The Maghrebi Quarter of Jerusalem long sat in the shadow of the Western Wall, the last vestige of the Second Temple. Three days after the June '67 War, Israeli forces razed the Quarter, its narrow alleys widened and homes removed, to create the Western Wall Plaza. With this book, Vincent Lemire offers the first history of the Maghrebi Quarter—spanning 800 years from its founding by Saladin in 1187 to house North African Muslim pilgrims through to its destruction. To bring this vanished district back to life, Lemire gathers its now-scattered documentation in the archives of Muslim pious foundations in Jerusalem and the Red Cross in Geneva, in Ottoman archives in Istanbul and Israeli state archives. He engages testimonies of former residents and looks to recent archaeological digs that have resurfaced household objects buried during the destruction. Today, the Western Wall Plaza extends over the former Maghrebi Quarter. It is one of the most identifiable places in the world—yet one of the most occluded in history. In the Shadow of the Wall offers a new point of entry to understand this consequential place.
Author(s): Vincent Lemire
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 399
City: Stanford
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Contetns
Introduction: A Place for History
Prologue: The Legal Foundation of a Jerusalem Neighborhood: The Founding Act of the Waqf Abu Madyan
1. In the Empire of the Sultans: Stewardship and Consolidation during the Ottoman Era
2. In the Turmoil of War and the Mandate: A Coveted and Undermined Quarter (1912–36)
3. Protection and Imperial Ambition: France Up against the Wall (1948–54)
4. Colonial Contradictions and Geopolitical Upheaval: The Orphans of Empire (1955–62)
5. Expel and Demolish: History of a Political Decision (June 1967)
6. After the Catastrophe: Collecting the Evidence, Documenting the Disappearance
Epilogue: The Archives in the Ground: Appearance, Disappearance
Conclusion: A Wall of Silence
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Back Cover
