Not 'quintessential' in that Jerusalem, for the early Church, was in
measure displaced by Antioch as the springboard of mission westward. Its
centrality was a matter of deep association, not of utter necessity. The
essence of early Christianity was its 'being scattered abroad', having no
sacred territory, no 'chosen' people and no indispensable language. See
below:-
On the Fada'il see, e.g.: LI.Levine ed. The Jerusalem Cathedra,
No.I, 'Muslim Literature in Praise of Jerusalem', Isaac Hasson, pp.168-84.
Also S.D.Goitein: Studies in Islamic History and Institutions, Leiden, 1966,
pp.135-48.
His shift of the capital from Madina to Damascus was a new
departure. Since Madina was being forsaken, Jerusalem may have been a
prudent and auspicious choice, or - in Qur'anic terms - a preference for 'the
olive' over 'the fig', these in Surah 95.1 understood by many to symbolise
Syria and Palestine, or Damascus and Jerusalem.
Sophronius received Umar in full patriarchal robes, whereas Umar
presented himself in 'the clouts of battle'. The contrast was eloquent of much
else in the event.
See, for example, Walter E. Kaegi: Byzantium and the Early
Islamic Conquests, Cambri.dge, 1992.
6 There would certainly be disaster were Jewish Zealots ever to
succeed in plotting re-possession of Temple Mount with a viewto Temple
re-building. Secularism in Israel would never accede to such defiance of the
fates.
See George Adam Smith: Jerusalem from the Earliest Times to
A.D. 70, London, 1907, Vol. 1, p.3.
Seeing that the verses chosen from the Qur'an for its decoration
come, in the main, from Surahs 3 and 19 - the long; nativity narratives of
Isa, Ibn Maryam al-Masih, the 'style' by which the Jesus of the Christian /
Gospels is known in the Qur'an. ·
Such widespread, north-south commerce - 'the caravans of the
Quraish' (106.1) is a strong tradition, though recent research has thrown
doubt on its extent and volume. Certainly Makkan prestige seems to have
undergone development under the Prophet's great grandfather in the later
decades of the 6th century.
On this reading of ummi, see my The Event of the Qur'an, London,
1971, Chaps. 2 and 3.
The hunafa (s. hanif) were seekers, or worshippers, of One God in
the antecedents of original Islam, apparently cherishing millat-lbrahim, 'the
community of Abraham'. Scholars are uncertain about the provenance of the
hunafa but they were clearly a formative influence in the sense of mission of
Muhammad prior to his 'night of power' in Qur'an-experience.
Despite David's being associated with the Zabur (Psalms) named,
with Torah, lnjil and Qur'an as the four principal 'books' of Allah. David has
the distinction of being the only individual to have the title khalifah in the
Qur'an (38.26) in any political sense, it being normally applied to humans at
large in their creaturehood, ruling Allah's creation as His 'deputies'.
Martin Buber: The Prophetic Faith, trans. C.Witton-Davies,
London, 1949, p.207.
See the study of Arab options around the tum of the 20th century in
Hassan Saab: The Arab .Federalists of the Ottoman Empire, Amsterdam,
1958.
The point was neatly captured by K wame Nkrumah, leader of the
nationalists in Ghana and architect of its independence from the British, as
the first African 'free state' in modem times. He paraphrased the words of
Jesus, according to Matthew 6.33, to read: 'Seek ye first the political
kingdom and all other things will be added to you'. It might be said to
phrase also the logic behind the Hijrah to Madina in 622. See K.Nkrumah:
An Autobiography, London, 1957, p.164.
Many translated from Greek and Latin by John Mason Neale, and
perhaps most notable of all: 'Truly Jerusalem name we that shore, Vision of
peace and of joy evermore' 0 Quanta quales.
Sadly as its contours are now marred by building, roads and the
ugly screes these create on its flanks.
This truth is not to overlook that, in Muslim lore, how Makkah is
held to be 'the navel of the earth', as is Jerusalem according to Jewish piety.
The fact that Makkah is the abode of the Ka'bah and that the Ka'bah has 'the
black stone' . fallen from heaven - and 'black' by human sin - does not
diminish the fact that the city is also birthplace of the Prophet and Mount
Hira the 'cave' of early wahy.
See discussion of Tasliyah in C.E.Padwick: Muslim Devotions,
Prayer Manuals in Common Use, London, 1961, Oxford, 1995.
It is also explicit- in the Christmas Song about 'men of goodwill',
meaning: 'Those in whose wills the pleasure is what pleases God', i.e. a
harmony of direction and obedience, the crux of 'peace on earth'.
On the 'personal', as distinct from the 'tribal', element in the
decision oftheMuhajirun, see: M.A.Lahbabi: Le Personalisme Musulmane,
Paris, 1964. A Moroccan writer, he sees the Hijrah as a watershed' in
religious experience.
T.S.Eliot: Murder in the Cathedral, London, 1968 ed. p.48.
1989, Chap. iv, Aqdul Aziz Duri: 'Jerusalem in the Early Islamic
Period, 7th-llth Centuries', pp 105-29.
K.J.Asali: Jerusalem in History, p. 109.
And using the term 'the holy land'. See Surahs 20.12 and 79.16 re
the valley where Moses was told to shed his sandals. The term al-qudus is
used only for the 'the Holy Spirit'.
Louis Massignon (1883-1962) See: L'Herne: Massignon, Paris, n.d.
and Youakim Mubarak: L'lslam et Le Dialogue Islam, and -L'oeuvre de
Louis Massignon, both 1972, Beirut, and G.Bassett-Sani: Louis Massignon:
Christian Ecumenist, ed. & trans. AH.Cutler, Chiq.go, 1974.
We often forget Keturah by whom Abraham had other progeny who
do not figure in 'holy seedings'. See Genesis 25. lf. and 1 Chronicles l.32f.
An honoured (maybe we could even say a 'chosen') quality belongs
· to all identity. The question is - on what does it tum? Jewishness hinges on
the ethnic factor of Jewish motherhood. The Christian criterion is - that of
'faith in Christ' incorporating 'community' open to all. We might say that
Islamic identity (albeit Millat Ibrahim) is heart-confession of the defining
Shahadah which is also open to all who will to make it. These
'chosennesses', with their archaeological and spiritual stakes in the one city
have somehow to relativise the communal expression (not the 'theology') of
their distinctiveness. Maybe the divine question, so gently phrased: 'Am I
not your Lord?' can inspire them to do so.
Not 'quintessential' in that Jerusalem, for the early Church, was in
measure displaced by Antioch as the springboard of mission westward. Its
centrality was a matter of deep association, not of utter necessity. The
essence of early Christianity was its 'being scattered abroad', having no
sacred territory, no 'chosen' people and no indispensable language. See
below:-
On the Fada'il see, e.g.: LI.Levine ed. The Jerusalem Cathedra,
No.I, 'Muslim Literature in Praise of Jerusalem', Isaac Hasson, pp.168-84.
Also S.D.Goitein: Studies in Islamic History and Institutions, Leiden, 1966,
pp.135-48.
His shift of the capital from Madina to Damascus was a new
departure. Since Madina was being forsaken, Jerusalem may have been a
prudent and auspicious choice, or - in Qur'anic terms - a preference for 'the
olive' over 'the fig', these in Surah 95.1 understood by many to symbolise
Syria and Palestine, or Damascus and Jerusalem.
Sophronius received Umar in full patriarchal robes, whereas Umar
presented himself in 'the clouts of battle'. The contrast was eloquent of much
else in the event.
See, for example, Walter E. Kaegi: Byzantium and the Early
Islamic Conquests, Cambri.dge, 1992.
6 There would certainly be disaster were Jewish Zealots ever to
succeed in plotting re-possession of Temple Mount with a viewto Temple
re-building. Secularism in Israel would never accede to such defiance of the
fates.
See George Adam Smith: Jerusalem from the Earliest Times to
A.D. 70, London, 1907, Vol. 1, p.3.
Seeing that the verses chosen from the Qur'an for its decoration
come, in the main, from Surahs 3 and 19 - the long; nativity narratives of
Isa, Ibn Maryam al-Masih, the 'style' by which the Jesus of the Christian /
Gospels is known in the Qur'an. ·
Such widespread, north-south commerce - 'the caravans of the
Quraish' (106.1) is a strong tradition, though recent research has thrown
doubt on its extent and volume. Certainly Makkan prestige seems to have
undergone development under the Prophet's great grandfather in the later
decades of the 6th century.
On this reading of ummi, see my The Event of the Qur'an, London,
1971, Chaps. 2 and 3.
The hunafa (s. hanif) were seekers, or worshippers, of One God in
the antecedents of original Islam, apparently cherishing millat-lbrahim, 'the
community of Abraham'. Scholars are uncertain about the provenance of the
hunafa but they were clearly a formative influence in the sense of mission of
Muhammad prior to his 'night of power' in Qur'an-experience.
Despite David's being associated with the Zabur (Psalms) named,
with Torah, lnjil and Qur'an as the four principal 'books' of Allah. David has
the distinction of being the only individual to have the title khalifah in the
Qur'an (38.26) in any political sense, it being normally applied to humans at
large in their creaturehood, ruling Allah's creation as His 'deputies'.
Martin Buber: The Prophetic Faith, trans. C.Witton-Davies,
London, 1949, p.207.
See the study of Arab options around the tum of the 20th century in
Hassan Saab: The Arab .Federalists of the Ottoman Empire, Amsterdam,
1958.
The point was neatly captured by K wame Nkrumah, leader of the
nationalists in Ghana and architect of its independence from the British, as
the first African 'free state' in modem times. He paraphrased the words of
Jesus, according to Matthew 6.33, to read: 'Seek ye first the political
kingdom and all other things will be added to you'. It might be said to
phrase also the logic behind the Hijrah to Madina in 622. See K.Nkrumah:
An Autobiography, London, 1957, p.164.
Many translated from Greek and Latin by John Mason Neale, and
perhaps most notable of all: 'Truly Jerusalem name we that shore, Vision of
peace and of joy evermore' 0 Quanta quales.
Sadly as its contours are now marred by building, roads and the
ugly screes these create on its flanks.
This truth is not to overlook that, in Muslim lore, how Makkah is
held to be 'the navel of the earth', as is Jerusalem according to Jewish piety.
The fact that Makkah is the abode of the Ka'bah and that the Ka'bah has 'the
black stone' . fallen from heaven - and 'black' by human sin - does not
diminish the fact that the city is also birthplace of the Prophet and Mount
Hira the 'cave' of early wahy.
See discussion of Tasliyah in C.E.Padwick: Muslim Devotions,
Prayer Manuals in Common Use, London, 1961, Oxford, 1995.
It is also explicit- in the Christmas Song about 'men of goodwill',
meaning: 'Those in whose wills the pleasure is what pleases God', i.e. a
harmony of direction and obedience, the crux of 'peace on earth'.
On the 'personal', as distinct from the 'tribal', element in the
decision oftheMuhajirun, see: M.A.Lahbabi: Le Personalisme Musulmane,
Paris, 1964. A Moroccan writer, he sees the Hijrah as a watershed' in
religious experience.
T.S.Eliot: Murder in the Cathedral, London, 1968 ed. p.48.
1989, Chap. iv, Aqdul Aziz Duri: 'Jerusalem in the Early Islamic
Period, 7th-llth Centuries', pp 105-29.
K.J.Asali: Jerusalem in History, p. 109.
And using the term 'the holy land'. See Surahs 20.12 and 79.16 re
the valley where Moses was told to shed his sandals. The term al-qudus is
used only for the 'the Holy Spirit'.
Louis Massignon (1883-1962) See: L'Herne: Massignon, Paris, n.d.
and Youakim Mubarak: L'lslam et Le Dialogue Islam, and -L'oeuvre de
Louis Massignon, both 1972, Beirut, and G.Bassett-Sani: Louis Massignon:
Christian Ecumenist, ed. & trans. AH.Cutler, Chiq.go, 1974.
We often forget Keturah by whom Abraham had other progeny who
do not figure in 'holy seedings'. See Genesis 25. lf. and 1 Chronicles l.32f.
An honoured (maybe we could even say a 'chosen') quality belongs
· to all identity. The question is - on what does it tum? Jewishness hinges on
the ethnic factor of Jewish motherhood. The Christian criterion is - that of
'faith in Christ' incorporating 'community' open to all. We might say that
Islamic identity (albeit Millat Ibrahim) is heart-confession of the defining
Shahadah which is also open to all who will to make it. These
'chosennesses', with their archaeological and spiritual stakes in the one city
have somehow to relativise the communal expression (not the 'theology') of
their distinctiveness. Maybe the divine question, so gently phrased: 'Am I
not your Lord?' can inspire them to do so.
Not 'quintessential' in that Jerusalem, for the early Church, was in
measure displaced by Antioch as the springboard of mission westward. Its
centrality was a matter of deep association, not of utter necessity. The
essence of early Christianity was its 'being scattered abroad', having no
sacred territory, no 'chosen' people and no indispensable language. See
below:-
On the Fada'il see, e.g.: LI.Levine ed. The Jerusalem Cathedra,
No.I, 'Muslim Literature in Praise of Jerusalem', Isaac Hasson, pp.168-84.
Also S.D.Goitein: Studies in Islamic History and Institutions, Leiden, 1966,
pp.135-48.
His shift of the capital from Madina to Damascus was a new
departure. Since Madina was being forsaken, Jerusalem may have been a
prudent and auspicious choice, or - in Qur'anic terms - a preference for 'the
olive' over 'the fig', these in Surah 95.1 understood by many to symbolise
Syria and Palestine, or Damascus and Jerusalem.
Sophronius received Umar in full patriarchal robes, whereas Umar
presented himself in 'the clouts of battle'. The contrast was eloquent of much
else in the event.
See, for example, Walter E. Kaegi: Byzantium and the Early
Islamic Conquests, Cambri.dge, 1992.
6 There would certainly be disaster were Jewish Zealots ever to
succeed in plotting re-possession of Temple Mount with a viewto Temple
re-building. Secularism in Israel would never accede to such defiance of the
fates.
See George Adam Smith: Jerusalem from the Earliest Times to
A.D. 70, London, 1907, Vol. 1, p.3.
Seeing that the verses chosen from the Qur'an for its decoration
come, in the main, from Surahs 3 and 19 - the long; nativity narratives of
Isa, Ibn Maryam al-Masih, the 'style' by which the Jesus of the Christian /
Gospels is known in the Qur'an. ·
Such widespread, north-south commerce - 'the caravans of the
Quraish' (106.1) is a strong tradition, though recent research has thrown
doubt on its extent and volume. Certainly Makkan prestige seems to have
undergone development under the Prophet's great grandfather in the later
decades of the 6th century.
On this reading of ummi, see my The Event of the Qur'an, London,
1971, Chaps. 2 and 3.
The hunafa (s. hanif) were seekers, or worshippers, of One God in
the antecedents of original Islam, apparently cherishing millat-lbrahim, 'the
community of Abraham'. Scholars are uncertain about the provenance of the
hunafa but they were clearly a formative influence in the sense of mission of
Muhammad prior to his 'night of power' in Qur'an-experience.
Despite David's being associated with the Zabur (Psalms) named,
with Torah, lnjil and Qur'an as the four principal 'books' of Allah. David has
the distinction of being the only individual to have the title khalifah in the
Qur'an (38.26) in any political sense, it being normally applied to humans at
large in their creaturehood, ruling Allah's creation as His 'deputies'.
Martin Buber: The Prophetic Faith, trans. C.Witton-Davies,
London, 1949, p.207.
See the study of Arab options around the tum of the 20th century in
Hassan Saab: The Arab .Federalists of the Ottoman Empire, Amsterdam,
1958.
The point was neatly captured by K wame Nkrumah, leader of the
nationalists in Ghana and architect of its independence from the British, as
the first African 'free state' in modem times. He paraphrased the words of
Jesus, according to Matthew 6.33, to read: 'Seek ye first the political
kingdom and all other things will be added to you'. It might be said to
phrase also the logic behind the Hijrah to Madina in 622. See K.Nkrumah:
An Autobiography, London, 1957, p.164.
Many translated from Greek and Latin by John Mason Neale, and
perhaps most notable of all: 'Truly Jerusalem name we that shore, Vision of
peace and of joy evermore' 0 Quanta quales.
Sadly as its contours are now marred by building, roads and the
ugly screes these create on its flanks.
This truth is not to overlook that, in Muslim lore, how Makkah is
held to be 'the navel of the earth', as is Jerusalem according to Jewish piety.
The fact that Makkah is the abode of the Ka'bah and that the Ka'bah has 'the
black stone' . fallen from heaven - and 'black' by human sin - does not
diminish the fact that the city is also birthplace of the Prophet and Mount
Hira the 'cave' of early wahy.
See discussion of Tasliyah in C.E.Padwick: Muslim Devotions,
Prayer Manuals in Common Use, London, 1961, Oxford, 1995.
It is also explicit- in the Christmas Song about 'men of goodwill',
meaning: 'Those in whose wills the pleasure is what pleases God', i.e. a
harmony of direction and obedience, the crux of 'peace on earth'.
On the 'personal', as distinct from the 'tribal', element in the
decision oftheMuhajirun, see: M.A.Lahbabi: Le Personalisme Musulmane,
Paris, 1964. A Moroccan writer, he sees the Hijrah as a watershed' in
religious experience.
T.S.Eliot: Murder in the Cathedral, London, 1968 ed. p.48.
1989, Chap. iv, Aqdul Aziz Duri: 'Jerusalem in the Early Islamic
Period, 7th-llth Centuries', pp 105-29.
K.J.Asali: Jerusalem in History, p. 109.
And using the term 'the holy land'. See Surahs 20.12 and 79.16 re
the valley where Moses was told to shed his sandals. The term al-qudus is
used only for the 'the Holy Spirit'.
Louis Massignon (1883-1962) See: L'Herne: Massignon, Paris, n.d.
and Youakim Mubarak: L'lslam et Le Dialogue Islam, and -L'oeuvre de
Louis Massignon, both 1972, Beirut, and G.Bassett-Sani: Louis Massignon:
Christian Ecumenist, ed. & trans. AH.Cutler, Chiq.go, 1974.
We often forget Keturah by whom Abraham had other progeny who
do not figure in 'holy seedings'. See Genesis 25. lf. and 1 Chronicles l.32f.
An honoured (maybe we could even say a 'chosen') quality belongs
· to all identity. The question is - on what does it tum? Jewishness hinges on
the ethnic factor of Jewish motherhood. The Christian criterion is - that of
'faith in Christ' incorporating 'community' open to all. We might say that
Islamic identity (albeit Millat Ibrahim) is heart-confession of the defining
Shahadah which is also open to all who will to make it. These
'chosennesses', with their archaeological and spiritual stakes in the one city
have somehow to relativise the communal expression (not the 'theology') of
their distinctiveness. Maybe the divine question, so gently phrased: 'Am I
not your Lord?' can inspire them to do so.