Posted on: 2002

By Sami Rami

Jerusalem, with its abundant Muslim relics and monuments, has occupied a Paramount place in Arab and Muslim glorious history since times immemorial. Arab tribes have flooded Palestine during successive waves of Semitic migration out of the Arabian Peninsula many Arab kingdoms flourished in the region before Christ. After the advent of Islam, Muslims were ordered to turn to in prayers before turning to Mecca.

Prophet Muhammad conducted, prior to the Islamic liberation of Palestine in 638, a miraculous spiritual nocturnal journey to al-Aqsa Mosque and his great vision of ascensión to heaven from the third shrine in Islam (al-Aqsa). Recognizing Jerusalem significance in Islam, all Arab and Muslim rulers gave the city a prominence and every attention it deserved as the first Qibla (where Muslims turned in prayers before Mecca).

Consequently, the crusaders were attacked and defeated by Saladin in 1187 and the city retained its Muslim façade. In December 12, 1516, the Ottomans entered Jerusalem, and two weeks later (Jan. 1, 1517) Sultan Salim I received the keys of Jerusalem.

Palestine remained under the Muslim Ottoman rule up to the end of WWI and the beginning of the British occupation of Jerusalem in Dec. 1918. A new chapter of colonialism and Zionism started with the British occupation to Jerusalem and the rest of the region. Many Palestinian revolts and mass rebellions erupted against the new colonial and Zionist invaders.