THE RENOVATIONS OF SULTAN MAHMUD II (R. 1808–1839) IN JERUSALEM Khader Salameh In 1816–1819, during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II, exten- sive renovations were carried out in the Haram al-Sharif, especially in the Masjid al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock, and elsewhere in Jerusalem and in the Mosque of Ibrahim in Hebron. Details about those renovations are found in two exceptionally informative notebooks in the Islamic Museum in the Haram al-Sharif comprising the expense accounts for the project. This chapter presents the information about the renovations that the notebooks contain.1 A much larger study that includes extensive discus- sion of the renovation project in general with full references has been submitted for publication elsewhere. Here we confine ourselves to details about the administrative and technical staff, the artisans and workers, the stages of the project, and construction materials and supplies that are directly derived from the contents of the notebooks. Because this short article provides only information that is found in the two notebooks, the extensive footnotes called for in a larger study of the renovation project have been dispensed with.2 1 I want to thank Dr. Robert Schick for translating this article from Arabic to Eng- lish and for his extensive help in editing the text. An article in Arabic about the renova- tions was published as Khadir Salama, “Tarmimat al-Sultan Maḥmud al-Thani fi Madinat al-Quds 1232–1234 h / 1816–1819 m.,” in al-Quds al-Islamiyya, ed. Muḥammad Ghusha (Amman: Ministry of Culture, 2010), 223–75. 2 Inscriptions in Jerusalem, Hebron and Nebi Musa also refer to the renovation works: Max van Berchem, Matériaux pour un Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum, Part II: Syrie du Sud-2. Jerusalem “Haram” (Cairo: IFAO, 1927), nos. 250, 296–298; Yunus ʿAmr and Najaḥ Abu Sara, Ruqum al-Masjid al-Ibrahimi al-Sharif (Hebron: Jamiʿat al-Khalil, 1989), 569, 571; Mehmet Tütüncü, Turkish Palestine (1069–1917) (Haarlem: Turkestan and Azerbaijan Research Centre, 2008), 55–62, 163–64. Two primary sources that refer to the renovations are: Ibrahim al-ʿAwra, Tarikh Wilayat Sulayman Pasha al-ʿAdil, ed. Qustantin al-Basha al- Mukhallisi (Beirut: Matbaʿat Dayr al-Mukhallis, 1936) and Mikha’il al-Dimashqi, Tarikh Ḥawadith al-Sham wa-Lubnan 1197–1257/1782–1841 ed. Louis Maʿluf al-Yasuʿi (Beirut: al-Matbaʿa al-Kathulikiyya, 1912). 26 khader salameh The Notebooks The two notebooks in the Islamic Museum are mostly intact. The first notebook has thirty-six pages, of which four are blank. The second note- book, which is a continuation of the first one, has twelve pages left, although the first and last pages are blank, and four pages in the middle are missing. The first notebook contains the accounts for the first sixteen months, while the second notebook covers the nine remaining months. The entries for the project expenses are recorded in chronological order, using the qirsh or asadi qirsh as the monetary unit of account. Sometimes the entries are very general, while at other times details are provided. The total amount spent on the renovation of all of the places was 374,433 qirsh, out of which more than 20,000 qirsh was spent on the renovations in Hebron. The amount of expenses in the four missing pages of the sec- ond notebook can be estimated as 80,000 qirsh. The Administrative and Technical Staff The administration and financing of the renovations was in the hands of Süleyman Paşa, the governor (wali) of Sidon and Tripoli from 1804 until his death on 4 September 1819, about a month after the renovations ended. All the project expenses were paid from his treasury. At the end of the sec- ond notebook are recorded the amounts he sent in forty installments. An administrative group and a technical group, mostly coming from outside Jerusalem, supervised the renovations. A chief architect, six masters, and their assistant craftsmen from Istanbul were appointed, including two peo- ple to work with lead, two on the inscriptions and two with plaster. Their daily wages and food allowance started when they arrived in Jerusalem. The administrative group included the supervisor of the project, Hajj Mustafa Ağa ibn ʿAli Effendi from Jerusalem, and his assistants. The sal- ary of Hajj Mustafa is not recorded, but his secretary Jurjis Mansi and his assistant received a monthly salary of 150 qirsh. Another secretary for the Hebron project was ʿUthman Ağa. The head of the project was the architect Khalifa Si Salih Effendi, who worked on the project for twenty-two months with a monthly salary of 250 qirsh. Other architects, known as “architects of the sultan,” were recorded once. Under the architect were the supervisors (mubashir), directors or overseers for each craft, who received daily wages lower than the wages of the master craftsmen. Ibrahim Ağa was a supervisor, most likely of the .