Al-Quds Article in Seasons-libre

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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

PHOTO: JASON HOSTETTER


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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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e m b e d d e d h e x a g o n a l t i l e d e s i g n


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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

UPLOAD.WIKIMEDIA.ORG


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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 Muâmmads, 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 âmida,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 Muâmmads, 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-ûsn, 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 Muâmmads.

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

Muâmmad b. Shihb alSuy~, and some

to Kam alDn Muâmmad b. Muâmmad

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

fatâhover 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, afatâhover 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

fatâhover 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

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