The Glorious History of Jerusalem and Hebron by an Anonymous continuator of Mujir al-Din

التاريخ المجيد للقدس والخليل (?) by مجير الدين

Aliases

Aliases	Arabic
Mujir al-Din al-’Ulaimi	مجير الدين العليمي (?)
al-’Ulaimi	العليمي (?)
'Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad al-'Ulaymi	مجير الدين عبدالرحمن الحنبلي العليمي الشهير بأبن قطينه (?)
Ibn Quttainah	يبن قوتتايناه (?)

Background and Biography

Background and Biography

Excerpts

English from Ambraseys (2009)

• from Ambraseys (2009)
• sourced from Mayer (1931)

On Thursday afternoon, 10th of Dhu’l-Qa’da 952, there occurred a great earthquake in Jerusalem, al-Khalil [Hebron], Gaza, al-Ramlah, alKarak, as-Salt, and Nablus which extended to Damascus. It lasted a short while and calmed down, and generally there was not a tall house in Jerusalem that was not left destroyed or fissured, and the same in al-Khalil [Hebron]. In Gaza the madrasa of Qayitbey was destroyed as well as the south part of his madrasa in Jerusalem, and its north and east sides; also, the top of the minaret over the Bab as-Silsila was destroyed. In Nablus the earthquake was stronger than elsewhere, and 500 lives were lost under the ruins.

Then, on Sunday night, 10th of Muharram, 953 [= 13 March 1546] there was another alarm, the noise of which was greater before it died out.

Then, on Wednesday afternoon, 12th Rabi’ I of the year 953 [= 13 May 1546], there occurred another shock felt by some people more than others, apart from the continuous shocks of previous days, some of which occurred at night and some during the day . . .

Chronology

Date and day of the week disagree for all three earthquakes. Since the day of the week produces a 14 Jan. 1546 CE date attested to by many other authors, I am going to propose that day of the week is more diagnostic for the actual date of the shock which leads to the following dates

Earthquake	Date
1st	Thursday afternoon 14 January 1546 CE
2nd	Sunday night 14 March 1546 CE
3rd	Wednesday afternoon 12 May 1546 CE

Earthquake	Date	Reference	Corrections	Notes
1st	Wednesday afternoon 13 January 1546 CE or Thursday afternoon 14 January 1546 CE	Thursday afternoon 10th of Dhu’l-Qa’da A.H. 952	none	Calculated using CHRONOS 10th of Dhu’l-Qa’da A.H. 952 fell on a Wednesday (calculated using CHRONOS)
2nd	Saturday night 13 March 1546 CE or Sunday night 14 March 1546 CE	Sunday night, 10th of Muharram A.H. 953	none	Calculated using CHRONOS 10th of Muharram A.H. 953 fell on a Saturday (calculated using CHRONOS)
3rd	Thursday afternoon 13 May 1546 CE or Wednesday afternoon 12 May 1546 CE	Wednesday afternoon, 12th of Rabi’ I A.H. 953	none	Calculated using CHRONOS 12th of Rabi’ I A.H. 953 fell on a Thursday (calculated using CHRONOS)

Seismic Effects

• a great earthquake in Jerusalem, al-Khalil [Hebron], Gaza, al-Ramlah, al-Karak, as-Salt, and Nablus which extended to Damascus
• generally there was not a tall house in Jerusalem that was not left destroyed or fissured, and the same in al-Khalil [Hebron]
• In Gaza the madrasa of Qayitbey was destroyed
• the south part of his madrasa in Jerusalem [was destroyed], and its north and east sides
• the top of the minaret over the Bab as-Silsila [in Jerusalem] was destroyed
• In Nablus the earthquake was stronger than elsewhere, and 500 lives were lost under the ruins

Locations

• Jerusalem
• al-Khalil [Hebron]
• Gaza
• al-Ramlah
• al-Karak
• as-Salt
• Nablus
• extended to Damascus

Online Versions and Further Reading

References

Notes

Notes on Mujir al-Din's continuation and dating discrepancies from Ambraseys (2009)

An obviously independent contemporary account of the earthquake is found in the anonymous continuator of the chronicle by Mujir al-Din, in Mayer (1931). Though this sequel (dhail) covers events that took place between 1497 and 1509, that is before Mujir al-Din’s death in a.H. 927 (1521), it begins with the description of three earthquakes that followed one another during the period a.H. 952–953 (AD 1546). The part of this chronicle that refers to this sequence says that

On Thursday afternoon, 10th of Dhu’l-Qa’da 952, there occurred a great earthquake in Jerusalem, al-Khalil [Hebron], Gaza, al-Ramlah, alKarak, as-Salt, and Nablus which extended to Damascus. It lasted a short while and calmed down, and generally there was not a tall house in Jerusalem that was not left destroyed or fissured, and the same in al-Khalil [Hebron]. In Gaza the madrasa of Qayitbey was destroyed as well as the south part of his madrasa in Jerusalem, and its north and east sides; also, the top of the minaret over the Bab as-Silsila was destroyed. In Nablus the earthquake was stronger than elsewhere, and 500 lives were lost under the ruins.

Then, on Sunday night, 10th of Muharram, 953 [= 13 March 1546] there was another alarm, the noise of which was greater before it died out.

Then, on Wednesday afternoon, 12th Rabi’ I of the year 953 [= 13 May 1546], there occurred another shock felt by some people more than others, apart from the continuous shocks of previous days, some of which occurred at night and some during the day . . .

Although many of the details in the sequel to Mujir al-Din’s chronicle resemble those in the Venetian letter, which refers quite clearly to the 1546 earthquake, their inclusion at the beginning of a historical account that describes events that belong to the period 902–914 (AD 1497–1509) raised some doubt regarding the actual year of these events. Mayer recognised that this complication might be due to a mere slip of the pen of a scribe, who, whilst turning marginal notes into the sequel of Mujir al-Din’s chronicle, copied later events first and a series of earlier events, running consecutively, later (Mayer 1931).

However, Mayer was more inclined to think that what he had in his hands was a faithful copy of the dhail as written by Mujir al-Din himself, and that the events described are in the right chronological order, that is, that there was an error in the years, which should read 902 and 903 rather than 952 and 953. However, another reason why Mayer was more inclined to think that there was an error in the years of these events was that he could find no evidence for an earthquake in either Syria or Palestine in the year a.H. 952 (1546). Obviously, he was not aware of the Venetian letter and of the other sources which we have retrieved that now remove any ambiguity about the actual date of the event. The incorrect year given by Mayer was thus propagated in later catalogues. Reading the years of the earthquake sequence in Mujir’s dhail as a.H. 952 and 953, the date of the main shock, Thursday 10 Dhu’l Qa’da 952, corresponds to 13 January 1546, which was a Wednesday. A discrepancy of one day is common in converting the Muslim calendar. For instance, a sigil in the Khaladiyye Library in Jerusalem (1856, vol. 17, 437), dated 21 Dhu’l-Qa’da a.H. 952, says briefly

the day before today, Thursday the 10th of the month, after the noon prayer, a disaster came from the sky and a great earthquake occurred in the name of God.

For the date of the second shock Mayer considers Mujir al-Din’s date to be the ‘night of 11 Muharram’, which would have been Sunday 14 March, although the Arabic text says ‘Sunday night 10 Muharram’ 953, which corresponds to Saturday 13 March 1546. This is correct since Sunday night in the Muslim calendar means the night starting on Saturday, since the Muslim day starts at sunset and day follows night. However, the Khaladiyye manuscript of the dhail gives 13 Dhu’l-Qa’da, that is, three days after the main shock. For the third shock in Mujir’s sequel, Wednesday afternoon 12 Rabi I 953 corresponds to 13 May, which was a Thursday. There can thus be little doubt that the details in Mujir’s chronicle refer to the earthquake sequence of 1546, and that the dhail must have been added by a later scribe or by a copyist. Indeed, Mayer himself says that in the copy of the dhail kept in the Khaladiyye Library, which has not been viewed, the earthquakes are described in an additional note on the last page.