Mount Zion is a hill in Jerusalem located just outside and to the south of the current Ottoman walls of the Old City. The name can be historically confusing as Mount Zion used to be the name for the eastern hill of the Old City with modern day Temple Mount lying on its summit. Excavations in the area of the modern "Mount Zion" have revealed remains as early as Iron Age II (Hillel Geva in Stern et al, 1993).
Sacred for Jews, Christians, and Muslims, Mt Zion was visited by many pilgrims and western travellers (Röhricht 1890; Ish-Shalom 1965). Its first association with religious traditions was probably made by the Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela (c. 1165-73) in the twelfth century claiming that the complex hosts the graves of several Jewish kings (Asher 1927).5 In the thirteenth century, after the Mamluks conquered Jerusalem, religious disputes concerning the ownership of the complex emerged (Praver 1947-48) and lasted, although not continuously, for nearly 300 years. Fabri reported that towards the end of their rule over Palestine, the Mamluks decided to ruin the existing Christian Church and convert the lower vault of the complex into a mosque (Fabri 1480–83, 301–305). The Ottomans, who defeated the Mamluks in 1517 and took over Palestine, continued the Islamic construction in the complex and in 1524 converted also the upper hall into a second mosque. The exact construction date of the al-Nabi Da’ud minaret, however, is not explicitly mentioned in the sources but by virtue of its design it looks typical of Ottoman architecture (Alud and Hillenbrand 2000, 659).
5 The itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela took place sometime between c.1165-73 and included Europe, the Middle East and northern Africa.
Because the 1st century CE historian Josephus mistakenly identified a structural high sometimes called the western hill southwest of what is now the old city of Jerusalem as the Mount Zion of King David's time, this area in the modern city of Jerusalem is currently called Mount Zion. Nearby, close to the Jaffa Gate, is a structure known as the Tower of David or the Citadel. Neither the western hill (mistakenly called Mount Zion) or the Citadel (mistakenly called the Tower of David) bear any relation to the Mount Zion or the Tower of David from the time of King David.
Zohar et al (2015) compared drawings from 1833 CE and earlier to drawings and photographs from 1838 CE
and later to conclude that the Ottoman minaret known as al-Nabi Da'ud on top of King David’s Sepulchre at Mount Zion was rebuilt to
a shorter size likely due to damage incurred in the 1834 CE Fellahin Revolt Quake. The contemporaneous eye-witness source Neophytos wrote that
a minaret fell in Jerusalem
. Minarets are frequently damaged during earthquakes due to their vulnerability to seismic shaking..
Effect | Location | Image | Description |
---|---|---|---|
|
al-Nabi Da'ud Minaret The Old City of Jerusalem and the King David Sepulchre complex (outlined in orange and also in the inset). Major structures and minarets within the area include:
Note the classification of minarets into three types: Mamluk, Ottoman, and Mamluk minarets that were probably renovated by the Ottomans (for further discussion see Alud and Hillenbrand 2000, 334). Zohar et al (2015) |
Fig. 8a
Fig. 8a
Painting by David Roberts in 1838 CE (Roberts (1842-49) that shows an apparently ruined al-Nabi Da’ud minaret (pointed to by black arrow) extracted from Zohar et al (2015) Fig. 4C
Fig. 4
Views of King David’s sepulchre and visible damage (noted by red arrows):
(photographs: M.Z.) Zohar et al (2015) |
|
|
wall beside the eastern entrance facing the Muslim cemetery | Fig. 4B
Fig. 4
Views of King David’s sepulchre and visible damage (noted by red arrows):
(photographs: M.Z.) Zohar et al (2015) |
|
Effect | Location | Image | Description | Intensity |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
al-Nabi Da'ud Minaret The Old City of Jerusalem and the King David Sepulchre complex (outlined in orange and also in the inset). Major structures and minarets within the area include:
Note the classification of minarets into three types: Mamluk, Ottoman, and Mamluk minarets that were probably renovated by the Ottomans (for further discussion see Alud and Hillenbrand 2000, 334). Zohar et al (2015) |
Fig. 8a
Fig. 8a
Painting by David Roberts in 1838 CE (Roberts (1842-49) that shows an apparently ruined al-Nabi Da’ud minaret (pointed to by black arrow) extracted from Zohar et al (2015) Fig. 4C
Fig. 4
Views of King David’s sepulchre and visible damage (noted by red arrows):
(photographs: M.Z.) Zohar et al (2015) |
|
|
Figure | Source | Image | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Figure 1 | Zohar et al (2015) |
The Old City of Jerusalem and the King David Sepulchre complex (outlined in orange and also in the inset). Major structures and minarets within the area include:
Note the classification of minarets into three types: Mamluk, Ottoman, and Mamluk minarets that were probably renovated by the Ottomans (for further discussion see Alud and Hillenbrand 2000, 334). Zohar et al (2015) |
The Old City of Jerusalem and the King David Sepulchre complex |
Figure 2 | Zohar et al (2015) |
Photographs showing the height of the al-Nabi Da’ud minaret in various periods after mid-nineteenth century:
Zohar et al (2015) |
The Old City of Jerusalem and the King David Sepulchre complex |
Figure 3 | Zohar et al (2015) |
Fig. 3
Damage distribution and its severity, ranging between ‘Moderate’ and ‘Severe’ (adapted from Zohar et al. 2013), of the May 1834 and January 1837 earthquakes, according to historical reports. Note that the damage that resulted from the 1837 event is more severe in northern than in central Palestine and did not spread south of the Nablus region. Zohar et al (2015) |
Damage Distributions for the 1834 and 1837 Quakes |
Figure 4 | Zohar et al (2015) |
Fig. 4
Views of King David’s sepulchre and visible damage (noted by red arrows):
(photographs: M.Z.) Zohar et al (2015) |
King David’s sepulchre |
Figure 5 | Zohar et al (2015) |
Fig. 5
Note the similarity between the two bases photographs B and C: M.Z. Zohar et al (2015) |
al-Nabi Da’ud and al-Qal’a minarets |
Figure 6 | Zohar et al (2015) |
Fig. 6
Pre-1834 Drawings and maps of Jerusalem. Note the high shaft of al-Nabi Da’ud minaret (magnified and also marked in black arrows) in three of the drawings, and its similarity to the al-Qal’a minaret (red arrows):
Zohar et al (2015) |
Pre-1834 Drawings and maps of Jerusalem |
Figure 7 | Zohar et al (2015) |
al-Nabi Da’ud minaret in drawings from 1833 and similar views for comparison from mid-nineteenth century and 2013:
Zohar et al (2015) |
al-Nabi Da’ud minaret in drawings from 1833 and similar views for comparison from mid-nineteenth century and 2013 |
Figure 8 | Zohar et al (2015) |
Fig. 8
The complex in drawings painted in and after 1838:
In the drawings of Roberts and Bartlett (images A and B), black and red arrows denote the al-Nabi Da’ud and al-Qal’a minarets, respectively. Zohar et al (2015) |
The complex in drawings painted in and after 1838 |
Table 1 | Zohar et al (2015) |
Table 1
The height (in metres) of the elements in the al-Nabi Da’ud and the al-Qal’a minarets. Parts taller than 2 m were estimated according to the width of a single cut-stone block times the number of the building rows Zohar et al (2015) |
Height of elements in al-Nabi Da’ud and al-Qal’a minarets |
Table 2 | Zohar et al (2015) |
Table 2
Artists that have depicted the minaret of al-Nabi Da’ud Zohar et al (2015) |
Artists that have depicted the minaret of al-Nabi Da’ud |
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kmz | Description | Reference |
---|---|---|
Right Click to download | Master Jerusalem kmz file | various |