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Notes

Tsafrir and Foerster (1992b) relate the following:

on the other traditions, from al-Wasiti onwards, see Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Wasiti, al-Bays al Muqaddas, (ed.) I. Hasson (Jerusalem, 1979), 84.

Karcz (2004) states:

It is probable that these two successive earthquakes [A.H. 130 and A.H. 131] are responsible for the hesitant and possibly confused accounts of 13th century Sibt ibn al Jawzi, d.1257 (A. Elad, 1991, pers. comm.) followed by 15th century Ibn Tagri Birdi (Shaltut, 1929), which report strong earthquakes (plural) in Syria in AH 130, with heavy damage in Jerusalem, in the wake of which people of Damascus fled into desolate areas for 40 days and add and it was said that the earthquakes took place in AH 131.

Gil (1992:297-298) writes the following:

The Abbasid caliphs and Jerusalem

[417] A hadith attributed to the Prophet by his retainer Abu Hurayra says: ‘Black flags will go out of Khurasan and nothing shall thwart them until they are firmly hoisted in Iliya’ (Jerusalem). Naturally, this saying was devised at the outset of Abbasid rule, as black was the Abbasid colour. There is certainly some special symbolic significance in the choice of Jerusalem as the goal of their war, perhaps because it was considered the most sacred place in al-Sham, the power-base of Umayyad rule.

Al-Mansur, as soon as he had established his sovereignty, found it imperative to visit Jerusalem and pray in the mosque there, on his return from his pilgrimage to Mecca in 141, that is (September) 758. Thirteen years later, in AH 154 (AD 771), he made a special visit to jerusalem while passing through al-Sham. According to Wasiti, on his first visit, he had ordered the renovation of the Dome of the Rock, which had collapsed during the earthquake in the year AH 130.³²

[418] Al-Mahdi also visitedjerusalem, in AH 163, that is AD 780, with a large family party: ‘Abbas b. Muhammad, Fadl b. Salih, ‘All b. Sulayman and Yazid b. al-Mansur (Al-Mahdi’s brother). This visit was made at the height of fierce and constant warring with the Byzantines, in which the Muslims were at first having the worse of it but which ended with a decided victory on their part. At the time of al-Mahdi’s visit to Jerusalem, the caliphal army, under the command of his son Harun, were pressing westward through Aleppo to attack the Byzantines, and this was the first move in the Muslims’ favour. Poliak’s view was that al-Mahdi’s visit to Jerusalem had a definitely symbolic-religious meaning - that of the Messiah visiting Jerusalem - just as the names of this caliph had a genu¬ inely theological significance: Muhammad b. ‘Abdallah (like that of the Prophet and his father) al-Mahdl (‘the Messiah’).³³

Footnotes

32 See the hadlth in Tirmidhi, Sunan, abwab al-fitan , end (in the Medina edition: III, 362, No. 2371); Ibn Kathir, Shama’il, 477 (attributing it to Ahmad Ibn Hanbal); SuyutI, Khasa’is, II, 431; idem , Ta’rikh, 216 (attributing it to a converted Jew named Joseph). Al-Mansur in Jerusalem: Tabari, Ta’rikh, III, I28f, 372; Ibn al-Athlr, Kamil, V, 500, 612; Ibn Taghri BardI, I, 336f; II, 21; Dhahabi, Ta’rikh, V, 222; VI, 160; Yafi‘1, 323; Ibn Kathir, Biddy a, X, 75, 111; Wasiti, 84; Ibn Khallikan, VI, 322; Elias ofNisibis, under the years 141, 153.

33 ‘All b. Sulayman and Fadl b. Salih were afterwards governors in Egypt; ‘Abbas b. Muhammad was later on governor in Mecca. See on the visit: Tabari, Ta ’rikh , III, 500; Ibn al-Athir, Kami!, IV, 61; Ibn Taghri Bardi, II, 45; Isbahani, Aghdni, VI, 67; Wasiti, 84-who says that al-Mahdl, like al-Mansur, ordered the Dome of the Rock to be renovated, when he was in Jerusalem, for it was destroyed again during an earthquake; but we do not know of any earthquake that occurred between these two visits, and it seems to be Wasitl’s invention. According to him, the kanisa was also destroyed then and it seems that he is referring to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; Azdl, Ta’rikh Mawsil, 243f; cf. Muir, 470f; Vasiliev, History', 238; see Theophanes, 452, and cf. Breyer, 105; see Poliak, Dinaburg Jubilee Volume , 177; Elias of Nisibis, under the year AH 163, notes that Harun, the son of the caliph (who afterwards became caliph, al-Rashld) visited jerusalem then. See also: ‘Ulayml, 250. Additional references on this matter are included in the editor’s note in Wasiti, p. 84; see MuqaddasI, Aqdlim, 168; Le Strange, Palestine, 92; Le Strange attributes the tradition on the renovation work to the al-Aqsa mosque, while Wasiti speaks specifically of the Dome of the Rock. In favour of Le Strange’s claims is the fact that al-Mahdl is said to have ordered the cutting of the length of the mosque and to add to its width, which is more suited to al-Aqsa. Moreover, Muqaddasi points out that it was the al-Aqsa that was damaged by the earthquake during the Abbasid period. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that it was in need of renovation. In my opinion, it is most likely that the traditions refer to both mosques.

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References - Al-Wasiti