-
The Isra and Mi'raj — c. 621 CE
The miraculous nocturnal journey of Prophet Muhammad from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, and his ascent through the seven heavens, where the five daily prayers were ordained. ونص رحلة المعراج كاملاً عند البخاري في حديث مالك بن صعصعة .
-
Umar's covenant with the people of Jerusalem — c. 636 CE · 15 AH
The covenant of safe-conduct that Umar ibn al-Khattab gave the people of Iliya when they surrendered the city, as the book quotes it from al-Tabari: safety for persons, property, churches and crosses; no church to be taken or destroyed; no compulsion in religion; no Jew to live in Iliya; the jizya to be paid. The book places it in 15 AH with four named witnesses .
-
Earthquake at Ramla and the sea's recession, 425 — c. 1033 CE · 425 AH
In 425 a black wind tore through Nisibis uprooting orchards and throwing down a masonry palace, hail fell in shapes like hands, pillars and fingers, an earthquake ruined half of Ramla, villages were swallowed, part of the wall of Bayt al-Maqdis fell and Ascalon's congregational-mosque minaret collapsed, and the sea drew back some three farsakhs before returning to take people who had gone out gathering fish and shells .
-
Atsiz ibn Uwaq's campaign against Syria — c. 1070 CE · c. 462 AH
Atsiz ibn Uwaq's Seljuk campaign into southern Syria — Ramla and Jerusalem taken from the Fatimids, Ascalon holding out — bringing the Abbasid sultanate to Jerusalem's gates .
-
death of King Amalric — Baldwin the leper succeeds, Raymond regent — c. 1173 CE · 569 AH
King Amalric — «مري», the Franks' bravest and craftiest king in Ibn al-Athīr's verdict — died at the year's start, leaving a leper son king in name only. The real rule passed to Count Raymond of Tripoli, newly ransomed from Nūr al-Dīn's prisons for 150,000 Tyrian dinars and a thousand captives .
-
Salah al-Din recovers Jerusalem — 2 October 1187 CE · 583 AH
In 583 Salah al-Din took many Frankish-held towns of Syria — Jerusalem greatest of them, ninety-one years in their hands. He cleared their traces, razed their new churches, built a Shafi'i school on one site, yet spared the Holy Sepulchre as Umar had before him. Ibn Barrajan had read in 'Alif Lam Mim — the Romans were defeated' that Jerusalem would stay Roman till 583, then be a house of Islam for ever — 'one of the strangest coincidences', says Abu Shama, 'and Ibn Barrajan died long before' .
-
Demolition of the walls of Jerusalem, 616 — c. March 1219 CE · Muharram 616 AH
At the start of 616 al-Malik al-Mu'azzam had the walls of Jerusalem destroyed, out of fear and helplessness lest the Franks take it. Work on the wall began on the first day of Muharram. The people cried out; secluded women, girls, old men and women, and young men went out to the Sakhra and al-Aqsa, cut their hair, and fled, leaving their property behind, sure that the Franks would reach them by morning. Some fled to Egypt, some to al-Karak, some to Damascus; multitudes died of hunger and thirst; the wealth they had in Jerusalem was plundered; and a qintar of oil was sold for ten dirhams. The people blamed al-Malik al-Mu'azzam .
-
The thunderbolt of Jerusalem — c. December 1447 CE · Shawwal 851 AH
In mid-Shawwal 851 a tremendous thunderbolt struck Jerusalem .
-
The Great Plague of Gaza, Syria and Jerusalem, 864 — c. 1460 CE · 864 AH
In 864 a great plague struck Gaza, then Syria and Jerusalem, killing numbers beyond count .
-
Buraq Wall disturbances (1929) — August 1929 CE · Rabi' I 1348 AH†
Disturbances in Palestine in August 1929 over the Buraq Wall, known in Arab usage as the Buraq revolt; the Mandate government set up an inquiry, and the British government then asked the League of Nations for an international commission. Source: Imara's book, one source only.
-
League of Nations commission on the Western Wall (1930) — December 1930 CE · Rajab 1349 AH†
A commission set up by the League of Nations Council on 14 January 1930 after the August 1929 disturbances over the Western Wall of the Haram al-Sharif, to settle Muslim and Jewish claims there; three non-British members led by former Swedish foreign minister Eliel Lofgren. It sat in Jerusalem in June and July 1930 and its unanimous decision of December 1930 held the wall part of the Haram and Muslim waqf property, and kept the status quo for Jewish worship there. Imara's book reprints the report and reads it as proof of Muslim ownership; the reading is the book's own.
-
Occupation of East Jerusalem (1967) — 5 June 1967 CE · 27 Safar 1387 AH†
Israeli forces entered Jerusalem on 5 June 1967. The book treats this as an occupation in the June war and describes the later annexation and changes in the city, including demolitions of quarters, mosques and churches, as a breach of the status quo . The characterisation is the book's own.
-
Arson at al-Aqsa Mosque (1969) — 21 August 1969 CE · 8 Jumada II 1389 AH†
A fire at the al-Aqsa Mosque on the morning of Thursday 21 August 1969 destroyed its library and the eastern side, which the book attributes to Israeli forces. The Academy of Islamic Research met in emergency session on 23 August 1969 and issued a statement and resolutions calling for Islamic action and for the United Nations to enforce its resolutions on Jerusalem .
