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Durham E-Theses The old city of Jerusalem: aspects op the development op a religious centre Hopkins, W. J. How to cite: Hopkins, W. J. (1969) The old city of Jerusalem: aspects op the development op a religious centre, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/8763/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk Summary It is generally recognised that the Old City of Jerusalem is first and foremost a religious centre of great importance in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Yet the exact nature of the impact of roHgi nn on± the geography of the city is not so clearly known. The way in which religion through the pilgrim trade has over the centuries permeated into the general economy of the city would suggest that the influence of this factor is large. Yet on closer examination, it "becomes apparent that it only has a dominating influence in the sphere of urban function. Other influences have acted upon the city also tdi determine its direction of growth and the details of its urban morphology. Thus physical controls have been important in influencing the city's growth to the north ant west while commercial influences have aided this development. In addition, the location of the bazaars of the Old. City can be shown to be the result of non- religious factors and give some evidence for the existence of an important local market. Jerusalem has developed since the foundation of Aelia Capitolina in A.D. 132, as both a religious centre for Europe and the Middle East and also_ as a market town and minor administrative centre for the Hill Country. In many respects it has developed typical features of a Palestinian town - na/rrow streets, bazaars, ethnic quarters, etc. - and religious factors have played a part in the formation of these as they have in other places. Jerusalem's status as an religious centre can mainly be seen in its economic development and in its physical landscape, both of which have been very much moulded by the pilgrim trade. THE OLD CITY OP JERUSALEM : ASPECTS OP THE DEVELOPMENT OP A RELIGIOUS CENTRE A thesis submitted for the Ph.D. degree of the University of Durham December 1969 Ian W.J.Hopkins Volume I Preface T'hanks for help in. this research are due to Professor Y.Karmon of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem who was generous with advice in -the initial stages and with assistance and' hospitality during work in the city in 1968. The resources of the Department of Geography in the Hebrew University were placed at the writer's disposal and this was much appreciated. Much assistance was given by the Ministry of Tourism, Israel, in connection with a survey of the- to'jrist industry. Help in this connection was also given by many hospice and hotel and holy site keepers. Particular thanks are due to Mr. John Rose of St. George's Hostel and. Mr. John Shah in of the Baptist- Bookshop. In connection with the holy sites and the eastern Churches, much helpful information was given by Canon Edward Every of St. George's Cathedral. Thanks are also due to Professors W.B.Fisher and J.I. Clarke of Durham University and also to many colleagues inside and outside the Durham Geography Department, who helped with ad. hoc problems. Finally, particular acknowledgement should be made of assistance given by my wife in advising on statistical matter and for helping with the land use maps and correcting the typescript. In particular, of great value was her provision of bibliographical information through her current awareness service to .the social science departments of the University. ! Financial assistance was given in this project by the . Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies in the University of Durham. i GKeneral Introduction Studies in urban geography are now commonplace and a traditional method of approach has been evolved studying in order the site and situation of the city, the functions, and the urban morphology. In the case of Jerusalem, however, the geographer is faced with a city which is very much - an abnormal feature in that its main functional characteristic is its sanctity in the eyes of three of the world's largest religions and the consequent attraction of pilgrims and other features of a religious centre. In this thesis no attempt is made to produce a 'general' urban geography but the main aim has been to show the nature and influence of religion in the development of the Old City of Jerusalem. Hence, this thesis is more of a study in the geography of religion than a study in urban geography. In attempting to examine the special characteristics which Jerusalem as a religious centre has developed, two questions have been posed to which answers have been sought: 1) What is the nature of the influence of religion on Jerusalem ? 2) What is the extent of this influence ? In considering these questions, and especially the second one, commercial, political, and other factors have of course had to be considered. Hence, the general framework of the thesis has been in the traditional pattern of urban geography. The text is set out in four sections plus an introductory and a concluding chapter. The historical introduction (Chapter 1 ) is intended simply to give a summary of the history of the city so that certain basic facts can be assumed in the main body of the thesis. Section A (Chapters 2-5) discusses the main influences which have operated on the development of Jerusalem and include the normal features involved in a discussion of urban site and situation and in addition the religious factors which are peculiar to Jerusalem. The second section (Chapters 6-9) deals with the growth of the urban functions of Jerusalem, with particular reference to the pilgrim trade. Section 0 is a descriptive treatment of the land use of the old City and in many respects is a commentary on the land use maps in Volume II. Section D (Chapters 12 - 15) discusses certain selected, aspects of the urban morphology of Jerusalem. While this thesis is a geographical study, nevertheless because of the nature of the subject matter it involves aspects of other disciplines and in particular theology and politics. Since thewRttter has only attained diploma level in theology and subsidiary level in politics a strictly neutral attitude is taken to controversies which have riveted world attention on Jerusalem. The area of study has been limited in two ways: 1) The chronological period dealt with has been that which saw the formation and development of the Old City, i.e. from the foundation of Aelia Capitolina in A.D. 132 to the fall of the city to the British in 1917. The city of Biblical time and the city of the Mandate and post-Mandate periods are dealt with only incidentally and data used from them only to illustrate certain features which appear to have persisted over the centuries. The Biblical city left little impact on the new except fot the Haram enclosure and the Citadel; and by 1917, the present Old City had been formed and has generally been preserved intact ever since. 2) This study has been confined to the Old. City intra-muros and the immediate area outside (mainly Mount Sion, Gethsemane, Silwan). No attempt has been made to deal even in a superficial way with the new Jewish city to the west of the walls. At the most, the area of study has been confined to the zones of prohibited and restricted building of the McLean Plan. Fi«ld work for this research was undertaken in Jerusalem in the Spring of 1968 using the facilities mainly of the Hebrew University and St. (reorge''s College. During this period, a survey of the pilgrim trade was undertaken and a report subsequently presented to the Ministry of Tourism, Israel (see 'The Times1' Friday 19th. Sept. 1969). It was based on a series of questionnaires designed to assess the impact of tourism on the city's economy and. to study the varied nature of the trade. Details and extracts from part of the report appear at the end of.the text, in Appendix IV. Use was also made of field, notes and material collected for a previous research project on the urban geography of Palestine during the classical period (London M.Sc.(Econ) 1965). In many respects the field work on which this present work is based, has been insufficient. The political situation since 1967 made work inside the Old City very difficult and information was hard to obtain. In particular the abnormal economic situation which prevailed in 1968 involving the closure of many shops and the severe depression of the tourist trade in the Old City meant that meaningful research on the economic aspects of tourism was difficult. Also documents were bot accessible, including Waqf and municipal material.
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