is possibe that
some of the eary Yemenis and other Arabs
who setted the area appied a name to the
pateau because of the simiarities with what
was known to them before their migration.
43
i s l a m i c s o u r c e s f o r t h e n a m e
a l - q u d s
The inguistic origin for alQuds is the Arabic
triatera root qadusa, which means to be
pure, hoy, bessed, and sacred. As noted, it
was common for Arabs to refer to the ocall
tion as Bayt Aah alMuqaddas (Gods Hoy
House) or alBayt alMaqdis, which conll
notes a pace puried of a sins, sanctied,
dedicated, and consecrated, or the ocation
where the purication of sins can take pace.
Another term of common reference, alBayt
alMuqaddas, is a pace that is exated and
protected from shirk (association with God),
meaning that it was puried by the remova
of idos.44The name alQuds, then, is utill
matey derived from the name alBayt al
Muqaddas, or the house that is puried andbessed. Aso, as the verba noun that comes
from the root qadusa, alQuds refers to hoill
a l - m a s j i d a l - a q f r o m a p h o t o g r a p h t a k e n i n 1 9 0 0
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ness, sacredness, and sanctity, making it an
appropriate name for a city that possesses
sacred, pure, and bessed attributes.
The Quranic reference to alAr\ al
Muqaddasah (the sacred, bessed, or purill
ed and), the ony specic and direct refll
erence to Jerusaem and Paestine in theQuran, aso gives us insight through its conll
text and inguistic roots of the purication,
sacredness, and hoiness associated with
the name. The Musims during (or before)
the Ottoman period must have had this in
mind when they estabished the name of
the actua city. In the Quran, ten verses that
use words based on the triatera root qadusa
can be found; three of these refer directy tothe actua area. For exampe, the foowing
verse speaks of the Hoy Land:
O my people! Go into the Holy Land [alAr\ al
Muqaddasah]that Allah has ordained for you.
Turn not in ight, for surely you would then turn
back as losers. (5:21)
Other occurrences of words derived fromthe root qadusaare in the foowing verses:
Recall the time when your Lord told the angels I am
setting a man (Adam) on the earth as a vicegerent.
They asked: Will you put there one that will work
evil and shed blood, when we praise You and sanc--
tify [nuqadis] Your name? He replied, Surely I
know what you know not. (2:30)
And assuredly We gave Moses the Scripture, and
after him We sent messenger after messenger. We
gave Jesus son of Mary the clear miracles (to serve as
proofs of Allahs sovereignty) and strengthened him
with the Holy Spirit [R^ alQudus].(2:87)
We gave Jesus son of Mary the clear miracles (to serve
as proofs of Allahs sovereignty) and strengthened him
with the Holy Spirit[R^ alQudus].(2:253)
Then will Allah say: O Jesus son of Mary! Remember
My favor to you and your mother; how I strength--
ened you with the Holy Spirit [R^ alQudus]so
that you spoke to mankind in the cradle as in matu--
rity.(5:110)
Say: The Holy Spirit [R^ alQudus] brought it
down from your Lord in truth, to strengthen those
who believe, and as a guidance and good tidings tothose who have surrendered (to Allah, thereby enter--
ing Islam). (16:102)
He is Allah besides whom there is no other god. He
is the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One [alQudds],
the Source of Security, the Keeper of Faith; the
Guardian, the Mighty One, the All Powerful, the
Proud! Exalted be He above partners they ascribe to
Him.(59:23)
Whatever is in the heavens and in the earth glori--
es Allah, the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One [al
Qudds], the Mighty, the Wise. (62:1)
We can see from the above verses that the
Quran uses the triatera root qadusa for
various words that a share some aspect of
the meaning contained in it. In a number ofverses,45the name of the Archange Gabrie
eappears in Arabic as R^ alQudus, which
comes from the same root qadusa, and can
be transated as the Hoy Spirit. Gabrie ,
who is the conveyer of Gods reveations to
His prophets, is directy reated to alQuds
through the many prophets sent to the area,
to whom he transmitted reveations. In three
verses, R^ alQudus conveys reveations to
Jesuse, whie in another, the recipient is the
Prophet Mu^ammads. The fact that both
prophets had connections to alQuds and
both were recipients of reveations through
the agency of R^ alQudus means that
there is a ink between alQuds and Gabrie
in the Isamic tradition.
It is important that the name R^ alQudus
in the Quran is used ony in reference to the
reveations sent to Jesus and Mu^ammadf,ceary inking the Quran and the Gospe to
the area. Thus, R^ alQudus transmits two
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sacred books that contain within them the
means through which guidance, puricall
tion, and sacredness can be achieved, whiethose who reject them have no portion of
their benets.
In addition, Gabrie was intimatey
invoved with Prophet Mu^ammads miracll
uous Night Journey (al-isr'), which took
pace between Mecca and alQuds and conll
stitutes one of the foundations for Isamic
reigious attachment to the and. The name
of alQuds, aready inked to R^ alQudusas demonstrated above, is further bessed by
Gabrie traversing the and of Paestine
to convey reveations to the many
prophets.
In two verses (59:23and62:1), Gods attrill
bute of the Hoy One is used, which in Arabic
is alQudds. The attribute of alQudds is
a noun from a form in Arabic used for magll
nication, which means that God is sacred,
puried, and hoy in Himsef and is the cause
of a hoiness that exists in creation. Imam
alGhazz denes and comments on how
Gods name alQudds shoud be underll
stood:
AlQuddsThe Hoyis the one who is
free from every attribute which a sense might
perceive, or imagination may conceive, or to
which imagination may instinctivey turn or
by which the conscience may be moved, or
which thinking demands. I do not say: free
from defects and imperfections, for the mere
mention of that borders on insut; it is bad
form for one to say: the king of the country isneither a weaver nor a cupper, since denying
somethings existence coud fasey impy its
possibiity, and there is imperfection in that
fase impication.
I wi rather say: The Hoy is the one who
transcends every one of the attributes of
perfection which the majority of creatures
thinks of as perfection. For creatures ook
rst to themseves, become aware of their
attributes, and reaize that they are divided
into (1) what is perfect regarding them, such
as their knowedge and power, hearing, seell
ing and speaking, their wiing and choosll
ingso they empoy these words to convey
these meanings, and say these are perfection
terms. But the attributes aso contain (2)
what is imperfect regarding them, ike their
ignorance, debiity, bindness, deafness,
dumbness; and they empoy these words to
convey these meanings.
So the most they can do, in praising God
the most high and quaifying Him, is (1) to
describe Him by attributes taken from their
perfectionfrom knowedge, power, hearll
ing, seeing and speakingand (2) deny of
Him attributes taken from their imperfecll
tion. But Godmay He be praised, the most
Hightranscends attributes taken from
their perfection as much as He does those
reecting their imperfection. Indeed God
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is free from every attribute of which the crell
ated can conceive; He transcends them and
is above anything simiar to them or ikethem.46
Accordingy, Musims beieve that God has
given the and a name reated to one of His
ninetylnine names and that the meaning of
alQuds is directy reated to that of the attrill
bute. AlQuds is thus reated in its root to one
of the names of God, alQudds(the Most
Hoy, the AlHoy),
47
which conveys a moreemphatic meaning of purication, sacredll
ness, and hoiness of the and.
AlQ\ Iya\ in his book al-Shif, menll
tions that one of the names of the Prophet
sis aso derived from alQudds. He writes
the foowing:
One of Aahs names is the Pure (al-Quddus).
It means the One disconnected from imperll
fections and pure of a traces of inltimeness.
It is said that theBayt al-Muqaddas(Jerusaem)
is caed so because in it the Prophet swas
puried from wrong actions. From this root
comes the Pure Vaey [or Sacred Vaey] (al-
Wd al-Muqaddas) and the Spirit of Purity
[or Spirit of Hoiness] (R^ al-Qudus). It has
come down from the books of the Prophets
that one of the Prophets names is Muqaddas
(Pure). That is, he is puried of wrong
actions as Aah says, That Aah might forll
give you your wrong actions (48:2), or that
he is the one by whom peope are puried of
wrong actions and that foowing him frees
peope of wrong actions as Aah says, ... topurify you (62:2); Aah aso says, He wi
bring you out of the darkness into the ight
(5:16). Or it can mean puried of bameworll
thy quaities and base attributes.48
Q\ Iya\ points out that Gods name al
Qudds has been directy inked to one of
the Prophets own names, Muqaddas, and as
such shares with it the concept of purity orhoiness. Through this, Musims beieve that
the name alQuds is intimatey connected to
one of the names of the Prophet and that
this has its origins in the episode of al-isr.
In the Quran (5:21), God gave the and a
name derived from and reated to one of His
names; the attributes emanating from this
name bestow sanctity, bessings, and purill
cation on the and. The Engish transation
commony used for alAr\ alMuqaddasah
is Hoy Land, which is defensibe on some
grounds, but nevertheess fais to convey a
the meanings of the Arabic term.
We have estabished that God is alQudds;
the name of the Prophet sis Muqaddas;
the name of the Archange Gabrie e is
R^ alQudus; the and is named alAr\ al
Muqaddasah;and the city name is alQuds;
and a of these names share the same rootqadusa. There is an intrinsic reationship in
meaning and in signicance between the
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name that God has chosen for Himsef and
the name He has used to designate the and.
Because Musims beieve God is the source of
a purication and bessings, His choice of
the name is an act that is signicant in and of
itsef; it points to a direct ink, not on the temll
pora pane of the source and recipient of thename, but on the spiritua, or eterna, pane.
Further, the reationship between the and,
as the recipient of the act of purication and
bessings, and the source is aso a direct one.
God is consistent in His extension of taqds
(active bestowa of sanctication, dedicall
tion, purication, and bessings) to the and,
making alQuds, as a city, in a constant state
of the reception of Gods favors.God, as alQudds, is Hoy and is the cause
for any state of hoiness that occurs in crell
ation, and the connection between source
and recipient is constant. For Musims the
name alQuds cannot be random; rather, it
points to a cear manifestation of purpose
for the and that received this name, even
though the circumstances surrounding the
origins of the name are uncear. Consideringthe Prophets name Mu^ammads, which
reates in its root to one of Gods names, al
amd (The Praiseworthy and Source of
Praise), aso caries Gods connection to al
Quds. In the same way that the name of the
Prophetsis inked to God by the meaning
shared in the root ^amida,alQuds is seectll
ed and inked for a purpose specic to the
and, which is made cear in the foowing
verses:
But when he reached that place a voice was heard: O
Moses! I am your Lord. So take off your sandals; for
you are in the sacred valley of >uw.(20:1112)
And when he reached it, he was called from the
right side of the valley in the blessed eld, from the
tree: O Moses! Lo! I, even I, am Allah, the Lord of
the Worlds.(28
:30
)
Has the story of Moses reached you? How his Lord
called out for him in the sacred valley of >uw,
(saying) "Go to Pharaoh: he has transgressed all
bounds! " (79:1517)
In two of these verses, the sacred vaey,
which in Arabic is alWd alMuqaddas, is
derived from the root qadusa. These verses
speak of the sacred vaey >uw, which isin the southern part of the Sinai desert in
Egypt. The sacred nature of the and is in refll
erence to the story of the Prophet Moses
and the ca that came to him from God in
>uw. Musims beieve in the Prophet Moses
and they aso beieve that God spoke to
him directy in the vaey of >uw. God caed
the vaey alMuqaddas, and the form of this
word indicates that God puried and bessedthe vaey.
Ceary, the name alQuds has inguisll
tic foundations that can be traced to the
Quranic text. Additionay, the intimacy
with which alQuds is inked to the Quranic
text casts great doubt upon the caim that the
Musims have no connection to the and and
that the name alQuds resuted ony from
their interaction with the Jews and Christians.The text of the Quran estabishes with cerll
tainty that the Musims, during the time of
the Prophet Mu^ammads, had a cear idea
of the sacred and of Paestine, incuding its
geographic ocation. The Quranic verses
provided above point ceary to the devell
opment of a cohesive idea about the sacred
and, its history, and its signicance for the
Musims even prior to the coming of Isam to
the and of Paestine.
AlQuds, then, is ony one name among
many others that are used by Musims in
reference to various parts of the and. Al
Quds refers to the actua city, whie alAr\ al
Muqaddasah designates a arger area encomll
passing a number of modernlday nationl
states (Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Paestine,
parts of Egypt, and parts of Iraq). AlQuds is
the name currenty used by Musims to desigllnate the pateau that has a sweeping view of
a narrow vaey opposite the Mount of Oives
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that encompasses, among many other monll
uments, two distinct Musim buidings, al
Masjid alAq| (the Farthest Mosque) and
Qubbat alakhrah (the Dome of the Rock).
n o t e s
1 My interest in investigating this aspect ofPaestines Isamic history stems primarll
iy from the ongoing attempts, schoary and
otherwise, to dismiss the vaidity of a unique
Musim context reated to alQuds. It shoud
be cear that such a dismissa or remova of
Isamic context is often supported by prol
Israei groups, Jewish and otherwise, who
see in this approach not a mere remova of
Paestinian rights to their and but aso an
afrmation of their own distinctive historica
narrative. Thus, debating or rejecting Musimspecicity reated to alQuds is not undertaken
for pure academic or inteectua purposes;
rather, it is vested in afrming the contempoll
rary occupations narrative over that of the
Paestinians.
2 For a more detaied discussion of the Bibe and
recent research in archaeoogy, I recommend
reading Israe Finkestein and Nei Asher
Siberman, The Bible Unearthed: Archaeologys
New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its
Sacred Texts(New York: Free Press,2001); Keith
W. Whiteam, The Invention of Ancient Israel:
The Silencing of Palestinian History (New York:
Routedge, 1996); Thomas L. Thompson, The
Mythic Past: Biblical Archaeology and the Myth of
Israel (New York: Basic Books, 1999); Wiiam
G. Dever, What Did the Biblical Writers Know and
When Did They Know It?(Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans Pubishing, 2001).
3 Mostafa alBadawi, Invoking Bessings on the
Prophet, in Seasons, Spring 2007. See espellciay Why We Bess the Prophet 7476.
4 See Quran,7:180,17:110,20:8, and59:24.
5 See Quran2:31.
6 See Quran7:71, 12:40, and53:23.
7 Ab mid alGhazz, al-Maq|ad al-asn f
shar^ asm Allh al-^usn, trans. David Burre
and Nazih Daher (Cambridge, UK: Isamic
Texts Society,1995),56.
8 Ibid.,6.
9 Ibid.,6.
10 Ibid.,7.
11 Ibid.,78.
12 Ibid.,8.
13 See Quran2:31.
14 alGhazz,al-Maq|ad, 8.
15 Ibn Kathir, Tasfr ibn Kathr, Vo. I,
Commentary on Chapter 2, alBaqara (Beirut:
Maktabat alNr alImiyyah, 1991).
16 See Quran68:1.
17 See Quran 96:1, and 96:3. The command
Read! appears a tota of three times in the
Quran, twice in the rst verses reveaed to
Prophet Mu^ammads.
18 See Quran30:22.
19 See Quran14:4.
20 A primary indicator of the Isamization of a
peope is the emergence of rened anguages
that draw on existing inguistic materias but
bear the stamp of Isam; exampes incude
Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Maay, Swahii, Hausa,
etc. In many parts of the word, the arriva of
Isam ed to the strengthening of oca anll
guages because attempts to transate Isamic
texts and the Quran caed for the engagell
ment of the highest forms of those anguages,
a fact that is presenty occurring in Engishl
speaking areas where transations of cassica
texts are undertaken.
21 A strong emphasis on earning other anguagll
es is present in the prophetic period, and it isreported that the Prophets
encouraged his
foowers to earn anguages incuding those
of their enemies. It is aso reported that he
empoyed transators to communicate with
eaders in Persia and Byzantium.
22 Finkestein and Siberman, Bible Unearthed,
238.
23 Ja alDn alSuy~, It^f al-akhi|| bi fa\il
al-Masjid al-Aq|(Cairo: alUmmah ilKitb,
1982), 9394. The book has a number of
conicting manuscripts, with three havingthe name Ja alDn alSuy~ as the author,
whie two attribute the book to Ab Abdaah
Mu^ammad b. Shihb alSuy~, and some
to Kam alDn Mu^ammad b. Mu^ammad
alMaqds. The copies that bear Ja alDn
alSuy~s name are the ones found in the
Library of the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, one
with the code number >alat 192, and the
date of the writing is recorded as 875Hijri
(Isamic caendar), and the second with the
code number >alat327with the commentaryabout the author incuded in the text, which
states the date to be 875Hijri. The third copy
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hatembazian with Ja alDn alSuy~s name is found in
Dr alKutub alMi|riyya with the code numll
ber Trkh >alat1827. One copy that has al
Maqdss name is avaiabe in Dr alKutub in
Egypt and has the code TrkhNo. 279lF47. A
number of sources have indicated the author
of the book is Ab Abdaah alSuy~; they
incude a copy that is preserved in alKhaznah
alZhiriyyah in Damascus with the code No.
92, and another copy is owned by Iias Sarkis.
Ahmad Ramd Ahmad of Ain Shams University
in Egypt concuded in his authentication of
the manuscripts before pubishing the 1982
edition that the book was most ikey written
by Ab Abdaah alSuy~. For a compete disll
cussion of this issue, see Ahmads introduction
to the1982edition of the book, 1543.
24 In the rst chapter alSuy~ writes:
Know that the presence of numerous namesis an indicator of the honor of the pace
named. The author of the Ilm al-sjid bi
a^km al-masjidsaid: I have coected sevll
enteen names and a importanty precious.
Al-Masjid al-Aq|, and it is caed al-Aq|,
because it is the most distant of mosques from
the Sacred Mosque (Mecca) which is visited
and where reward is sought out. It is said that
beyond it there is no pace for worship, and
it is said [that it is so caed] for its being disll
tant from th and impurity. It is reported thatAbdaah b. Sam tod the Prophet swhen
he recited the words of the Exated to alAq|
Mosque why He named it alAq|. He said it
was because it is in the midde of the word, it
is in the center, neither to this side nor to that.
The Prophetssaid: You have said the truth.
It is aso named the Mosque of Iia (Eya
and Eia are aso common), which means
Bayt Aah alMuqaddas (the puried hoy or
sacred house of God), narrated by alWasi~i in
its virtues. . . . Bayt alMaqdis is the pace thatis puried from a poution and it is derived
from the word al-qudsmeaning the ocation
puried, bessed, or hoy. Al-qudsis a verba
noun that has the meaning of purication
and sanctication. Thus R^ alQudus (the
Hoy Spirit) is Gibr because he is a hoy
spirit and causes hoiness and purity. From
it comes aso nuqaddisu laka (We procaim
your sanctity) [Quran 2:30], which means,
We sanctify and separate from you those eell
ments that are not becoming of you. For thisreason a bucket is aso caed qudasbecause a
person uses it to perform acts of purication.
Thus the meaning of Bayt alMaqdis (House
of the Hoy or Consecrated) is a pace where
we may obtain purication from sin. It is aso
said that it means the Upraised Pace unconll
taminated by paganism. In addition, it is
caed alBayt alMuqaddas (the Consecrated
House), with a \ammahover the mm, and a
fat^ahover the dl, which has tashdd, signill
fying a pure, sacred pace emptied of idos.
[. . .] It is caed salim, because of the abunll
dance of anges of mercy upon it. Ibn Ms said
its origin comes from shallam; the initia etter
being shn, which is a foreign shnin this case,
and the lmfoowing the shnhas tashdd. It is
a synonym for Bayt alMaqdis. . . In Hebrew it
is caed the house of peace Urushaim, with
a \ammahover the hamzah, afat^ahover the
shnand a short kasrahunder the lam; and
this was said by Ab Ubaydah to Umar b. al
Muthanna. However, the majority spe it with a
fat^ahover theshnand the lm. It is aso named
Kurat Eia, Saem, Bayt Ayyi, Sihiun (Zion),
Qasrun . . . Pabush, Kurat Shaah, Shaim, and
Saun. InMuthr al-gharmhe (alMaqds) said
that the words Bayt alMaqdis may be speed
either with ong or short vowe and the ast
word may have a sukn. It is aso named alAr\
alMuqaddasah (the Hoy Land), alMasjid
alAq|(the Farthest Mosque), Eia and Aiia,
Shaum with tashdd, Urushaim, which means
the House of the Lord, ihn, the |dhaving
a kasrahunder it. Aso, alBayt alMuqaddas
(the Consecrated, Hoy, or Puried House)
is referred to as alZaytn (the Pace of Oives)
but it is not caed alaram (the Sanctuary).
See alSuy~, It^f,9394.
25 Ibid.
26 Iia and Urushaim, two of the names he ists,
are the names given to the area by the Romans
and the Hebrews, respectivey. Urushaim
is one of the odest names for the city, rst
appearing in the Egyptian Execration Textsof the 19thl18th centuries bcein the form
Rushaimum and then again in Akkadian in
the Amarna etters of the 14th century bceas
Ursaimmu. The name is a compound conll
sisting of two parts: urrand shalim. In terms of
etymoogy, whie doubt is cast on the words
origins, we can say with some eve of accuracy
that both urrand shalimare of a Canaanite and
possiby even of an earier, Jebusite origin.
Urrmeans to found or to estabish, and
shalimrefers to the Canaanite god Sham. TheBibe has a reference to this name in the epill
sode of the Prophet Abraham meeting with
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al-qudsorjerusa
lem:whatsinaname?
Mechizedek, king of Saem in Genesis.
Genesis: 1820: (18) Then Mechizedek king
of Saem [a] brought out bread and wine.
He was priest of God Most High, (19) and he
bessed Abraham, saying, Bessed be Abraham
by God Most High, Creator [b] of heaven and
earth. (20) And bessed be [c] God Most High,
who deivered your enemies into your hand.Then Abraham gave him a tenth of everything.
We are certain that the name Saem here
refers to the same city Urushaim, but eaving
out the rst part of the name. The Engish name
Jerusaem comes from the Hebrew articuation
of Urushaim, which is written Yerushaayim,
then when transated into Greek becomes
Ierousaem or aspirated Hierousaem, and
from Greek writers the name passed into Latin
as Ierousaem, Hierusaem, or Hierosoyma.
Thus, names used in Hebrew and Engish forthe city originate from the prelHebrew era
in the area. Furthermore, the name comes
to both anguages from the Canaanites who
ived in Paestine and who came to the area in
a wave of Yemeni Arab tribes migrating northll
ward after the destruction of the Marib Dam.
Iia is the Arabized shortened version of
the name AeialCapitoina, a name given to
the city by the GraecolRomans after conquerll
ing the area around 132135 ad. The Romans
took contro of the city after putting down theJewish Bar Kochba Revot in the year 132135
. During this period and thereafter, up
to the Musim conquest of the city, Romans
banned Jews from worshipping or iving in
the area. The city was redesigned, rebuit, and
renamed AeialCapitoina, with Aeia being a
name derived from Hadrian the Emperors
second name whie Capitoina is a reference
to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, the deities of the
Capitoine in Rome, who became the patrons
of Hadrians new city. Eary Musim textsoften used this name in conjunction with one
of the Arabic names or epithets to identify the
city. For more on the above, see Mohammed
Abdu Hameed alKhateeb, Al-Quds: The
Place of Jerusalem in Classical Judaic and Islamic
Traditions(London: TalHa Pubishers, 1998),
2123.
27 Mu^ammad Badr alDn b. Abdaah al
Zarkashi, Ilm al-sjid bi a^km al-masjid,
193195.
28 Hadith constitutes the second source ofIsamic aw and consists of the authenticatll
ed statements, actions, and consent of the
Prophets.
29 Genesis 37:25: As they sat down to eat their
mea, they ooked up and saw a caravan of
Ishmaeites coming from Giead. Their cames
were oaded with spices, bam and myrrh, and
they were on their way to take them down to
Egypt.
30 Imam Ab alFi\a Ismai b. Kathr, al-Srah al-Nabawiyyah, trans. Trevor Le Gassick, Vo. 2
(N.p.: Garner Pubishing,1998).
31 Sa^i^ al-Bukhr, Vo. 4, Bk 55, No. 585.
Narrated Abu Dharr: I said, O Aahs
Aposte! Which mosque was rst buit on the
surface of the earth? He said, alMasjid al
aram (in Mecca). I said, Which was buit
next? He repied The mosque of alAq| (in
Jerusaem). I said, What was the period of
construction between the two? He said, Forty
years. He added, Wherever (you may be,
and) the prayer time becomes due, perform
the prayer there, for the best thing is to do so
(i.e., to offer the prayers in time).
32 See voume 1 of al>abaris history for a more
detaied treatment and discussion of this subll
ject; the Tafsr Ibn Kathr aso touches on these
issues during the commentary of Adams narll
rative.
33 Genesis 25:9: His sons Isaac and Ishmae
buried him in the cave of Machpeah nearMamre, in the ed of Ephron son of Zohar
the Hittite.
34 Quran 2:127reads, And when Abraham and
Ishmael raised the foundations of the House: Our
Lord! accept from us; surely Thou art the Hearing,
the Knowing.
35 See alSuy~, It^f,9394.
36 See Quran5:21.
37 Quran 2:142 and2:144: The fools among the
people will say: What has turned them from their
qibla which they had? Say: The East and the West
belong only to Allah; He guides whom He likes to
the right path.Indeed We see the turning of your
face to heaven, so We shall surely turn you to a qibla
which you shall like; turn then your face towards the
Sacred Mosque, and wherever you are, turn your face
towards it, and those who have been given the Book
most surely know that it is the truth from their Lord;
and Allah is not at all heedless of what they do.
38 If the intention was to gain the support ofthe oca Jewish community, it woud seem
more appropriate to maintain it for a onger
period of time and some indication in the
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hatembazian Quran woud have appeared to warrant such
a dipomatic move; no such evidence is presll
ent. The Quran itsef points to the Prophet
sooking and searching for guidance, as his
intent was to pray toward Mecca though it was
not yet granted. The Quran is directed to the
Prophets, informing him that God sees him
turning your face toward the heavens seekll
ing change and then responds by granting him
an orientation that he woud be peased with.
Finay, not a singe narration from a Musim
or a Jewish source is avaiabe to us reative to
this new argument and unti such evidence is
presented this hypothesis does not warrant
further consideration.
39 Sa^i^ al-Bukhr, Vo. 1, Bk 2, No. 39. Narrated
by alBar (b. Azib): When the Prophet
came to Medina, he stayed rst with his
grandfathers or materna unces from theAn|r. He offered his prayers facing Bayt
alMaqdis (Jerusaem) for sixteen or sevenll
teen months, but he wished that he coud
pray facing the Kaaba (at Mecca). The rst
prayer which he offered facing the Kaaba
was the a|rprayer in the company of some
peope. Then one of those who had offered
that prayer with him came out and passed by
some peope in a mosque who were bowing
during their prayers (facing Jerusaem). He
said addressing them, By Aah, I testify that Ihave prayed with Aahs Aposte facing Mecca
(the Kaaba). Hearing that, those peope
changed their direction towards the Kaaba
immediatey. Jews and the peope of the scripll
tures used to be peased to see the Prophet
facing Jerusaem in prayers but when he
changed his direction towards the Kaaba,
during the prayers, they disapproved of it.
AlBar added, Before we changed
our direction towards the Kaaba (Mecca) in
prayers, some Musims had died or had been
kied and we did not know what to say about
them (regarding their prayers). Aah then
reveaed: And Allah would never make your faith
(prayers) to be lost(i.e., the prayers of those
Musims were vaid) (2:143).
40 The Ottomans had a welstructured adminll
istration and the name might have been instill
tuted in order to dene a specic area for the
purpose of waqf (endowement), zakat, and
appointments to the bureaucracy.
41 See alKhateeb, al-Quds,23.
42 Ibid.,24.
43 Farahaah Saah Deeb, Mujam mani wa u|l
wa asm al-mudun wa al-qur al-falis~iniyyah
(Beirut: Dr alamr, 1991),157, 235.
44 alQadi Mujir alDin alHanbai Abu Ayman,al-
Uns al-jall bi trkh al-quds wa al-khall (Amman:
Maktabat alMu^tasib, 1973),6.
45 See Quranic verses 2:87, 2:153, 5:110, and
16:102.
46 alGhaz, al-Maq|ad, 5960.
47 There are different possibiities for the transall
tion ofal-Qudds, incuding the Most Hoy, theA Hoy, and the Hoy One.
48 alQ\ Iy\ b. Ms alYa^|ubi, Mu^ammad,
Messenger of Allah: Ash-Shif of Qadi Iyad, trans.
Aisha Abdarrahman Bewey (Granada, Spain:
Medinah Press in association with Isamic Book
Trust, Kuaa Lumpur, Maaysia,1991),131.PHOTO: ABU QASM SPIKER