UCSD
Professor Gershon Shafir
Winter 2004

JERUSALEM: SACRED AND PROFANE


In this course we will examine Jerusalem as world historical city and religious/political center. We will pay special attention to four topics:

(a) Jerusalem's modernization, expansion, and architecture since the Crimean War;
(b) its character as an ethnic and religious frontier;
(c) struggles over its holy sites between Eastern and Western Christians, Jews, and Muslims;
(d) the city in memory.


REQUIRED BOOKS:

1. Bernard Wasserstein, Divided Jerusalem: The Struggle for the Holy City, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2001.

2. Amir Chesin et. al., Separate and Unequal: The Inside Story of Israeli Rule in East Jerusalem, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1999.

3. Michael Dumper, The Politics of Sacred Space: The Old City of Jerusalem in the Middle East Conflict, Boulder, Lynne Rienner, 2002.

4. Meron Benvenisti, City of Stone: The Hidden History of Jerusalem, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1996.



REQUIREMENTS:

Five out of seven weekly quizzes, starting in the third week, on the readings - 2 to 3 sentence long essay questions and concepts or names for identification (50%) and final exam (50%). If you receive an “A” on five quizzes, you have the option of substituting a 10 page research paper for the final. You will have to submit a research proposal and receive my consent for your paper topic.


READINGS:


introduction

First Week: Theories of Sacred Places and Urban Themes
The themes of the course and an examination of the concepts of “sacred” and “profane” in their interaction.

Second Week: Historical Background
Survey of the central themes of urban life in Jerusalem during the early Jewish (First and Second Temples), Christian (Byzantinian and Crusader) and Muslim (Umayyad and Abbasid) eras.


PART I: THE NEW JERUSALEM

Third Week: Spiritual Imperialism
European Great Powers in Ottoman Palestine and the Crimean War

Wasserstein, pp. 14-44.
Benvenisti, pp. 16-21.

Fourth Week: Jerusalem Promoted
Modernizing Jerusalem and Building the New City

Wasserstein, pp. 45-70.


PART II: ETHNIC FRONTIER & POLITICAL CONFLICT

Fifth Week: Politics: Partition, Unification, Partition
Mandatory, Hashemite, Israeli and Palestinian Times

Wasserstein, pp. 70-265, 287-316, 345-360.

Sixth and ½ of Seventh Week: The City as Ethnic and Religious Frontier
Palestinians and Israelis, Secular and Orthodox, Mizrachim and Ashkenazim

Cheshin, whole book.
Benvenisti, pp. 21-68, 106-233.


PART III: THE STRUGGLE OVER THE HOLY PLACES

½ of Seventh and Eight Weeks: The Holy Places in the Old City
The Strange Career of the "Status Quo"

Dumper, pp.1-38.
Benvenisti, pp. 69-105.
Wasserstein, pp. 317-345.

Ninth Week: Ethnic and Religious Groups in the Old City
Muslim Waqf, Jewish Settlers, Christian Laity

Dumper, pp. 39-168.
Wasserstein, pp. 266-286.


PART IV: THE CITY IN MEMORY

Tenth Week: Whose Jerusalem?
The City in Competing Memories

Wasserstein, pp. 1-13, 100-104, 188, 311-312, 322-325.
Benvenisti, pp.1-16, 234-263.


RECOMMENDED BOOKS:


Part One: Archeology & Architecture

Ben-Dov, Meir, Historical Atlas of Jerusalem, N.Y., Continuum, 2002.

Grabar Oleg, The Shape of the Holy: Early Islamic Jerusalem, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1996.

Kark, Ruth & Michal Oren-Nordhem, Jerusalem and Its Environs: Quarters, Neighborhoods, Villages, 1800-1948, Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 2001.

Kroyanker, David, The Jerusalem Architecture, introduction by Teddy Kollek, New York, St. Martin's Press, 1994.

Shanks, Hershel, Jerusalem: An Archeological Biography, N.Y., Random House, 1995.

Part Two: Ethnic Frontier

Bollens, Scott A., On Narrow Ground: Urban Policy and Ethnic Conflict in Jerusalem and Belfast, Albany, SUNY Press, 2002.

Breger, Marshall J. & Ora Ahimeir eds., Jerusalem: A City and Its Future, Syracuse, Syracuse University Press, 2002.

Dumper, Michael, The Politics of Jerusalem Since 1967, N.Y., Columbia University Press, 1997.

Klein, Menachem, Jerusalem: The Contested City, N.Y., New York University Press, 2001.

Ma’oz, Moshe & Sari Nusseibeh, Jerusalem: Points of Friction and Beyond, The Hague, Kluwer Law International, 2000.

Segal, Jerome M. et al., Negotiating Jerusalem, N.Y. SUNY Press, 2000.

Sorkin, Michael ed., The Next Jerusalem: Sharing the Divided City, N.Y., Monacelli Press, 2002.

Tamari, Salim ed., Jerusalem 1948: The Arab Neighborhoods and Their Fate in the War, Bethlehem, Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, 1999.


Part Three: Holy Places

Armstrong, Karen, Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths, N.Y., Knopf, 1996.

Gonen, Rivka, Contested Holiness: Jewish, Muslim and Christian Perspectives on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Jersery City, Ktav, 2003


Part Four: The City in Memory

Bahat, Dan, The Illustrated Atlas of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Carta, 1996.



For statistical data see the annual Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, and a brief summary of its main findings in Jerusalem: Facts and Trends, are published by the Municipality of Jerusalem & The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies.


LINKS:

Jerusalem Timeline

Jerusalem: The Holy City of Three Religions

History Channel on Old City of Jerusalem

Hebrew University's Virtual Tour of Jerusalem

Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs:
go to "Publications," then to "Publications on Jerusalem," and finally click on "Jerusalem - Religious Aspects."

Muslim Heritage.com: Introduction to the Islamic City

In Holy Land Net

Jerusalemites

The Noble Sanctuary

Museum of the Jewish Temple