Paper Topic:

Chapter 5 Middle East Writing

The Middle East , Jerusalem and Religion

Student Name

Section Number of Course

Instructor Name

Date

The Middle East , Jerusalem and Religion

The Symbol of Jerusalem

The city of Jerusalem holds religious significance for the Jews , the Christians and the Muslims . In Jewish and Christian literature Jerusalem is the symbol of the capital of the Messiah . Jerusalem has been sacred to the Jews as the site of the Solomon 's Temple and the Second Temple since the 10th Century BC . For the Jews it is around the city of

Jerusalem that their divine homeland is ordained . The Christian revere Jerusalem for its role in the Old Testament as well as its significance in the life of Jesus . The Muslims on the other hand believe that Prophet Muhammad was taken on a divine journey from Mecca to Jerusalem and then from Jerusalem to the heavenly celestial abodes where he was given instructions on the basic tenets of Islam

From a historical point of view too , Jerusalem was a Jebusite or Canaanite stronghold as early as the 4th millennium BC . Around 1000 BC David captured Jerusalem from the Jebusites and walled the city . When Solomon built the temple on Mt Moriah on the 10th Century BC , it became the spiritual and political capital of the Jews . It fell to the Babylonians in 586 BC . In the 6th Century BC , Cyrus the Great of Persia restored it to Hebrew rule . The city became the capital of the Maccabees in the 2nd and the 1st Century BC . Thereafter , Jerusalem changed hands again and became the capital of the Herod dynasty under the aegis of Rome . The Muslims captured it in 637 AD making it the chief shrine after Mecca . The Crusades were brought on the city when the Fatimids hindered Christian pilgrims to it . Jerusalem was conquered by the Crusaders in 1099 AD . The city was recaptured by Muslims under Saladin in 1187 . It then came under Mamluk and Ottoman rule

During the First World War , Jerusalem was captured by British forces in 1917 . It became the capital of the British-held League of Nation 's Palestine Mandate after the War . Both the Arabs and the Jews sought possession of the city as the end of the mandate approached in 1948 Christians however advocated a free Jerusalem open to all religions

When it became clear that Germany had lost World War II , aspirations for an independent Jewish state escalated . Great Britain decided to turn the whole issue of Palestine to the United Nations . In November , 1947 the UN General Assembly voted in favor of partitioning Palestine into two states - one Jewish and the other Arab . It was however declared that Jerusalem , including Bethlehem , would be an internationally administered enclave . However , fighting for Jerusalem between the Jews and the Arabs broke out even before the partitioning . Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion announced the establishment of the independent state of Israel on May 14 , 1948 . The four Arab states of Egypt , Syria , Jordan and Iraq invaded the new state...

4 pages

56.0 KB

Free sing-up