Jerusalim PDF

The Quarters of Jerusalem in the Ottoman Period
Author(s): Adar Arnon

Source: Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Jan., 1992), pp. 1-65
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4283477 .
Accessed: 01/02/2011 07:48
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=taylorfrancis. .
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Taylor & Francis, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Middle Eastern
Studies.
http://www.jstor.org
The Quartersof
Jerusalemin the OttomanPeriod
ADAR ARNON
The aim of the present article is to define the quartersof the city of
Jerusalemas they were during the four centuries of Ottoman rule in
Palestine (1517-1917). 'Defining the quarters'means establishingthe
divisionof the city as quartersor, in otherwords,describingthe locations
and boundaries of areas in the city with a given name and finding
the changes which occurredover the years in the system of quarters.
Demographicalaspectsof the quarterswill be discussedas well.
QUARTERS
CITIES
AND THEIR
NAMES
IN MEDIEVAL
MIDDLE
EASTERN
The common medieval Arabic term for both street (or alley) and
quarter(or section of a town) was hara (plural:harat,hawari,construct
state, colloquial: haret). As an urban unit, hara had beside its pure
geographicalmeaning also a socio-geographicalmeaning of 'an area
inhabitedby people bound by faith, originor occupation'.1
The residentialquartersin a medieval Islamiccity were a mosaic of
territoriesinhabited by differentpopulationsdistinguishedby religion
or sect, common stock or common place of origin. This phenomenon
reflected first of all the segregative tribal, clanish, local nature of
traditionalArabic society that even the great melting power of Islam
was too weak to overcome.2
Life in the medievalsocietywhichlay underthe protectiveand usually
tolerant banner of Islam was not truly safe to anyone except among
his own kin.3 It was then the desire for security, as well as the natural
tendencyto live with people of the same background,whichcreatedthe
communityquarters.This of coursedid not conflictwith the old Arabian
Bedouin traditionof the tribe being a defendingunit for its members.
In North Africancities quarterswere barricadedwith gates locked and
guardedat night.4
The medieval Islamiccity whichwas a focal point to religious, social
and economiclife did not have organizationalpowerof its own, inherent
in its own citizens - the centralgovernmentruled everything.5One of
the less important consequences of this situation was that the norm
Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.28, No.1, January 1992, pp.1-65
PUBLISHED BY FRANK CASS, LONDON
MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES
of naming streets and quarters, by any kind of authority, did not

exist in it. The need to refer to urban geographicalunits created, in
these circumstances,a populartraditionaccordingto which streets and
quarterswere calledaftermarkets,ethno-religiousgroupsor landmarks.
The double street/quartermeaningof the word hara fitted very well to
this unorderlystate of affairsin whichone or more streets and a nearby
area could have been called, in a certain era, by the same name. We
might assume that such situationshad a part in the formation of the
two-sidednessof that word.
Two other Arabic words, with the exclusive meaning of a quarter,
whichcan also be found in the Jerusalemsceneryare mahallaand hayy.
Another Arabic term of urbangeographywhich is useful while dealing
with the Old City of Jerusalemis 'aqaba (constructstate [colloquial]:
'aqabet) - a steep street.
Below are some examples from the nomenclatureof streets and

quarters in medieval Moslem cities, classified into the three abovementionedname-categories:
A. Markets- a streetor a quarterin whicha certainmerchandisewas sold
or shops of a certainbranchof artisanswere located was knownby the
name of this merchandiseor trade. For instance:Suq el-Husur(Arabic:
'MatsMarket-street')in Old Jerusalem,Sukkariyya(Arabic:'of sugar')
in Medieval Cairo (known today as el-Qayati Street), Suq el-Farakh
('Chickens Market-street')in the Jewish Quarterof Cairo, Qazzazin
('Glass Craftsmen')Quarterin Hebron, 'Attarin('Druggists')Quarter
in Alexandria,KavaflarCarsi(Turkish:'ShoemakersMarket-street')in
Izmir. A modernexample:Sahafiyyin('Journalists')Quarterin Giza.
B. Ethno-religiousGroups- Rum (Greek Orthodox)Quarterin Nazareth, Qarra'in(Karaites)Street in the Jewish Quarterof Cairo, Akrad
(Kurds) Quarter in Hebron, Zuwayla (after a Berber tribe which
migrated from Tunisia to Egypt in the tenth century) Quarter in
MedievalCairo, Bani Dar (familyname) Quarterin Hebron. A modern
example: Damayta (after people from Dumyat (Damieta) which came
with the Egyptianinvasionof 1830) Quarterin Jaffa.
C. Landmarks- prominentbuildings,city-wallgates, holy places and
other sites constitutedanothersourcefor names of streets and quarters
in the medievalMoslemcity, for example,Fener(Turkish:'Lighthouse')
Quarter in Old Istanbul, Bayn al-Qasrayn(Arabic: 'between the two
palaces') Street - the main street of Medieval Cairo (called today
al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah Street), Gumruk (Turkish, Arabic: 'customs')
Quarterin Alexandria(after the customshouse that stood once on the
shore of the New [East] Port), 'Aqabetel-Khanqahafter the Khanqah
THE QUARTERS OF JERUSALEM IN THE OTTOMAN PERIOD
Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem,'Ajami Quarterin Jaffa after the

tomb of SheikhIbrahimal-'Ajami, Turbetal-Bey (the Bey Mausoleum)
Quarterin Tunis. A modern example:SportingQuarterin Alexandria
after the SportingClub erected there in 1890. El-WadRoad in the old
City of Jerusalemwas a special case of this category since it was not
called after a man-made site but after the wadi along which it ran.
Another case is of sites which at first sight seem not to belong to any
of the above categoriesbut belong actuallyto the last one. David Street
in Old Jerusalemwas not named, as could be thought,after King David
but after the Citadel- believed to be David'sPalace- whichstood at its
west end. A similarcase is that of 'Ala ad-Din Street. It was not named
directly after 'Ala ad-Din al-Basiri, one of Jerusalem'sgovernors on
behalf of the MamlukSultanateat the late thirteenthcentury,but after
his mausoleumbuilt there.
There were in Jerusalemalso streets and alleys which did not have
steady names of their own. These were usuallythoroughfaresbetween
other streetsor cul-de-sacscalledafterneighboringstreetsor by alternate
names, over the yearsor simultaneously.Examplesof suchlaneswill add
more confusionthan benefit.6
THE QUARTERS OF JERUSALEM THROUGHOUT THE OTTOMAN
PERIOD: SHORT TOPOGRAPHICAL AND ETHNO-RELIGIOUS
BACKGROUND
Until the 1860sJerusalemwas constitutedonly of today'sOld City, that

is, the city inside the Walls. The generalscheme of the city was decided
many centuriesearlier, in the second centuryAD when Jerusalemwas
rebuiltas a Romancity underthe nameof Aelya Capitolina.Thisscheme
consistedof two elements:the Wallsand the systemof principalstreets.
The present walls of Jerusalem were restored not long after the
Ottoman conquest, in 1537-41, by the sultan Suleiman the Magnificienton the outline of the wallsof RomanJerusalem.They surround
a quadranglewith an area of less than 1 squarekilometer. There are 7
gates in these Walls: 3 on the north side (Herod, Damascusand New
[opened only in 1890]gates), 1 on the east side (St Stephen's Gate), 2
on the south side (Dung and Zion gates) and 1 on the west side (Jaffa
Gate).
Two of the Old City's main streets start from Damascus Gate
southwards.The eastern among them, el-Wad Road runs along the
ravine lying between the two ridges on which the city is built. The
other, Suq Khan ez-Zeyt, goes straightsouth of the gate, throughthe
GATE.'
GATEi
MIDDLE
EASTERN
^0
MOUNT
Z I ON
MAP 1
OLD CITY OF JERUSALEM
STUDIES
200
oo
tOO
to
meters
city's center. They both end where they are intersected by the third
main street of the Old City which runs, west to east, from Jaffa Gate
to the Temple Mount. This street - which is divided nowadays into
David Street (west) and Bab es-Silsila Street (east) - and Suq Khan
ez-Zeyt constituted accordinglyin Roman times, the Decomanus and
Cardo- the cross of streets typicalto Roman campsand plannedcities.
El-WadRoad was built as a second Cardo.In additionto these principal
streets the whole grid of today's Old City of Jerusalemstreets existed
throughoutthe Ottoman period, except in peripheralareas, near the
Walls, built in moderntimes.7
In all moderncity plans and guide-booksthe Old City is dividedinto
four quarters- Moslem, Christian,Armenian and Jewish which are
equivalent- with some inconsistenciesresultingfrom the existence of a
5th 'quarter',the Temple Mount,8to the north-east,north-west,southwest and south-eastparts of the city accordingly.Suq Khan ez-Zeyt is
taken for the boundarybetween the Moslem and Christianquarters.
Bab es-SilsilaStreet divides the Moslem from the Jewishquarterwhile
David Street separatesthe ChristianQuarterfrom the Armenian. The
south continuationof Suq Khanez-Zeyt, Habad (Suq el-Husur)Street,
appears on the maps as the boundary between the Armenian and
Jewish quarters. The origin of this ethno-religiouspartition lies in
the nineteenth-centurymodern survey maps9of Jerusalemdrawn by
Europeans - travellers, army officers, architects- who explored the
city. The following verbal geographicaldefinitionsof the quarterswill
refer to this contemporarilyprevailingdivisionof the Old City.
The ethno-religious partition of the Old City on the nineteenthcenturymapsreflecteda situationrooted in history.CrusaderJerusalem
of the twelfthand thirteenthcenturies,the capitalof the LatinKingdom
of Jerusalem,was partitionedamongthe residentialterritoriesof people
from differentEuropeancountries,OrientalChristiancommunitiesand
knights orders. In 1244 Jerusalem returned to Moslem hands when
it became part of the Ayyubid Sultanate of Egypt. The change of
governmentcoincidedwith a devastationof the city by the CentralAsian
tribe of Khawarizmwhich all but annihilatedthe city's population.10In
1250 the Mamluksrose to power in Egypt. Under their rule Jerusalem
became a magnetto pilgrimsfrom all partsof the Islamicworld. People
from various regions, towns and tribes settled in it. The parts of the
city preferredby the Moslemswere those adjoiningthe north and west
sides of the Temple Mount (the other two sides lay outside the city)
on which stood their two reveredmosques, the Dome of the Rock and
al-Aqsa Mosque. Christiansfrom differentdenominationsresettled in
the north-westof the city, at the vicinity of the Churchof the Holy
MAP 2
QUARTERSOF JERUSALEMIN THE LATE
FIFTEENTHCENTURY(ACCORDINGTO MUJIRAD-DIN)
THE QUARTERS OF JERUSALEMIN THE OTTOMANPERIOD
Sepulchre.Armenianssettled in its south-west,near their Cathedralof

St James which had been destroydby the Khawarizms.Jews settled in
Jerusalem,beginningwiththe secondhalfof the thirteenthcentury,near
the south wall of the city, becausethe territorythere was not settled by
anyothercommunityandseparatedfromtheirveneratedplace, the West
(Wailing) Wall, only by a small quarterof North-AfricanMoslems.11
When the city changed hands again at the beginningof the sixteenth
century,fallingto the OttomanTurks,no changein the city'spopulation,
and hence in its quartersoccurred.
THE EARLY OTTOMANPERIOD
The most detailed descriptionof Jerusalemin the later Middle Ages is

to be found in a book writtenthere in 1495, some twenty years before
the Ottomanconquest, by Abd ar-Rahmanal-'Ulaymi,betterknownby
one of his nicknamesas Mujirad-Din. Mujirmentionedmany streets,
in all parts of the city, calling all of them harat.12Part of those harat
can be defined as quarters, even if consisting of one street, because
accordingto their names they were the dwelling place of a particular
sort of population(see Chapter1). Few other harat, called after sites,
will be definedbelow as quartersmainlybecausethey appearedas such
in the censi held in Jerusalema few decadeslater (see below). Some of
those streets/ quartersappearedin later years as quarterscomprisinga
larger area and were presumably more than mere streets even in Mujir's
days. The restof Mujir'sharatwill be used for identifyinglocationsin the

city.
Following are the quartersof Jerusalemas they appearedin Mujir's
description,dividedaccordingto the modernfour-quarteredsystem:
A. In the Moslem Quarter

Haret el-Ghuriyya (called probably after a group from the Ghor [Arabic:
'the Jordan Valley'] who lived in it13) - today's Burj Laqlaq Street
runningnorth of St Stephen'sGate along the city'seast wall.
Haret Bab Hutta (Arabic: 'Forgiveness Gate') - Bab Hutta Street,
runningnorthwardsfrom the middle gate in the north side of the

Temple Mount, after which it was named.14Mujir described it as
'one of the largestharat'.
Haret el-Masharqa(Arabic: 'Easterners'.Named apparently after a
Bedouin groupfrom Trans-Jordanwhichsettled there)15- the north
part of Bab Hutta Streetwhichled towardsHerod gate.
Haret Bani Zayd (a Bedouin group)- today's 'Aqabet el-Mawlawiyya
east of DamascusGate. An alley calledafteranotherBedouin group,
Sa'diyyin,16branchedfrom it.
Haret Bab el-'Amud ('Pillar Gate' - the Arabic name for Damascus
Gate)17- the north end of Khatt Wadi et-Tawahin(Arabic: 'mills
wadi street') as el-Wad Road was called in Mujir's days - the
present Damascus Gate Street. The street of Bani Sa'd (an Arabic
family/tribe)whichbranchedfrom it was apparentlytoday's 'Aqabet
Risas.
Haret or Khatt (Arabic [here]: 'quarter')Marzaban18- the region of
Aqabet el-Khalidiyya,Qaramiand Sarayastreets, lying between elWad Road and Suq Khanez-Zeyt.
B. In the ChristianQuarter
HaretBani Murra(a SouthArabian[Yemenite]group)19- an area lying
along the northpart of Suq Khanez-Zeyt, possiblyat its west side.
Haretez-Zara'na(after an Arabicgroup)- situatedwest of Haret Bani
Murranorthof 'Aqabet el-Khanqah.
Haret en-Nasara (Arabic: 'ChristiansStreet/Quarter').It seems that
in the late fifteenth century both today's ChristiansStreet and the
street parallelto it from the west - the twisted chain of Casanova,
St Dimitris and Greek Catholic Patriarchstreets - were known as
'Haret en-Nasara'.The south part of the west street was called in
those days Haret er-Rahba(Arabic: 'wide space') since it bordered
on 'Crops Square', lying north of Jaffa Gate. The north tip of
that street reached Bab es-Sarb('Serbs Gate') which existed then,
apparentlya short distanceeast of today'sNew Gate. The quarterof
Haret en-Nasarastretched,naturally,between the two streets called
by that name.
Haret el-Jawalda(Arabic: 'TannersStreet/Quarter')- today's Jawalda
Streetnear the north-westcornerof the Old City. Accordingto Mujir
it lay 'outsidethe city'.
C. In theArmenianQuarter
HaretBani el-Harith(aftera Bedouingroup)- situatedapparentlyin the
west partof the ArmenianQuarter.Mujirdescribedit as lying 'out of
town, by the Citadel'.
Haret ed-Dawiyya (possibly after an Arabic tribe) - today's St Mark
Street at the northof the ArmenianQuarter.
Dir el-Arman(ArmeniansMonastery)or KanisatMar Ya'qub(St James
Cathedral)- situatedin the middleof the southpartof the nineteenthcentury-definedArmenian Quarter, the Armenian Quarter (Haret
el-Arman of future centuries) was unique among the quarters of
Jerusalem in that it was an enclosure which developed along the
years aroundthe ArmenianMonastery.
D. In theJewish Quarter
Haret el-Yahud(Jews Street/Quarter)- the south part of Jews Street.
The north part of the street was knownat the time as Hareter-Risha
after an Arabiantribe, probablyfrom Trans-Jordan.20
Haret es-Saltin (after people from the Trans-Jordaniantown of Salt
who lived there) - today's Gal'ed Street at the south of the Jewish
Quarter.
Haretesh-Sharaf(namedafterthe mausoleumof Sharafad-Din Musa, a
Jerusalemnotable buriedin the vicinityin the fourteenthcentury)21
- a north to south street at the middleof the JewishQuarter.Known
today as Misgav Ladakh (Hebrew), Sharaf or Maydan (Arabic)
Street.
Haret el-'Alam (named after 'Alam ad-Din Sulayman, the brother
of Sharaf ad-Din mentioned above) - today's Shoney Halakhot
(Hebrew) or Ghana'im(Arabic) Street northof the JewishQuarter.
Part of it was called Haretel-Hayadraafter a groupof people.
- the
Haret el-Magharba([Moslem] North Africans Street/Quarter)22
street whichled from Bab es-SilsilaStreet to Dung Gate throughthe
east part of the Jewish Quarter.
In the course of the 60 years which followed Mujir'sdescriptionof
Jerusalem, in 1525-6, 1533-9 and 1553-4, censi were held in the
city by the new Ottomangovernment.They were carriedout according
to quarter,officiallyrecognizedreligious-ethnicgroup(Turkish:'millet')
andfamily.Eachof the censiquarterswascalledin those censimahalla.23
The censi quartersare definedbelow, orderedfromthe north-eastof the
city to its west, south and centralparts:
Bab el-Hutta24- the area northof the Temple Mount.
Bani Zayd - the area aroundel-MawlawiyyaStreet, east of Damascus
Gate.
Bab el-'Amud- the area south of DamascusGate.
Dara'na(apparentlythe colloquialArabicformof Dar'an)- an Arabian
- the area lyingwest of Bab el-'Amud
sub-tribefrom Trans-Jordan25
of
north
Quarter,
'Aqabet el-Khanqah.
Bani Harith- see Mujir'sdescriptionabove.
Risha or Risha and Sihyun(Arabic: 'Zion') - the areas lying north and
west of Haret el-Yahudof Mujir'sdescription.
Maslakh (Arabic: 'slaughterhouse')- the southernmost part of the
Jewish quarter, east of Zion Gate, where the slaughterhouseof
Jerusalemstood for centuries,up till the middleof the nineteenth.
Magharba- the area at the feet of the West (Wailing)Wall.
Khawaldi(the colloquialArabicform of Khawalid- a groupbelonging
from
10
MIDDLE
of
EASTERN
X^~~~~~~e
-7"5ii
STUDIES
eagrasbfi
a'
desript io
Mun's
the
CENSI QUSHARTE IN T
~JERUSALEM:
MAP 3
ro
I
>
city
CENTURd
in the l ate 15th century
SIXTEENTH
JERUSALEM:
CENSI QUARTERS INemark:
The
streetnamesweretaken
SIXTEENTH CENTURY
11
to the Bedouin clan of Salta)26- see Haret es-Saltin in Mujir's

descriptionabove.
Sharafknownalso as 'Alam- the north-westpartof the JewishQuarter.
Bab el-Qattanin (Arabic: 'Cotton Merchants Gate') - the territory
between the Temple Mount west side and Suq Khan ez-Zeyt along
Suq el-Qattaninand 'Aqabet el-Khalidiyyastreets.
'Aqabet es-Sitta (Arabic: 'the lady's [steep] street')27- the area lying
north of Bab el-QattaninQuarterbetween the Temple Mount and
Suq Khan ez-Zeyt.
Beside the quarters,familiesand individualswere registeredin those
censi in the following monasteries as well: Dir Mar Ya'qub (the
Armenian Monastery), Dir ez-Zeytuna (Olive Tree Monasteryin the
Armenian Quarter), Dir el-Qiyama (Churchof the Holy Sepulchre),
Dir es-Sarb (Serbs Monastery) which stood in those days near the
intersection of today's St Francis and Casanova streets, in an area
occupied in later times by the FranciscanConvent of St Saviour, Dir
Sihyun (the Franciscanconvent on Mount Zion), a Franciscanconvent
in Dara' na Quarter,28Dir Ba' liyya,29Dir Darias,Dir Peter, Dir Manda
- unidentified.
In most of the censi quartersonly one religiouscommunityhas been

registered:Moslemsin Bab el-Hutta, Bani Zayd, Bab el-'Amud, Dara'
na, Bani Harith,Magharba,Khawaldi,Bab el-Qattaninand 'AqabetesSitta, Jews in Maslakh.In Sharafboth MoslemsandJewswere recorded
while all three denominationswere representedin Risha. Apartfromthe
Christiansregisteredin the last quarterand in the monasteryregistries,
there were no indicationsas to the whereaboutsin the city of the various
Christiancommunitiesrecordedin the censi. It might be assumedthat
most of them lived in Haret en-Nasara (ChristiansQuarter) and Dir
el-Arman (ArmeniansMonastery/Quarter),both mentionedby Mujir,
in the west section of the city, most of whichappearedas a big blankspot
on the censi quartermap (see Map 3). Haret el-Yahud(Jews' Quarter)
of Mujir'sdescriptionwas divided in the censi between Risha (mixed)
and Maslakh(purelyJewish)quarters.It seems as thoughthe Ottoman
authoritiesdid not want to recognizeofficiallythat sections of the city
were called after Christiansor Jews.30Anotherpossible explanationfor
the small numberof censi quartersin the west side of Jerusalemis that
that part of the city was sparselypopulated.Mujirreferredto the harat
lying in the west of the city (Jawalda,Bani Harith- see before, Malat31)
and to the city's Citadel as situated 'outside the town'. The situation
describedin those words was originatednearlythree centuriesbefore,
in 1219,when the Ayyubidruleral-Malikal-Mu'azzamIsa demolisheda
12
MIDDLE
EASTERN
STUDIES
greatpartof the city'swall fearingthat it will fall fortifiedinto the hands

of the Crusaders.In a picturemap from 148332(Mujir'stime) walls can
be seen only at the east side of the city while its north side is encircled
by trenches. However, since the city was divided into ethno-religious
zones, security did not play a part in deterringpeople from living in
the west unwalledpart of the city (before the restorationof its walls by
Suleiman). The fact remainsthat unlike Nasara, the Moslem quarters
which lay in the west side of the city, Dara' na and Bani Harith, did
appearin the censi.
Summary
All the quarters called after sites in Jerusalemwere situated in the

vicinity of the Temple Mount. This interestingphenomenon can be
explained partially by the fact that part of these sites were known
gates of the Temple Mount (Bab Hutta and Bab el-Qattanin)or the
city's wall (Bab el-'Amud) and partiallyby the religiousuniformityof
this area inhabitedby Moslems. Its size causedit to be partitionedinto
several quarters,some of which were even called after less prominent
sites like 'Aqbet et-Takiya,Marzabanand Sharaf.Since the above cited
six quarterswere not named by ethnic names it might be assumedthat
they were inhabitedby the veteran Moslem populationof Jerusalem.
Around this inner area, in the north, west and south of the city, lay
the residentialquartersof Jerusalem'sreligiousminoritiesand Moslem
ethnic groups. Those last were Bedouin sub-tribes which migrated
to Jerusalem from Trans-Jordan.Magharbawith its North African
population was an exception. As they inhabited peripheralparts of
the city, these groups must have settled in it later than their coreligionists living in its internal parts. The continuous Moslem area
of the city occupied its entire east half penetrating its west half at
the north, near Damascus Gate. Excluding its south part and the
north-westbulge, this region will be defined in the nineteenthcentury
as the 'Moslem Quarter'. In the west part of the city lay Haret enNasarain the middle of the area whichwill be named in moderntimes
the 'ChristianQuarter'. Two minorities dwelt in the south outskirts
of the city: Jews in Haret el-Yahud, in the south-west part of the
future Jewish Quarter and Armeniansaround their monasteryin the

south part of the modern Armenian Quarter. The layout of ethnoreligious groups in sixteenth-centuryJerusalemagreed then with the
guidelinesof theirdispersalin the cityin the thirteenthcenturydescribed
above.
THE QUARTERS OF JERUSALEM IN THE OTTOMANPERIOD
13
THE LATE OTTOMANPERIOD
Nearly 350 years after the censi of the early Ottomanperiod, a guidebook for Christianpilgrimswritten in Arabic towards the end of the
nineteenth century33enables us to draw a map of the haratof quarters
of the old city as they were known at the time to the local population.
The quartersare definedbelow, startingin the north-eastcornerof the
city and continuingto its west, south and centralparts.
Bab el-Asbat (Arabic: 'Tribes Gate' [= St Stephen's Gate]) - the
area on both sides of el-MujahidinStreet which enters the city
from St Stephen's Gate, before its intersection with Bab Hutta
Street.
Bab Hutta- the area north of the Temple Mount includingapparently
Bab el-Asbat Quarter.
Sa'diyya(named after the groupof Sa'diyyinor Bani Sa'd - see Haret
Bani Zayd, HaretBab el-'Amudabove)- the areabetweenBab Hutta
Quarterand Damascusgate.
Bab el-'Amud - the territory lying on both sides of Bab el-'Amud
Street (the nineteenth-centuryname for the north part of Suq Khan
ez-Zeyt).
Haddadin (after a ChristianArabic tribe)34- the area between Bab
el-'AmudQuarterin the east and the FranciscanConventin the west.
Consideredalso part of Nasara(see next quarter).
Nasara(= Christians)- the areastretchingfromthe Churchof the Holy
Sepulchrein the east to the FranciscanMonasteryin the north-west.
Khanez-Zeyt(Arabic:'olive oil merchantshostel')- the areaat the back
of the Churchof the Holy Sepulchreborderedby Aqabet el-Khanqah
at the north and Suq Khan ez-Zeyt at the east - the vicinity of Dir
es-Sultan.
Jawalda(Arabic: 'tanners'.Was knownalso as Wa'riyya)- the chain of
crookedstreets along the westernwall of the city, between New Gate
and Jaffa Gate.
Mawarna(= Maronites. Called after Mawarna(or Mawazin)Street today'sAqabet Khanel-Aqbat- whichmade its northboundary.Dir
el-Mawarna [Maronite Convent] Street was on the other side of David
Street) - the area between the south part of ChristiansStreet on the

east and Greek CatholicPatriarchateStreet on the west.
Jawa'na or Jawa in (after a family which inhabited it) - the area north of
the Syrian Convent at the north-east part of the Armenian Quarter.
Arman (= Armenians) - the walled compound of the Armenian
Monastery in the south part of the Armenian Quarter.35
Yahud (= Jews) - the Jewish Quarter except its east part (see next
14
50
100
200
300
Meters
Temple-Mount Gates
1 - Bib el-'Asbat
2 - Bib Hutta
3 - Bb 'Atm (or Sharaf el-'Anbiya')
4 - Bab el-Ghawinima (or es-Saraya)
5 - Bab eri-Naiir (or 'Ali' ed-Din)
6 - Bab el-Hadid
7 - Bib el-QatanTn
8 - Bb el-Mutawadl'a (or el-Mathara)
9 - Bab es-Silsila
10 - Bab el-Magharba (or en-Nabi or el-Buraq)
MAP 4
OLD CITY:NINETEENTH-CENTURYQUARTERS
15
quarter)plusthe east partof the ArmenianQuarter(Southof Jawa'na

Quarter,east of Arman Quarter).
Magharba(= North Africans)- the area in front of the West (Wailing)
Wall- the east part of the JewishQuarter.
Bab es-Silsila (Arabic: 'the Chain Gate')36- the area south of Suq
el-Qattanin and 'Aqabet el-Khalidiyyaand north of Bab es-Silsila
Street- the southernmostpart of the Moslem Quarter.
Qattanin(Arabic: 'cotton merchants')- the area lying on both sides of
Suq el-Qattaninand northwardsalong the Temple mountwest side.
'Aqabetet-Takiya- situatedwest of QattaninQuarteron the slope lying
between el-Wad Road and Suq Khan ez-Zeyt, on both sides of the
street by that name.32
Wad- stretchingaroundthe elongatedintersectionof el-WadRoad and
the two parts of Via Dolorosa, touching Sa'diyya Quarter on the
north, Qattaninand 'Aqabetet-Takiyaquarterson the south andBab
el-'Amud Quarteron the west.
Partof those traditionalquartersof the OldCityappearedin nineteenth
and earlytwentieth-centurymaps.38These were the haratof Bab Hutta,
Sa'diyya, Bab el-'Amud, Haddadin, Yahud, Magharbaand Bab esSilsila. Nasara was divided on one of those maps39into two quarters:
Dir el-Franj(FranciscanConvent)northof St FrancisStreet and Dir erRum (Greek OrthodoxMonastery)south of it. The quarterof 'Aqabet
et-Takiyaappearedon that map underthe name 'Saray'.40
The most outstandingdifferencebetween the quartersystems of the
city in the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries was the disappearance
of the majority of quarterscalled after various Moslem groups which
have slowly assimilated into the general Moslem population of the
city. Masharqa,situatedat the early OttomanPeriod aroundthe north
part of Bab Hutta Street, became part of Bab Hutta Quarter. Bani
Murra which lay along Bab el-'Amud Street (the north part of Suq
Khan ez-Zeyt) was absorbedin Bab el-'Amud Quarter. The territory
of the medieval quarter of Zara'na was occupied in the nineteenth
centuryby Haddadin.The explanationfor this bizarrereplacementof a
sixteenth-centuryMoslempopulationby a nineteenth-centuryChristian
one, undera Moslemgovernment,may be found in the suppositionthat
that region, situatedon the borderbetween Moslemsand Christiansat
the north of the city was called, by the two communitiesby different
names. It is, however, a fact that the two medieval Moslem sources
quoted here referredto the quarteras Zara'naor Dara'na (see above)
while the modern Christiansource named it Haddadin. The origins
of the tribe of Haddadin in Jerusalemmight go back to 1119 when
16
Baldwin II, king of Crusader Jerusalem, brought Christian population
fromTrans-Jordanto the city.41In the late nineteenthcenturyHaddadin

was, however, only an area in the Old City withoutparticularidentity.
The only quarter in the north of the city still called after a Moslem
group was Sa'diyya, a late fifteenth-centurysub-quarterof Bani Zayd
or Bab al-'Amud. At the turn of the twentiethcenturySa'diyyawas in
any case only an urbangeographicalunit.42In the whole northernpartof
the city Haret en-Nasarawas the only sixteenth-centuryethno-religious
quarterwhich preservedits special identity along the centuries. It lay
between two quarterscalled after trades:Jawalda and Khan ez-Zeyt.
In the second half of the nineteenth century only the name of the
last one might have had any realistic meaning. The other was, like
Sa'diyya, no more than a plain geographicalname. South of Nasara
lay Mawarna,anotherquarterwith a hollow ethno-religiousname. The
above-mentionedinternaldivisionof Nasarain the late OttomanPeriod
to Franciscanand Greek quartersleft the south part of Nasara of the
earlyOttomanPeriodunnamed.It seems thatin orderto fillthatvacuum
the name 'Mawarna'was 'sucked'from the other side of David Street
into this territory.Across David and Bab es-Silsilastreets, in the south
of the city, lay four genuine ethnic-religiousquarters:Haretel-Jawana,
Haretel-Arman,Haretel-Yahudand Haretel-Magharba.The last three
harat were inhabitedby the same communitythroughoutthe Ottoman
Period.LivingbetweenChristiansandJews,JawanaandMagharbawere
the only two Moslemgroupsin the city whichmaintainedtheir separate
quarters.Haret el-Yahudwas on the other hand singled out by being,
at the second half of the nineteenth century, what may be called a
'dynamic'quarter. At the beginningof the century, Jews Quarter of
Jerusalemwas essentially the same as it was 300 years earlier, lying
near the south part of Jews Street. The continuous flow of Jews to
Jerusalemsince the 1840s(see below) causedHaret el-Yahudto extend
to all the previouslysparselypopulatedareasouthof Bab es-SilsilaStreet
(except Haret el-Magharba)and the east partof the ArmenianQuarter.
Jews settled also north of Bab es-SilsilaStreet at the south part of the
MoslemQuarter(see below). In fact, neitherthe traditionalterm 'Haret
el-Yahud'nor its moderncounterpart'JewishQuarter'could cope with
the expansionof the area inhabitedby Jews in the south of the Old City
in the late nineteenthcentury.Northwardslay the two medievalquarters
of Qattaninand 'Aqabet et-Takiyawhich being called after subsidiary
streets have been pushed along the years into the internalparts of the
areawest of the TempleMountby two quartersnamedaftermainstreets
in that region and in the whole city, Wad and Bab es-Silsila.
17
Summary
The uniformityof the area inhabitedby Moslemsin the northof the city
broughtabout, in the long run, the swallowingof the medieval-groupnamed quartersby the neighboringquarterscalled after sites. The great
increase in Jewish populationin moderntimes at the south of the city
produced, on the other hand, a process in an opposite direction- a
population-named quarter - Haret el-Yahud - extended to a quarter
called after a site - Haretesh-Sharaf,populatedin the Middle Ages by

both Jews andMoslems.But unlikepopulationsandtheirquarterswhich
disappearedaltogetherfrom the city's scenery, 'Sharaf, since it was a
nameof a site, survivedas the nameof the streetroundwhichthe quarter
had developed. Haret el-Yahud expanded also to medieval quarters
named after ethnic groups like Risha and Saltin. Other indicationsin
quarter names of population changes between medieval and modern
times were all unreal. These were the cases of Bani Zayd replacedby
Sa'diyya, Zara'na by Haddadinand part of Nasara by Mawarna.To
complementthe variationsof quarterchangesthere were also modern
quarterscalled after sites which partiallyreplacedmedievalsite-named
quarters- see Wad and Bab es-Silsilaquartersbefore.
Nine of the late nineteenth-centuryquartersappeared400-350years
earlier in Mujir's description or the sixteenth-centurycensi. These
were - arrayedfrom the north-eastof the city to its west, south and
center - Bab Hutta, Bab el-'Amud, Nasara, Jawalda,Arman, Yahud,
Magharba,Qattaninand'Aqabetet-Takiya.Theycanthereforebe called
the historicalquartersof Jerusalem,at least from the MiddleAges on.
THE NUFUS CENSI - THE QUARTERS
Between the 1880s and the First World War several population censi
were carriedout by the Turkishauthoritiesin Palestine.The information
gatheredin them had been recordedin volumesof formsknownas nufus
(OttomanTurkish:'souls')books aftertwo types of registersused at the
time. The 463 Palestinenufusbooks preservedtoday in the Israel State
Archives are divided into districts(OttomanTurkish:aqziya, singular:
qaza) each of whichcentersarounda particularcity. Withinthe districts,
registrywas performedby town or village, millet, and family. Towns
and villages were divided into areas of habitation.Cities were divided
into quartersdeterminedby millet or vice versa. The quartersin some
cities were dividedinto sub-quarterswhichincludedstreetsand lanes or
sometimesblocks of homes arounda courtyard,publicsquares,smaller
neighborhoodswithina quarteror communalinstitutions.
18
The nufusbooks of Jerusalemgive us an opportunityto get acquainted

with the quartersof Jerusalem,as selected and definedby nufusofficials
for the sake of censi in a much more detailed way than by means of
any of the previous sources. The following geographicaldefinitionsof
Jerusalem'squartersas they appearedin the nufus registerswere based
on the identificationof theirsub-quartersand of the quartersthemselves
accordingto their Arabic and OttomanTurkishnames. Owing to that
they will includealso definitionsof sub-quarters.
The New City which developed in the last 60 years of Ottoman rule
in Palestine outside the Old City walls belonged to Jer,usalcmof the
present day ratherthan to that which existed throughoutthe Ottoman
Period. For that reason only its nufus quarterswill be definedin detail
while its real quarterswill be mentionedmerely in relationto the censi
quarters.Beside the quarternamesall the geographicalnameswhichwill
appearin the followingmapsand verbaldefinitionsof the quarterswere
taken from contemporaryJerusalemmaps (except those of the Jewish
Quarterwhich does not appearbelow in Map 6 as it is today but as it
was in the censi time).43
THE OLD CITY CENSI QUARTERS
In the late Ottoman Period the Old City of Jerusalemwas mostly a

built-up, area, the names of its various sites known usually for many
generations. These characteristicsmade the definition of its quarters
relatively easy, notwithstandingthe following phenomena: registering
some sub-quartersin the wrong quarterowing to the density of the
built-uparea and humanerror, callinga sub-quarterby more than one
name and namingdifferentsub-quarters(namely streets and alleys) by
the same name.
The quartersare defined below, aligned along the city walls in an
anti-clockwisedirectionfrom St Stephen'sGate to Dung gate and from
there towardsthe city's center:
BAB HUTTA - the traditionalquarters of Bab el-Asbat and Bab
Hutta (see above) - the north-easternpart of the Moslem Quarter.Its
boundarieswere as follows:
North and East - the city walls between St Stephen's and Herod
gates.
South- the north side of the Temple Mount.
West - Zawiyat el-Hunud Street, 'Aqabet er-Rahibat, Bab elGhawanimaStreet.
rTIT
Int
-'
lt
uUAKRI'KS
O LD
q.rq '
--
..
..
Ul' JERUSALEM
...
IN THE OTTOMAN
C I.T Y
es-S-
Quarters
1883 -1915
Bib el- Amel

C
B
L A
A
AC
A D I YYA
HARAMU
.EL.C
e/e
s
AR-
\A
~~e
HARAN
\\
AR T F
QAS
CIY J|S
OLD?^
Cdd01;,^18?e
B,,'b el-Khalil^"^^
H U. T. T
cnTSd/
Ne
"y a N A S
19
Bab
Censi
'~.
PERIOD
e-
S I L S I L.A
SH A RA F1
.r
-Magh5rba
Jel
Inter-quarter
bmndary
Baib
Neb i D fudd
NebirW?D5"ud
MAP 5
OLD CITY: CENSI QUARTERS
1883-1915
.-
.00
meters
lo$
20
MIDDLE
/'
Zion Gate
6
MOUNT
ZION
358
ffit
F 7, 6
D4
C 3.2
G6
G6
H6
EASTERN
7 Greek-Cath. Patri.
8 Greelk-Orth.Patri.
9 Great GreelkMonastery
10 Holy Sepulchre
11 LatinPatriarch.
12 GroelsHospital
13 Olives Monastery
14 Syrian Convent
15 Maronite Convent
16 St. Mellany Monastery
17 St. Abraham Monastery
18 St Authimyus Monastery
19 Tio Lady Monastery
20 Austrian Hospice
21 Soeurs de Sion Convent
E7 6
D7 6
6
D E 6, 5
E 7, 8
E7
H5
F5
F 6
E6
5
D6
D6
C4
C 3,4
MAP 6
OLD JERUSALEM
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
STUDIES
St. Anne Seminary

Mayminiyya School
Indian Hospice
Eliyanu HanaviSynagogue
The Hurba Synagogue
Tif'eret Israel Synagogue
West IWailing)Wall
el-Mahkama
el-'Aqga Mosque
Dome of the Rock
el-Khanqh Mosque
Uzbek & Afgan Hospices
Franciscan Convent
King David's Tomb
C1
B2
B3
G4
G 4, 5
G4
F3
E.F 3
F2
E2
D6
C3
D7
16
21
Among Bab Hutta'ssub-quarterswere the following:

Maymuniyya Mektebi - an Arabic school (restored in 1892) - today's
el-QadisiyyaGirls'Schoolsituatedbetweenthe upper(north)partsof
Bab Hutta and el-Qadisiyyastreets.
Sallahiyya- the Monasteryof St Anne near St Stephen'sGate. In the
censi period it includeda churchseminaryrun by the Catholicorder
of Les Peres Blancs.
Zawiyatel-Hunud- 1. The IndianHospice near Herod Gate.
2. Zawiyatel-HunudStreet.
Bab el-Haram the southernmostpart of Bab Hutta Street.
SA'DIYYA - the traditionalquarterof Sa'diyyaand the north edge of
the traditionalquarterof Wad. The boundaries:
North- the city's wall between Herod and Damascusgates.
East - see Bab Hutta's west border.
South - the east part of Via Dolorosa.
West- DamascusGate Street and the north part of el-Wad Rd. (till
Via Dolorosa). Two of Sa'diyya'ssub-quarterswere OsbisNamsa(the
Austrian Hospice) - the corner of el-Wad Road and Via Dolorosa
(east part) and Zuqaq el-Bu's (Arabic:'MisfortuneAlley') - today's
el-Hilal Street.
BAB EL-'AMUD - the north-westpart of the traditionalquarterof
Wad and the traditionalquartersof Bab el-'Amud and Haddadin.The
boundaries:
North - the city wall from Damascus Gate to the vicinity of the
FranciscanConventof TerraSancta(St Saviour).
East- see Sa'diyya's west border.
South- the west part of Via Dolorosa, 'Aqabet el-Khanqah.

West - the area east of the Convent of Terra Sancta.
Below are some of Bab el-'Amudsub-quarters:
Haddadin - the traditional quarter of Haddadin - the surrounding of
el-Jabshaand er-Rusulstreets.
Sabunhane(OttomanTurkish:'soapfactory')- the northpartof Suq
Khanez-Zeyt.44
Dir el-Latin (Arabic: 'LatinsConvent' = the FranciscanConvent)St FrancisStreet.
NASARA - the traditionalquartersof Nasara,Khan ez-Zeyt, Jawalda
andMawarna- the middleand southpartsof the ChristianQuarter.The
boundaries:
22
North- Aqabet el-Khanqah,St FrancisStreet, the city'swall adjacent

to St Saviour,the New Gate.
East- Suq Khanez-Zeyt southof Via Dolorosa andthe three parallel
market-streetsin the center of the city.
South- David Street, Umar bnu el-KhattabSquare.
West - the city's wall between the FranciscanConvent and Jaffa
Gate.
Followingare some of Nasara'ssub-quarters:
Dir er-Rum - the Great Greek Monastery in Greek Orthodox.
PatriarchateStreet
Rum Mektebi- the Greek ChurchSchool adjoiningthe west side of
the Great Greek Monastery.
Mar Nikola Monastreh- St Nicholas Monasteryat the Greek Orth.
Patr. Street, opposite the Greek School (See above).
Dir el-Banat - St Mellany Monasteryat 'Aqabet Khan el-Aqbat,
adjacentto the south side of the Great Greek Monastery.
Dir Ibrahim- St Abraham Monasteryat the south-east corner of
Churchof the Holy SepulchreSquare.
Dir el-Afranj(FranciscanConvent)- St FrancisStreet.
LatinBatrikhane- LatinPatriarchateStreet.
Nasara Carsi - Christians Street.
Rum Hastahane (Turkish: 'Greek Hospital')45- St Dimitris and

Greek CatholicPatriarchatestreets.
Aftimus Monastreh- St AuthimyusMonasteryat the corner of esSayyida - er-Rusul streets.
SidnayaMonastreh- the LadyMonasteryin es-SayyidaStreet.

The last two institutions, situated in Bab el-'Amud Quarter, were
included in Nasara in order to join them to the other church
institutions.
SHARAF - the west partof the traditionalquarterof Yahudand the
traditionalquartersof Jawa'naandArman- theArmenianQuarter.The
boundaries:
North - David Street.
East- Habad (Suq el-Husur)Street.

South & West - the city's wall between Zion Gate Square and
JaffaGate, (excludingthe Citadeland the Kisla (Turkish:'barracks')
situatedsouth of it.
Below are some of Sharaf'ssub-quarters:
Kila- St James Street which led from the center of the Armenian
THE QUARTERS
OF JERUSALEM
IN THE OTTOMAN
PERIOD
23
Quarterto the Kilaor the partof ArmenianOrthordoxPatriarchate

Street which faced the Kisla.
Dir el-Mawarna- MaroniteConventStreet.
Dir es-Siryan- 1. The SyrianMonasteryin AraratStreet.
2. The northernpartof AraratStreet.
Dir ez-Zeytuna ([Armenian]Olive Tree Monastery)- the south
part of el-MalakStreet. Nebi Daud - the south part of Suq el-Husur
(Habad) Street. Jawana- the northpartof Suq el-Husur(Habad) St
and the alley leadingto BikourHolim Hospitalof thatperiod(today's
Old City Youth Hostel) - the traditionalquarterof Jawana.
SILSILA- the traditionalquartersof Magharbaand Yahud (except
its west part includedin Sharaf).The boundaries:
North - Bab es-Silsila Street.
East - the Western (Wailing) Wall.
South- the city wall between Dung gate and Zion Gate Square.
West- see Sharaf's east boundary.
Below are some of Silsila'ssub-quarters:

Bab es-Silsila- the lower (east) partof Bab es-SilsilaStreet.
Suq ed-Dallalin (Arabic: 'AnnouncersMarket-street')- the middle
part of Bab es-SilsilaStreet.
Suq el-Khudr(Arabic:'VegetablesMarket-street')- the roofed west
part of Bab al-SilsilaStreet.
Musawi Carsi - Jews Street.
Khirbet Siknaj (the Hurba Synagogue)- the middle part of Jews

Street.
Khatt el-Maslakhel-Qadim (Arabic: 'Old SlaughterhouseRoad')the south part of Jews Street.
KanisatNisimBek (NisanBek or Tif'eretIsraelSynagogue)- Tif'eret
Israel Street.
Kanisat el-Matora (TalmudTora or Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue)Bet-El Street.
Waqfel-Yahudor HakuratbateyMahaseh- Bateymahaseh(Hebrew:
'sheltersfor the needy') Squareknown also as 'DeutscherPlatz'.
Qantaratel-Jawa'na- the archwayat the north part of Suq el-Husur
(Habad) Street.
WAD - the traditionalquartersof Wad,Qattanin,'Aqabetet-Takiyaand
Bab es-Silsila (see above) - the southernpart of the Moslem Quarter.
The boundaries:
North- the east part of Via Dolorosa.
24

East - the west side of the Temple Mount.
South - Bab es-Silsila Street.
West- see Nasara's east boundary.
Followingare some of Wad'ssub-quarters:

Habs or Habshane (Turkish:'Prison'.Named after the jail situated
near Bab en-Nazir[knownalso as Bab el-Habs] Gate of the Temple
Mount)- 'Ala ed-Din Street.
HaramSharif- the westernporchesof the Temple Mount. Appears

also in SilsilaQuarter.
Kila zukaki (Turkish:'BarracksAlley') - probably another name
for el-GhawanimaStreet which led to the Kila- today's 'Umariyya
School at the north side of the Temple Mount (for the other Kilain
the Old City see SharafQuarter).
Mahkama,afterthe Islamiccourtof law (Arabic:Mahkama)situated
at the south side of Bab es-Silsila Gate - the lower (east) part of
Bab es-SilsilaStreet.
Suq el-Kabir (Arabic: 'Big Market-street')or Shawwain (Arabic:
'roasters')- the Western roofed end Bab es-Silsila Street (see Suq
el-Khudrsub-quarterin Silsila).
Zawiyat el-Afghan and Zawiya Azbakiyya (or Nakshabandiyya)the Afghan and Uzbek Hospices situated at the end of an alley
branchingsouth from Via Dolorosa (east part) opposite Soeurs de
Sion Convent.
'Aqabetel-Mufti- the west partof Via Dolorosa. Appearsalso in Bab
el-'Amud Quarter.
NEBI DAUD - consists of the buildingsaroundKing David tomb on
Mont Zion, outside the south wall of the city.
CONCLUSIONS
Designing the Old City censi quarters, the nufus officials took as a
basis the system of the city's traditionalquarters.They chose the more
recognized among them which usually shared names with well-known
streets in the city - Bab Hutta, Bab el-'Amud, Nasara, Wad (Sa'diyya
was an exception)- and annexedto them neighboringharatusuallyless
known or smaller,in orderto create largercensus units.
All that was relevant to the north and central parts of the city till the line of David and Bab es-Silsila streets. As it appears, the
Ottoman officialsdid not like the idea of namingthe censi quartersat
its southernpart after the two largerharatof the area - the Armenian
25
TABLE 1
SUMMARY TABLE: THE QUARTERS OF JERUSALEM THROUGHOUT THE
OTTOMAN PERIOD
Mujirad-Din Censi
(16th
(late 15th
century)
century)
Quarter
Ghuriyya
(Turiyya)
Bab Hutta
Quarter
Late 19th
Censi
(circa1900)
century
(traditional
system)
Quarter
Quarter
Quarter
Bab Hutta
(north-east
section)
Bab el-Asbat
Bab Hutta
Bab Hutta
Masharqa
Bani Zayd
Moderndivision
(since 19th
century)
Moslem
Bani Zayd
Sa'diyya
Sa'diyya
Bab el-'Amud
Bab el-'AmudBab el-'Amud
Babel-'Amud
Bani Murra
Zara'na
Dara'na
(north-west
section)
(northsection)
Haddadin
Khanez-Zeyt
Christian
(east section)
Nasara
Nasara
Nasara
Jawalda
Mawarna
(middleand
southsection)
Jawalda
(west section)
Bani Harith Bani Harith

Jawa'na
Dawiyya
Yahud
Saltin
Sharaf
'Alam
Magharba
Sharaf
Armenian
Arman
Arman
(west section)
(northsection)
(southsection)
(east section)
Sihyun
Risha
Maslakh
(southsection)
Khawaldi
Yahud
Sharaf(Alam)
Magharba
Magharba
Silsila
Jewish
(northsection)
(east section)
26
TABLE
(cont'd)
Bab es-Silsila
Marzaban
Bab elQattanin
Qattanin
Wad
Wad
Moslem
(southsection)
'AqabetesSitta
'Aqabetet-Takiya
Nebi Daud
MountZion
(outsidethe
city'swall)
and the Jewish. In orderto fill up the vacuumcreatedby ignoringthese

traditionalquarters, they resorted to the 'Moving QuartersMethod':
since Haret Bab es-Silsilawas includedin Wad nufusquarter,they took
the name 'Silsila'and moved it to the territoryat the other side of Bab
es-Silsila Street - the Jewish Quarter- from which they extractedthe
name 'Sharaf'and transplantedit in the Armenianquarter.46
In a descriptionof Jerusalemas it wasin 1947,'Arifal-'Arifcited as the
quartersof the Old City, its seven nufus quarters,includingSharafand
Silsila. The puzzlinginclusionof these two inventedquarter-nameswas
solved alreadyat the same sentenceas al-'Arifwrotethat 'exceptNasara
they are all pure Moslem quarters'47meaningall the other quartersof
the Old City - a statementwhichwas not more true in 1947than in the
nufus censi time. Al-'Arif namedthose partsof the city by these names
so he could avoid using their popularArabic names 'Haret el-Arman'
and 'Haretel-Yahud'.
At the present time, the Arabic-speakingpopulation of Jerusalem,
especially that which lives inside the Walls, still uses, alongside of the
prevailingfour modernquarter-names,also the names of the old harat
of the city.
THE EMERGENCE OF THE NEW CITY
New Jerusalemwas erected in the second half of the nineteenthcentury

and the beginningof the twentieth throughthe building of institutes,
estates andprivatehousesby variousreligiousandethnicgroups.Among
the first to build outside the walls of Jerusalemin modern times were
various ChristianChurcheswhich, backed by European governments,
competedin erecting,fromthe 1860sonwardslargeimpressivebuildings
- monasteries,churches,hospitals,pilgrimhostels and schools. The area
they preferred was the vicinity of the ChristianQuarter outside the
Kolel
/~
15 e
~ ~
C4
^^t~~~~~~"
"-'/4SA" /c.'
IFs
5.>E
JABAA
^
477situ
2./Y';,
raeA
23 H
1 1:
eFkg
<
D/
JarOl
Ahykh
Iw bN^
27
PERIOD
5
IN THE OTTOMAN
OF JERUSALEM
THE QUARTERS
mA.
s-
'
3onl -r^^l
10/
5E
YK
i8
l
eI-9;luseyni
-tI
...
enD
,,02 B."b
.e,J-
0 "1
10KoeVrs
C"3
et
'
AI
%P.
MAS.UOIYYA
~yVe~Jb~(hu,
~COLD
Nil~
0
ESTATES
14. NahalvatShim'o
1. Bet Israel
BB4 3
2. Bet Ya'acov
C 2
MeaShear
13.
Yosef
3. Bet
G
GC53
4. Eshel Avreham
04 4''
5. Even Israel
D 3
9. KiryaN'emana
/,,'
/
c
0
0 ys
'
]1"
--
-'
IO
A
EL.'EYN
/,
k/e-
Jpbofins"
D 5
10. Kolel Versha

.
e Israel
11. Mahaneh Israel
12. Mahaneh Yehuda
C 2
16. Nahalat Tsvi
B 3
B Ashkenazi
B
Orphanage
D3
17. Ohel Mosheh
C 2
C Notre Dame
D4
18. Ohel Shlomo
C 2
D Russian Compound
19. Sha'arey Mosheh
C 3
E Sha'arey Tsedek Hos.
D3
C 1
20. Sha'arey Rahamim

21. Sha'arey Tsedek
D 1
F St. Paul Monastery
E 4
G The Syrian Orphanage

Thalita KumiSchool
B 2
/3
E3
/^
ABU
TOR 23. Shim'on Hatsadik
24. Yemin Mosheh
//
/
/I
C 2
22. Sha'arey Yerushala'im C 1
r/
10.Varsh3
i..-
_~_
"
'
MAP /
NEW CITY:CENSIQUARTERS
1905-1915
B 5
F 4
D 3
28
Walls, along the road to Jaffa which eventually became Jerusalem's

main street. Many Christianswho moved from the Old City settled in
that area - the New City center.
The initiators of Jewish housing projects in the New City in the

second half of the nineteenth century found that a considerablepart
of the territory close to the Old City walls was settled by others,
that is the Christian Churches. They found it, therefore, easier to
establish their estates some distance away from the Walls, north of
the region occupied mostly by the Europeans and west of it - along
Jaffa Street.
The last to emerge from behindthe Wallswere the Moslems. By the
second part of the nineteenth centurythey were alreadysurpassedby
the Jews in number48but, as citizensof longer standingthan the Jews,
they owned manyhouses insidethe Wallsor paidlow rentto the Waqf.49
They were not then in a rush to initiate buildingoutside the Old City.
Unlike the ChristianChurches and the Jewish housing associations,
they did not have any access to foreign money which could have been
invested in building50and were on the whole less organizedthan the
other religiousdenominations.Moslemhouses, built on a privatebasis
by wealthyfamilies,51beganto appearcircathe beginningof the 1870son
the plain stretchingnorthof the Old City, oppositethe MoslemQuarter
inside the Walls.52Moslemsand Christianssettled also south of the Old
City in the territoryseparatedfrom it by the Valley of Hinnom, along
the road to Bethlehem and Hebron, which since the establishmentof
the GermanColony in 1873was connectedto the JaffaGate by a better
roadthroughthe valley. The areassettledthere were the hill of Abu Tor
which looked at the southernwalls of the city acrossthe valley and the
plain of Baq'a which has been sparselypopulated by Jerusalemitesin
previouscenturies.53
THE NEW CITY CENSI QUARTERS
The scattered and uncoordinatedmanner in which the New City was

erected during the late Ottoman Period led to the designingof nufus
quartersof a different characterthan those of the densely built and
populatedOld City. They were made of patchesof built-upareasmany
times separated from each other by un-built land and in quite a few
cases discontinuousinside themselves. In consequence, no boundaries
were drawn on the New City quarter map (Map 7) though most of
them were definedin the verbaldepictionof the quarters'geographical
positions.
29
The namesof the New Cityquartersandsub-quarterswere less known

than those of the Old City. In additionmany of the New City quarters
did not have any sub-quartersin the registerswhile others had few. All
this made the exact geographicaldefinitionof the New City quartersa
hardertask than its counterpartin the Old City.
The nufus quartersof the New City are presented below divided
into regions in the city. The names of the Jewish housing estates,
which constitutedmost of the New City, are followed by their year of
foundation:
Region 1 - North of the Old City
SHEYKH JARAH (after Sheykh JarahMosque in Nablus Road)54an area bounded by Mount Scopus on the east, Salah ed-Din Street
and the upper end of Wadi el-Joz on the west. Comprised of the
Moslem estates of Sheykh Jarah, Hayy el-Huseyni, Wadi el-Joz and
Bab ez-Zahira55and the Jewishestates of Shim'onHatsadik(1891) and
NahalatShim'on(1892).
MAS'UDIYYA (named after el-Mas'udi, called also Sa'd wa-Sa'id)
Mosque, situated in Nablus Road south of US Consulate- the area
lying on both sides of Nablus Road between Damascus Gate and the
intersection with Salah ed-Din Street. Its only sub-quarterwas Jurji
Kumbaniya'- the Jewish-Georgianestate of Eshel Avraham(1893)near
Damascusgate.
MUSRARA56- the area between Mas'udiyyaQuarterin the east and
Shivtey Israel Street in the west. One of its sub-quarterswas 'Nisim
Bek Kumbaniya'- Nissan Bek Houses, known as Kirya Ne'emana,
(1877) situated near Damascus Gate, borderingEshel Avraham (see
Mas'udiyya).
Region2 - Northpart of the New City
BUKHARIYYA - the Jewish-Bukhariansuburbknown in Hebrew as
'Skhounat Habukharim'or 'Rehovot' (1891) - the area encircled by
Bar-Ilan,ShmuelHanavi, Yehezkel and Zefanyastreets.
BIRKA (Arabic:'Pool'. Calledapparentlyafter the old Pool of Kidron
which existed at the time east of it, in Wadi el-Joz, near Sheykh
Jarah Mosque) - an area between Shmuel Hanavi and Yehezkel
streets comprised of Bet Israel (1886) - called by the same name
in the nufus registers, Nahalat Tsvi (1884) and Sha'areyPinna (1888)
30
MIDDLE
EASTERN
STUDIES
- 'Yaman Kumbaniya'(owing to their Jewish-Yamanitepopulation)

in the registers and Milner Houses (1892) - 'Leyb Kumbaniya'.The
boundary between Birka and the neighboringquarter of Masabin is
undefined.
MASABIN (for the originof the name, see next quarter)- an areanorth
of Mea ShearimStreet - Bet Israel (see previousquarter)and possibly
small adjoiningestates like UngarenHouses (1891) and Nyetin Houses
(1902). The boundarybetween this quarterand the neighboringquarter
of Birkais undefined.
TULUL EL-MASABIN (Arabic: 'soap factoriesmounds')57- an area
south of Mea ShearimStreet- Mea Shearim(1874) and smallbordering
estates like Eer Shalom(1887) and VernerHouses (1902).
UKASHA (after Nebi Ukasha Mosque situated today beyond the
Histadrout Building in Straus Street)58- an area lying north of the
City Center, around Straus and Yeshayahu streets - the estates of
Sha'arey Mosheh or Weitenberg Houses (sub-quarterWaytenberk,
1885), Even Yehoshua (1891) and Kolel Varsha (sub-quarterRabi
Daud, 1897).
Region 3 - Center of the New City59
HABASH (Arabic:'Ethiopians')- EthiopiaStreet situatednorthof the

middlepart of Hanvi'imStreet and the center of Jerusalem.
MANSHIYYA (named after the municipalgardenof the late Turkish
period [opened in 1892], today's Daniel Garden near the City Hall) the northernpart of Jerusalem'scenter. The boundaries:
North- Hanvi'imStreet between Strausand ShivteyIsraelstreets.
East- ShivteyIsrelStreetfromHanvi'imStreetto the vicinityof the Old
City wall (Zahal Square).
South- ShlomoHamelekh,Shlomzion,Ben-Shetakhand Rivlinstreets,
Jaffa Street from Heleni Hamalkacornerto King George corner.
West- the south end of Straus Street.
The sub-quartersof Manshiyyawere the following:

Bab el-Jadid (Arabic: 'New Gate') - the vicinity of the New Gate.
Appearsas a sub-quarteralso in the neighboringquarterof Musrara.
Arman zukaki (Ottoman Turkish: 'Amenians Alley') - apparently
today's Shushanor Yedidyastreetsopposite Daniel Garden.
Maskufiyya - the Russian Compound.
31
Faynjuld- Finegold Houses (1895) in JaffaStreet opposite the Russian

Compound.
Klark(after the head of the LondonMissionarySociety branchsituated
in it) - the section of Hanvi'imStreetrunningdown fromMonbazStreet
to ShivteyIsrael Street.
Dar el-Aytam - the Ashkenazi Orphanage - today's Arazim School at
HaravKook Street.
YAHUDIYYA (Arabic: 'the Jewish') - the estate of Nahalat Shiv'a

(1869) situated south of Jaffa Street and ManshiyyaQuarterbetween
Rivlin and Salomonstreets.
SARRAFIYYA - the quadrangleof Jaffa (north), Salomon (east),
Hillel (south) and KingGeorge (west) streetssituatedwest of Yahudiyya
Quarter.
MAHKAMA60- the estateof EzratIsrael(1892)lyingbetweenHanvi'im
and Jaffa streets, beyond (west of) Bikkur Holim Hospital in Straus
Street.
Region4- Westof the CityCenter
YA'QUBIYYA (apparentlyafter Bet Ya'akov) - the elongate area
between Jaffa and Agrippasstreets - the estates of Even Israel (1875)
and Bet Ya'akov (1877). Its sub-quarterswere the following:
Madrasat Alyans or Madrasat Jam'iyya Isra'iliyya (Arabic: 'Jewish
SocietySchool')- Alliance Schoolwhichstood in Jaffa-Hanvi'imcorner,
at the site of today'sKlal Center.
WALAKH HASTAHANE (Dr Walach Hospital) - the old building
of Sha'arey Tsedek Hospital situated near the west end of Agrippas
Street.
TAWAHIN (Arabic: 'Mills')61- the triangle bounded by Agrippas,
Mesilat Yesharimand Shimronstreets- the estates of MishknotIsrael
(1875), MishknotHateymanim(1884) and SukkatShalom(1888).
ISRA'ILIYYA (obviously after Kneset Israel) - the area between the
upper (east) parts of Agrippas and Bezalel streets - the estates of
Mazkeret Mosheh, Ohel Mosheh (both in 1883) and Kneset Israel
(1891).
JADIDA (Arabic:'New') - a smallquarterlyingbetween Tawahinand
Isra'iliyya quarters - the estate of Kneset Hadasha (Hebrew: 'New
Kneset', 1902).
32
SHIFA (short for '$ifahane'- 'dispensary'[OttomanTurkish].Named

after the municipal hospital of that time [founded in 1891], today's
Jerusalem District Health Office) - the area between the hospital

building in Jaffa Street and YermiyahuStreet in the north end of the
city - the housing estates of MahanehYehuda (1888), Kerem (1891),
Kolel Horodna (1892) and Ohaley Simha (1894). Its only sub-quarter
was Dar el-Aytames-Suriyya- the SyrianOrphanageknowncommonly
as 'Schneller'whichconstitutedthe quarter'snortherntip.
RAHILIYYA - the area west of the estate of MahanehYehuda (see
previous quarter) and Navon street and north of Jaffa Street - the
Jewish estates of Sha'areyTsedek (1889), Ohel Shlomo and Sha'arey
Yerushala'im(both in 1891).
HALABIYYA (after the Jews from Halab [Allepo] who settled in it) the area between the lower (west) partsof Agrippasand Bezalel streets
- the housingprojectsof ZikhronTuvya(1890), Shevet Tsedek (1891),
Shevet Ahim (1892), NahalatTzion (1893), Sha'areyRahamim(1895)
and N've Shalom(1896).
Region5 - Westand Southof the Old City
BAB EL-KHALIL (Hebron Gate - the Arabic name for Jaffa Gate)
- the area opposite the south-westwalls of Old Jerusalem, along the
upper (west) part of the Valley of Hinnom. Its sub-quarterswere the
following:
Jorat el-'Eynab (Arabic: 'Jujube Pit')- a small neighborhoodin the
Valley of Hinnom, close to Jaffa Gate - the surroundingof today's
Houtsot Hayotser.
Montifiori- the estate of MishknotSha'ananim(1860).
MontifioriJadid- the estate of Yemin Mosheh (1891).
Shama'a- ShamaHouses (1900) in the bottom of the wadi, at the feet
of Mount Zion - the surroundingof today'sJerusalemCinemateque.
Sheykh eth-Thuri - Abu Tor.
Wad er-Rababa (Violin Wadi - the Arabic name for the Valley of
Hinnom) - the lower part of Abu Tor includingapparentlyBet Yosef
(1888).
Sihyun - Mount Zion
Nikafurya(afterNicoforus,the generalsecretaryof the Greek Orthodox

Patriarchin Jerusalemwho boughtthis area in the 1890s)- the area on
both sides of King David Street.
THE QUARTERS OF JERUSALEM IN THE OTTOMANPERIOD
33
MA'MAN ALLAH (Arabic:'God'sSafe Place'.Namedafterthe nearby

- the area
Moslemcemeteryand pond knowncommonlyas 'Mamilla')62
north and
in
the
Street
center
bounded
south of Jerusalem's
by Agron
Lincolnand Hess streets in the south, includingMahanehIsrael (1868).
TALBIYYA63- situatedsome distancesouthof Ma'manAllah quarter,
mostlyin the south partof today'sTalbiyya(southof JabotinskyStreet).
Its only sub-quarterwas Ma'manAllah. Zukaki(alley)- possiblytoday's
BalfourStreet whichled from it to Ma'manAllah.
BAQ'A (Arabic: 'plot of land')64- the southernmostnufus quarterof
Jerusalem.Beside today's Baq'a (separatedfrom the German Colony
at its north by the Railway)it includedalso the Greek Colony (situated
south-westof the GermanColony at the west side of Emeq Rephaeem
Street).
Three of the census quartersin regions 1 and 5, Musrara,Talbiyya
and Baq'a, which were genuine quarters of Jerusalem at the time,
have retained their Arabic names used in the nufus registers till the
present day. That in spite of the fact that since the Israeli-Jordanian
war of 1948 their mostly Arabic-speakingpopulation has changed to
a Hebrew-speakingone. The innovated Hebrew name for Musrara,
Morasha, is used nowadays alongside of the original Arabic name
while its counterpartin Talbiyya, Komemiyut,is practicallyextinct.
The innovated Hebrew name for Baq'a, Geulim, is in use to some
extent. The rest of the censusquartersin the above regionswere merely
an invention of the nufus officials. Their names survived however in
the Jerusalem scenery with the sites from which they were derived.
These are the Mosque of Sheykh Jarah and north of it, on the hill,
the authentic quarter named after it, the Mas'udi Mosque (known
today more as Sa'd wa-Sa'id Mosque), Bab el-Khalil (which is the
Arabic name for Jaffa Gate), the cemetery and pond of Mamilla (the
popular Arabic and Hebrew version of Ma'manAllah) and the street
named after them.
In contrast, the names of the nufus quartersof regions 2,3 and 4,
whichwere all administrativeunits used at the censi, were never known
to Jerusalemites.Half of them were called after sites but unlike the
sites from which the names for quarters in the two other regions
were derived, most of them have long been wiped out. The only one
among them which still stands and retainsits name is the old Mosque
of Ukasha, yet since it is situated in an unconspicuouslocation in
the heart of Hebrew-speaking Jerusalem it is known only to few.
34
Halabiyya, Habash and Yahudiyyawere ethno-religiousnames. For

some of the new built-upareasin whichthere were not any knownsites,
the censi officialsfound an irregularsourcefor namesby arabicizingthe
Hebrewnamesof some Jewishhousingprojects(Bukhariyya,Isra'iliyya,
Ya'qubiyya).
Summary
In the territorieslying north, west and south of the Old City (regions
1,5) where most of the population at the time was Arabic-speaking,
the Arabic names of the nufus quarters- part of which were genuine
quartersof the city - have survivedto the present day. On the other
hand, north-westof the Old City, in the New City center and beyond
to the north and west (regions 2,3,4) most of the censi quarterswere
actuallyclustersof Jewishestates knownto the local populationby their
Hebrewnameswhilethe restwere partsof 'Downtown'Jerusalem.Most
of the New City's nufus quartersthen do not have any value from the
point of view of its historicalgeography.Their only importancelies in
their being units in the censi whichwill be discussedbelow.
THE NUFUS REGISTERS
The nufus books in the Israel State Archives belong to two periods:
1876-1904 and 1905-18. The two types of registers used during
the former period are known as sicil nufus defteri(Ottoman Turkish:
'people registryledger') and esas nufus- 'basicpeople' (ledger);twelve
books from Jerusalemof the firsttype are found in the Archives, none
of the latter. From the aspect of informationand the ease of reading
(the nufus books are printed and filled out in Ottoman Turkish)they
are inferiorto the registersof the second period. The latter are divided
into musveddedefteri(OttomanTurkish:'draftledger') and esas defteri
- 'basic ledger'. The former was used by census officials, when they
visited families, to take down particularslike name, place and year
of birth, maritalstatus and occupation(or relation to the head of the
family/household).After these home visits, the data in the draftledger
was copied into basic ledger, leaving spaces among familyregistrations
for future additions. Basic ledgers are more orderly and easy to read
than draft ledgers. However, errorswere sometimes made in copying
the material. The State Archives contain 16 draft ledgers and 33 basic
ledgersfrom Jerusalem.
In addition, there were districtnufus registerson particularsubjects:
births, deaths, marriages,divorces, registrationchanges, militarycon-
35
scripts,foreignersand tax collecting.In some cases these books provide

the only evidence aboutpopulationswhose ordinarynufusregistershave
been lost. There are in the Archivesthree firstperiod books and eight
second period books of these types from Jerusalem.
Another type of citizenregistrywere the mukhtarledgers.These were
not officialnufus registersand accordinglywere not compiledon forms.
They referredonly to Jews and were writtenin Hebrew. They were not
kept by governmentofficials but by the heads ('mukhtars')of Jewish
ethnic communitiesor settlements.Some of them containedregistryof
people from various towns or villages. In the Archives there are three
books of this type from Jerusalem- one from the first period and two
from the second.
THE CENSI
The nufus books of Jerusalemcontainthe followingcensi:

(a) The 1883 census was carried out in the Old City alone
(includingMount Zion). Moslems were classifiedby quarter
and communitywhile Jews and Christianswere categorized
only by community.Foreignindividualsfromall denominations
were registered in two special ledgers. Most of them lived,
workedor studiedin communalinstitutions- hospices,monasteries, schools. The data collectedin this censusis summarized
below in Tables2 and3. The 1883Jerusalemcensuswasthe first
in a series of censi whichwere carriedout in the mid-1880sin
variouspartsof the country.
(b) The 1905 census was the largestand the most comprehensive
of all censi held in Jerusalem(andall over Palestine)duringthe
later Ottoman Period. This time the Jews and the Christians
were categorized by both residence and group while the
variousMoslem groupswhichappearedseparatelyin the 1883
census were incorporated,accordingto residence, into one
Moslemcommunity.The communalinstitutions'inmateswere
registeredin 1905as individualsor familiesandthe two registry
forms were interwoven into the usual community/quarter/
family registration.The entriesreferringto familiesregistered
in institutionswere taken into account in the ordinarytables
of the census (Tables4-6) as well as in the special institutions
table (Table 7). In the 1905 books we find for the firsttime a
subdivisionof the quarters(mainlyin the Old City).
(c) In the 1915censusregisterswe finddata only about the Jewish
36
MIDDLE
EASTERN
STUDIES
TABLE 2
1883 JERUSALEM CENSUS IN THE NUFUS BOOKS - FAMILIES BY
COMMUNITIES
Nebi
Bab Bab
Hutta el-'Amud Wad Sharaf Silsila Nasara Da'ud Sa'diyya
Total %
Total
Community 5014
Moslems
1964 39.2
Jews
Christians
1782 35.5
1268 25.3
Moslems
Locall
1433 73.0
509
353
329
79
65
57
412
North412
21.0
Africans4
83
4.2
Egyptians5
29
1.5
0.3
Africans3
Gypsies6
Jews
Ashkenazis7
Sephardis
Moroccans
9468 53.1
520 29.2
316
17.7
Orthodox
569
44.9
Latins9
386
30.4
Armenians
102
8.0
Protestants
97
7.6
Copts
Greek
Catholic
52
4.1
39
3.1
22
1.7
0.1
Christians
Greek
Pentecost
Protestants
Catholic
Armenians
1. Meaning the ordinary Moslem population of Jerusalem as opposed to Moslems

registered in separate communities.
2. All of them of the Da'udi-Dajjani clan, the hereditary guardians of King David's Tomb
on Mount Zion.
37
population.The familiessurveyedwere not those registeredat

the same quartersin the 1905 census. Supposedlythey were
familieswho receivedOttomannationalityonly after the 1905
census and their registrationin a specialcensuswas connected
with the World War.65Support for this assumptioncan be
found in fact that families from the Sephardic66millet in the
Old City- the oldest legallyestablishedgroupamongthe Jews
of Jerusalem- were not registeredin this census. The 1915
Jerusalemcensus was the latest to be recorded in the nufus
ledgers. Its resultsare summarizedin Table 8.
POINTS CONCERNING THE ACCURACY OF CENSI RESULTS
Family entries
Registrymethod allowedfor the inclusionof additionalfamilymembers

(through birth, marriageetc.) and of whole families which settled in
the registryareas after the completionof the census. Thus the census
ledgers for 1883containentries until 1905while those of 1905and 1915
'continue'until 1917, the year in whichOttomanrule in Jerusalemcame
to an end. These registrationsupplements,of individualfamilymembers
as of entire families constitute a tiny proportion of nufus records.67
Neverthelessthey do distortthe censi resultsto some extent if included
in the total for the census year, as is the case of the family-basedtables
presentedhere. On the other handonly a smallfractionof Jerusalemite
families, from the populationeligible to registration,was omitted from
the censi.68
3. Among them were familieswhich had migrated,in the Middle Ages, from Muslim
Spain.
4. Meaningapparentlythe AfricanCommunitywhichlived in 'Ala' ed-Din Street, near
Bab en-NazirGate of the TempleMount,wherethey workedas janitorsandwardens.
Theirdescendantslive there till today.
5. Namedin the nufusledgersalso SheikhIbrahimCommunity.
6. Namedin the nufusledgersalso NasrAllah Bnu Ali Community.
7. Markedin the census as 'Hassidim'(of a Hassidicsect) or 'Prushim'(co-religionist
opponentsof the Hassidim).
8. The mukhtarbook of the Ashkenazicommunityin Jerusalemfrom 1883(nufusbook
no. 62a in the State Archives)contains1890families- apparentlyall the Ashkenazi
familiesin the city, includingthose withoutOttomannationality.
9. RomanCatholics.
38
TABLE3
1883 JERUSALEMNUFUS CENSUS- INDIVIDUAL FOREIGNERSIN
INSTITUTIONS
Place of habitation
and/orregistration
Community Quarter
Population
Number Description
330
fromDar Salih(Sudan)
314
fromDar Fur (Sudan)

(Dervishesand Wardens)
Dervishes,Workers
and others
Mostlyin the
TempleMount
WesternPorches
Moslems
Undefined
Moslems
IndianHospice
Abu MedyenHospice
-MagharbaQuarter
Hukumet(Government
House) called also
'Saraya'or 'Takiya'
Alliance School
Moslems
Bab Hutta
Moslems
Silsila
4S7
Moslems
Wad
246
Jews
New City
Undefined
Christians
1082
1530
44
1135
Dervishesand others
North-AfricanDervishes
and Pilgrims
GovernmentOfficialsand
ServicePeople
Teachers,Pupils
Various,including
SyriansChaldeans
andMaronites
GreatGreekMonastery Greek
Orthodox
Nasai-a
199
Priests,Monks
Greek School
Greek
Orthodox
Nasaira
158
Teachers,Pupils,
Servicemen
St MellanyMonastery
Greek
Orthodox
Latins
Latins
N-ai
234
Nuns and ServicePeople
LatinMonastery
(TerraSancta)
ArmenianMonastery
Nasaira
Nasaira
5
12
Armenians Shareif
46
55
ArmenianSeminary
Olive Tree Monastery
Armenians Shara
af
61
Armenians Share
af
29
ThalitaKumiSchool
Protestants New City

Protestants Mournt
Zioin
Zion (BishopGobat)
School
SyrianMonastery
af
Shara
Syrians
(Assyrians)
108
Priests,Monks
Pupils
Priests,Monks
ServiceMen
Teachers,Pupils
Nuns
FemalePupils
24
Pupils
4
96
Monks
Workers
THE QUARTERS
OF JERUSALEM
IN THE OTTOMAN
PERIOD
39
TABLE4
1905JERUSALEMCENSUSIN THE NUFUS BOOKS- FAMILIESBY RELIGIONSAND
QUARTERS
Total
7954
Total in Jerusalem
Jews
3701
398
Non-OttomanNationals
OttomanNationals- Old City
1250
4272
56.5
%
3284
OttomanNationals- New City
Moslems
1687
300
98
1934
29.1
2451
Christians
25661
1088
45.2
332
25.7
501
43.5
%
74.6
10.1
15.3
Quarter
Silsila
Wad
Bab Hutta
Bab el-'Amud
Sharaf
Sa'diyya
Nasara
Nebi Da'ud
Birka
SheykhJarah
Tululel-Masabin
Isra'iliyya
Halabiyya
Tawahin
Musrara
Masabin
Shifa
Bab el-Khalil
Rahiliyya
Mas'udiyya
Ya'qubiyya
Sarrafiyya
Yahudiyya
Nahkama
Baq'a
Manshiyya
Bukhariyya
Habash
Talbiyya
Ma'manAllah
Ukasha
Jadida
OLD
CITY
NEW
CITY
1259
862
614
596
382
286
188
85
29.5
20.2
14.3
13.9
9.0
6.7
4.4
2.0
711
388
7
15
127
1
1
-
548
383
595
112
40
161
10
852
91
12
469
215
124
177
461 14.0
270 8.2
257 7.8
234 7.1
229 7.0
203 6.2
175 5.3
163 5.0
158 4.8
141 4.3
138 4.2
118 3.6
107 3.3
82 2.5
82 2.5
67 2.0
63 1.9
63 1.9
58 1.8
58 1.8
56 1.7
39 1.2
38 1.2
461
97
257
234
229
203
50
163
108
75
138
17
97
43
68
47
10
58
13
22
37
167
10
115
26
50
40
59
8
3
3
32
7
42
2
36
14
17
31
46
14
3
-
31
34
36
1
24
0.7
24
1. The Islamic tradition of pilgrimage to Jerusalem was reflected through the fact that
among the local Moslem population registered at the census there were quite a
few families with names like Afghani, Azbaki, Jarkasi (Ciracassian), Kurdi, Misri
(Egyptian), Maghribi (Moroccan), Shami (Syrian), Turkmani and Yamani.
2. Most of them of the Da'udi-Dajjani clan (see footnote 2 in Table 2).
40
Familysizes
The registrationin familieswhich enabled additionsafter the censi did
not give an accurate picture of the relative sizes of communities in
Jerusalem'sdiversepopulationowingto the differencesin familysize averages amongthese groups,neitherdid it pave the way for calculationof
populationnumbers.The Moslemshad the largestfamilies/households.
In accordance with the patriarchalcustoms of traditional Islamic
society, there were amongthe registrantsin the books Moslem families
comprisingdozens of members. On the other hand a relatively high
proportionof small families existed among the Ashkenazi Jews69who
were on the lower end of the familygrowthscale. Furthermore,single
persons were counted in the registersas families and were entered as
such in the censi tables. The numberof singles registeredas families
was highestamongthe Ashkenazis(who had a particularlylargenumber
of single women).70The way to calculatepopulationtotals from family
totals is by multiplyingthe numberof families in each communityby
a constant factor. The effectivenessof this method is however limited
because of its vulnerabilityto overratingand underratingof the average
familysize in differentcommunities.
Integrityof territory
Aside from the records of Sa'diyya quarter in the 1883 census, the
collection of nufus books compiled in Jerusalemseems to be intact,
constitutingan importantsourceof informationon Jerusalem'smunicipal
boundariestowardsthe end of the Ottomanperiod. Suburbsof today's
Jerusalem appeared in the registers as villages in the sub-districts
(Turkish:nawah, single:nahiye)surroundingJerusalem.7'
Integrityof population
As a rule, foreigncitizenswho livedin Jerusalemwere not includedin the
censi. 'Foreigners'who were recordedwere usuallyOttomannationals
from other parts of the Empire, like high government officials and
European clergymen, especially Greek, who were registered in their
churchinstitutions.Three communitiesof foreign nationalswhichwere
not registeredstood out: Ethiopians,people fromWesterncountriesand
Jews. The largerpart of the Ethiopiansin Jerusalemwere clergymen.
The conspicuousWestern populationsof Jerusalemwere those of the
AmericanColony and the GermanColonyof the Templars.72But these
were smallcommunities.The mainbulkof non-Ottomansnot registered
in Jerusalem were Jews.73 From the 1850s until the First World War
41
TABLE5
1905 JERUSALEM CENSUS IN THE NUFUS BOOKS - JEWS: FAMILIES BY
COMMUNITIES AND QUARTERS
Total
%
3701
Total in
Jerusalem
Sephardis
1838
33.8
New City
560
1250
2451
Total in the
Moroccans
1515
34
49.6
%
Total in the
in the Old City
Ashkenazis
459
44.8
1278
66.2
40.9
9.4
231
36.7
1056
52.1
18.5
117
43.1
4.8
Quarter
711
388
127
15
56.9
31.0
10.1
1.2
400
124
32
3
7
1
1
0.6
0.1
0.1
-
Birka
N Tulul el-Masabin
Isra 'iliyya
E Halabiya
461
257
234
229
18.8
10.5
9.5
9.3
3781
79
2042
203
8.3
1653
38
W Masabin
163
6.7
163
138
108
97
5.6
4.4
4.0
56
57
90
82
50
-
Ya'qubiyya
0 Silsila
L Wad
D Sharaf
Bab el-'Amud
C
I
T
Y
Bab Hutta
Nasara
Sa'diyya
Nebi Da'ud
Tawahin
Rahiliyya
Shifa
SheykhJarah
229
121
94
7
82
143
1
5
7
-
1
81
225
118
22
2
2
37
3
1
7
97
4.0
66
27
75
68
3.0
2.8
31
C Bab el-khalil
Yahudiyya
59
33
16
4
I Bukhariyya
58
2.4
574
Musrara
T Mahkama
Sarrafiya
Y Ukasha
50
47
43
37
2.0
1.9
1.8
1.5
27
22
20
4
21
13
20
33
2
12
3
Jadida
Talbiyya
Mas'udiyya
Habash
24
22
17
13
1.0
0.9
0.7
0.5
3
146
-
20
3
13
4
195
10
0.4
Manshiyya
Baq'a
Ma'man Allah
(Notes overleaf)
42
there was a continuous influx of European Jews to Jerusalem. The main
reasonsfor this were:

(a) the 1837earthquakein the Galilee drove manyJews who lived
in Safed and Tiberiasto settle in Jerusalem;74
(b) the opening of passengersea lines using steamboatsbetween
Europe and Palestinein the 1840s;75
(c) the emancipation of Jews in several European countries
(Austria-Hungary,Prussia) around the middle of the nineteenth centurycontributedto the abolitionof the independent
status of Jewish communities. Orthodox Jews who feared
assimilationfled fromthe emancipationto the TurkishEmpire
where underthe milletsregimethey could keep their separate
statusand institutions;
(d) Jews migrated from Russia, in the middle decades of the
nineteenth century, in order to avoid a 25-years'compulsory
servicein the tsar'sarmyin whichthey were undercontinuous
pressureto changetheir religion;
(e) the regularizationof donations sent to Jews living in the
Holy Land, especially in Jerusalem,by those living in other
countries.76
The Ottomanrule which returnedto Jerusalemat the beginningof the

1840sbroughtwithit the law of capitulations.77
Jews, mainlyAshkenazi,
who settled in Jerusalem,tended to keep theirnon-Ottomannationality
or even to give back their Turkishnationalityand acquirethat of some
EuropeanPower.78In addition,Jews who asked in the late nineteenth
century for Ottoman nationalitywere fined heavily by the authorities
who apparentlywere concerned about the substantialgrowth of the
Jewish population in the holy city of Jerusalem.79All this led to the
phenomenon that only part of the Jewish inhabitantsof Jerusalemat
that period were Turkishnationalsand eligible to be registeredin the
Table 5 (cont'd)
1. 166of the familiesregisteredhereas SephardicwereactuallyJewish-Yemenitefamilies.
2. Many of the familiesregisteredhere as Sephardicwere actuallyJewishYemenite or
Jewish-Kurdish.
3. All of themJewish-Yemenitefamilies.
4. Manyof the familieshere were Jewish-Bukharian.
5. As was mentionedabove, the quarterof Ma'manAllahincludedthe estateof Mahaneh
Israelwhich was inhabitedby MoroccanJews. Since no Jews have been recordedin
Ma'manAllah and as the borderbetweenMa'manAllah andTalbiyyawas undefined,
we might presume that the Moroccan-Jewishfamilies registeredin Talbiyyawere
actuallythe 'lost'inhabitantsof MahanehIsraelin Ma'manAllah.
familieswholivedin EshelAvraham
6. The familiesregisteredherewereJewish-Georgian
whichwas knownas 'The GeorgianEstate'.
TABLE 6
1905 JERUSALEM CENSUS IN THE NUFUS BOOKS - CHRIS
BY COMMUNITIES AND QUARTERS
,-,
Total
469
215
177
12
91
12
292 175 4 121

17
84 57
4 22
102
61 30 11
5
Total in
Quarter
Bab el-'Amud
O
L Sharaf
D Nasara
Sa'diyya
C Wa d
I BabHutta
T Silsila
Y Nebi Da'ud
712 273
-
2
8
0
2
- --
2
4
-
'o
,E
Musrara
Shifa
N Manshiyya
E
W
TABLE 6
(cont'd)
C
I
T
Y
Mas'udiyya
Bab el-khalil
Ma'manAllah
Sarrafiyya
Talbiyya
Habash
Baq'a
Nahkama
Yahudiyya
SheykhJarrah
Ya'qubiyya
Ukasha
Isra'iliyya
Bukhariyya
Birka
Halabiyya
Jadida
Masabin
Rahiliyya
Tulul el-Masabin
Tawahin
50
46
42
40
36
36
34
31
31
17
14
6
2
1
26
32
21
20
8
9
28
9
-
21
3
14
9
9
14
28
26
4
3
6
5
14 46 4
1
2 I
9 -
1
2
7-
16 11
.-
1. All the families registered from this community consisted of 1 pe

2. The families from this community lived in the vicinity of the S
northern part of Sharaf.
3. The families registered here were actually Coptic families from a
4. Four nuns from this community were also registered in the censu
45
censi.80
Another phenomenonconcerningthe registrationof Jews in the censi
was the classifyingof Jews from Oriental communitieswhich lacked
official autonomous status (or sometimes even those who had it) as
Sephardis.For four of the largergroups- Jewsfrom Bukhara,Georgia,
Kurdistanand Yemen - allusionsthroughfootnotes to the censi tables
were made.
THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE CENSI
In order to examine the integrityand reliabilityof the nufus censi the

totals of the populationsrecordedin them will be comparedwith figures
from another source. The table below is composed of the number of
families and percentagesof the religiouscommunitiesin Jerusalemas
reflected in the censi of 1883 and 1905 (taken from Tables 2 and 4)
and parallel population numbersand percentagescalculatedfrom the
SummaryTable for the city's populationin a comprehensiveresearch
on Jerusalemof that period.81
Looking at this table what can be seen at first glance is that the
percentages of the Jewish population in both dates are considerably
higher in the SummaryTable than in the censi - by 21 per cent in
1883 and by 17.4 per cent in 1905. Before reaching any conclusion
we must take into account that the 1883 census was carried out only
in the Old City, while the SummaryTable referredto the whole city.
By that year there were already nine Jewish housing estates outside
the walls of the Old City with a population of nearly 2,000,82while
the number of Moslems and Christianswho settled in the New City
until that date was negligible.Deductingthis numberfrom the number
of Jews in the SummaryTablefor thatyearwe get 17,400in the Old City
which constituted50.7 per cent or a little over half of the populationof
Jerusalem.Adding the numbersof the Moslem and Christianfamilies
in the 1883 census we get 3232. An equal numberof Jewish families
in the Old City exceeds by 1450 (or 44.9 per cent) the numberof the
familiesregisteredin the census- a gap whichcan be explainedonly by
the non-registrationof foreign nationals.From the numbersdisplayed
by the SummaryTable it is evident that, unlike what could have been
deducted from the nufus figures,the Jews became in the early 1880s a
majorityin Jerusalemwhile the Moslems made up about a quarterof
the populationand the Christiansabout a fifth.83
Both percentagesof the Jewishpopulationin Jerusalemfor 1905were
considerablyhigher than their counterpartsin 1883:while accordingto
the nufus census the Jews were approachinghalf of the city population,
46

TABLE 7
1905 JERUSALEM CENSUS - FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS IN
INSTITUTIONS
Place of habitation
Community
Quarter
Ashkenazis
Alliance School
Sha'arey Tsedek
Population
Number
and/or registration
Ya'qubiyya
Sephardis
6
1
Moslems
18
1
Ashkenazis
Description
Employee
Families
Employees
Employee
Family
Employees
Employee
Family
Employee
Family
Hospital
Afghanand Uzbek
Moslems
Wad
94
Dervishes
and others
Moslems
Bab Hutta
14
SchoolStaff
Hospices
MaymuniyyaSchool
GreatGreekMonastery Greek Orthodox
Nasara
215
St MellanyMonastery GreekOrthodox
Nasara
Nuns
GreekOrthodox
Nasara
Employees
St AbrahamMonastery GreekOrthodox
Nasara
Nun
St NicholasMonastery GreekOrthodox
Nasara
Nun
St AutimyusMonastery Greek Orthodox
Bab el-'Amud
17
5
Nuns
Service
Women
The LadyMonastery
Greek Orthodox
Bab el-'Amud
3
3
Nuns
Service
Women
St Anne Seminary
Catholic
Bab Hutta
SyrianMonastery
Assyrians
Sharaf
SyrianOrphanage
Protestants
Shifa
Greek School
4
96
1
46
109
(Schneller)
Greek Orthodox
13
6
Priests,Monks
Monks
Young Priests
(fromSyria
and Lebanon)
Monk
Employees
Families
Employees,
Pupils
FemalePupils
Employees
Relatives
THE QUARTERS
OF JERUSALEM
IN THE OTTOMAN
PERIOD
47
TABLE 8
1915 JERUSALEM NUFUS CENSUS - JEWISH FAMILIES BY COMMUNITIES
AND QUARTERS
Total Ashkenazis
Totalin Jerusalem 2469
%
1649
66.8
Total in the
Old City
%
497
267
53.7
1972
1382
70.1
256
95
94
203
25
12
52
-
27
Total in the
New City
%
Quarter
0 Sharaf
L Wad
D Babel-'Amud
C
I
T
Y
Silsila
Nasara
Sa'diyya
NebiDa'ud
Tululel-Masabin
Bukhariyya
Rahiliyya
Masabin
Ukasha
N Shifa
E Manshiyya
W Halabiyya
Tawahin
Bab el-Khalil
C Yahudiyya
I Ma'manAllah
T Isra'iliyya
Y Musrara
Ya'qubiyya
Habash
SheykhJarah
Birka
Mas'udiyya
Baq'a
Jadida
Mahkama
Sarrafiyya
Talbiyya
531
442
330
148
126
85
45
40
38
37
35
32
30
18
17
8
5
4
1
-
Georgians
Moroccans
153
6.2
144
5.8
114
23.0
116
23.3
39
2.0
28
1.4
16
10
79
37
60
3
16
Sephardis
523
21.2
523
26.5
509
6
306
145
124
75
384
31
29
31
15
22
21
3
14
1
4
-
221
4342
3
103
7
6
8
3
20
4
1
4
18
-
2
6
2
5
15
1
3
1
3
5
5
1
1. Some of the families registered here as Sephardic are actually Jewish-Bukharian or

Jewish-Georgian.
2. Some of the families registered here as Sephardic are actually Jewish-Bukharian or
Jewish-Georgian.
3. Some of the Jews registered here as Sephardic are Jewish-Georgian.
4. 110 pupils at the Ashkenazi Orphanage were also registered in this quarter.
5. See footnote 1.
48
accordingto the SummaryTable they were a little less than two thirds
of it - 64 per cent of the city's inhabitants.Taking as a basis the 4253
Moslem and Christianfamilies registered in the census which made,
accordingto the SummaryTable, 36 per cent of the city's population
we get a total of 11,814 families in Jerusalemin 1905 of which 7560
(64 per cent) were Jewish. The difference between this number and
the numberof Jewish families recordedin the census, 3701, is 3859 or
51 per cent which were not registeredbecause they were not Ottoman
nationals.
TABLE 9
1883& 1905NUFUS CENSIIN JERUSALEM- COMPARINGPERCENTAGESOF
WITHTHE SUMMARYTABLE
RELIGIOUSCOMMUNITIES
1883
Year
1905
Source
Census
SummaryTable
Territory
Old City
Jerusalem
Categories
Families
of
Enumeration
Total
5014
Moslems
Jews
Christians
1964
1782
1268
Census
SummaryTable
Jerusalem
Jerusalem
% Individuals Families %
39.2 24.2
35.5 56.5
25.3 19.2
34,300
7954
8,300
19,400
6,600
2566
3701
1687
% Individuals
62,500
32.3 17.6
46.6 64.0
21.2 18.4
11,000
40,000
11,500
The above calculationsare based on the assumptionthat unlike the

Jewishfamilies, ForeignMoslemand Christianfamilieswere registered
in the censi (see the entriesfor foreignregistrantsat the 1905census in
Table 4). This assumptionwill be shaken to some extent if we cast a
glance at the relative sizes of the Moslem and Christiancommunities
in Table 9. While accordingto the 1883 census results the Moslems
outnumberedthe Christiansby 14 per cent, accordingto the Summary
Table figuresfor that year the differenceamountedto only 5 per cent.
The gap between the two communitieswas narrowed a little in the
census of 1905, though it still remained large - 11 per cent. On the
other hand, according to the SummaryTable figures for that year,
the Christianssurpassedthe Moslems, though by a thin margin. As it
appears, there were more foreign Christianfamilies in Jerusalemthan
the 98 recordedin the 1905census. This in turnreducesto some degree
the percentageof Jews in the city calculatedabove. The growthof the
Christianpopulationof Jerusalemin the second half of the nineteenth
49
centurycan be attributedto the strongbuildingactivityof the Christian

Churchesand missionsoutside the Old City walls (see below).
POPULATION DISPERSAL IN JERUSALEM IN THE LATE
OTTOMAN PERIOD
In the Old City

Though, as has been shown in the previous chapter, the nufus censi
cannot be fully trusted as far as population numbers are concerned,
its quarter/milletregistrymethod can be used to build the mosaic of
different populationsliving side by side or mixed in the various parts
of the city.
Earlier we established that the partition of the Old City into four
ethno-religiousquarterson the nineteenthand early twentieth-century
maps had its roots in the Middle Ages. On the other hand, it was
completely detached from the traditionalnineteenth-centuryquarter
system of the city depicted in the earlier section on the late Ottoman
period. One of the most outstandingof those maps 84 had alongside
of the usual four-quarteredsystem, an equivalent division in Arabic
into Haret el-Muslimin (Moslems Quarter), Haret en-Nasara, Haret
el-Aman and Haret el-Yahud. Many quartersidentifiedwith Moslem
ethnicgroupsdid exist in the cityin the MiddleAges anda few in modern
times, but there was never any quarternamedthe 'MoslemQuarter'in
the traditionalquartersystem of the Old City. In contrast, traditional
quarters named after the religious minorities- Christian, Armenian
and Jewish - did exist, but only as parts of the modern quarters
called after those communities. The attempt made by the compilers
of this map to show that their partitionof the city was derived from
local traditionwas therefore futile. The modern maps of the Old City
were the result of observationsin which the Western explorers who
sketched them were impressedby the phenomenonthat certain parts
of the city were inhabited mainly by a certain population. But how
reliable were those observations?In order to answerthis question, the
Old City communitiesgeographicallay-out, as derived from the nufus
books, will be presentedbelow divided accordingto the four quarters.
What made this arrangementpossible was the consistencybetween the
four-quarteredreligious-ethnicpartitionof the city and its divisioninto
seven nufus quarterswhich went as follows: Bab Hutta, Sa'diyyaand
Wad was the Moslem Quarter,Bab el-'Amudand Nasarathe Christian
Quarter,8sSharafthe Armenianand Silsilathe JewishQuarter.Since in
50
MIDDLE
EASTERN
STUDIES
the 1883census the Moslemcommunityalone was dividedinto quarters

and as only Jewishfamilieswere registeredin the 1915census, only the
data collected in the Old City in the 1905censuswill be analyzedhere.
TABLE 10
1905NUFUS CENSUSIN OLD JERUSALEM- FAMILIESBY COMMUNITIESIN THE FOUR
ETHNO-RELIGIOUS
QUARTERS
Total
4187
Total
1849
44.1
%
nufus
quarter(s)
Moslem
Quarter
Bab Hutta
Sa'diyya
Wad
Moslems
%
1762
1250
29.8
%
64.6
382
Jewish
Quarter
1259
Silsila
%
646
2.0
66.8
82.4
94
10.1
121
9.7
24.6
100
31.7
711
29.6
43.5
23.5
1.3
33.2
548
30.1
12.9
127
10.5
121
3.0
227
16
2.2
Armenians
31.7
22.5
40
9.1
61.6
122
Christian Bab el-'Amud 784
18.7
6.6
Quarter Nasara
%
15.6
Armenian Sharaf
Quarter
967
23.1
396
1139
42.1
Jews
Christians
(except Armenians)
56.9
56.5
The table above combinestogetherthe two quarter-systemsand their

populations.86
Examiningthe tablewhichpresentsthe originaldataof the 1905census

(Table 4) and the above table we can infer the following:
1. The inner part of the Moslem Quarter, Bab Hutta, which had
no common borders with any non-Moslem quarter, had a very
high percentageof Moslem families with tiny Christianand Jewish
populations. The north-west part of Moslem Quarter, Sa'diyya,
which lay closer to the ChristianQuarter, had a Moslem majority
followed by a largeChristianminority.In both quartersput together
the Moslem's rate was 84% making the north part of the Moslem
Quarter a distinct Moslem area as it had been in previous times.
The south part of the Moslem Quarter, Wad,87a clear Moslem
area for centuries, was in 1905 a mixed area in which the Moslems
numberedonly 44.4%- a little less thanthe Jews who came fromthe
51
overflowingHaret el-Yahudat the other side of Bab es-SilsilaStreet

(see the later part of the section on the late Ottomanperiod). Wad
could have been defined as the north part of the Jewish quarteras
much as it was consideredthe south partof the Moslemone. It is not
surprisingthen that it appearedin C. Schick'smap from 1894/5as a
fifth quarterin the Old City called 'GemischtesQuartier'(German:
'Mixed Quarter'). An Arabic source from the period describedthe
four traditionalquarterswhich constitutedthat nufus quarterin the
following manner: Qattanin- Jews and Moslems, Bab es-SilsilaMoslem majority, Wad and 'Aqabet et-Takiya- situated closer to
the Christian Quarter - mixed.88
Only a little over 60% of the Old City Moslem families were
registeredin the Moslem Quarter.Nearly 30% have been recorded
in the Jewish Quarter,in Haret el-Magharbawhichcould have been
considereda southerncontinuationof the Moslem Quarter.89Most
of the rest were registeredin Bab el-'Amud. The rate of the Moslem
families among those recordedin the Moslem Quarterwas a little
less than two thirds.
2. The population in the northernpart of the ChristianQuarter, Bab
el-'Amud nufus quarter, was mainly Christianwith large Moslem
and tiny Jewish minorities. Its eastern part, the traditionalquarter
of Bab el-'Amud, which historically consisted of the habitation
areas of Moslem groups, was described by the above source as
'with Moslem majority'90while Haret el-Haddadinwhich lay at its
west side, historicallyChristian,was accordingto the same source 'an
entirelyChristianarea'. Nasaracensi quarterto the southwas almost
entirely Christianwith a tiny Moslemminority.The four traditional
quartersconstitutingthat nufusquarterwere describedby the above
sourcethus: Khanez-Zeyt, NasaraandJawalda- Christianmajority,
Mawarna - wholly Christian.91
Two-thirdsof Old Jerusalem'sChristianfamilies were recorded

in the quarternamed after them, a little less than a quarterin the
Moslem Quarterand the rest, about 10%in the Armenianone (not
includingArmenians). Over four fifths of the families registeredin
the ChristianQuarterwere Christian.
3. All the Armenian Orthodox families which were written down in
the 1905 census were recorded in the Armenian Quarter (Sharaf)
numberingnearly a third of the registrantsat that quarter.Relying
on past times, it might be assumedthat those families have lived in
the ArmenianMonasteryCompoundknownas 'Haretel-'Arman'or
aroundits walls. It mightbe equallyassumedthat the big numberof
Jewishfamiliesrecordedin Sharaf- a little more than the Armenian
52
ones - lived in its east part which became in the second half of
the nineteenth century the west part of Haret el-Yahud. The
Christians (apart from the Armenians) constituted a quarter of
Sharaf'spopulation and the Moslems about 10%. The traditional
term of Haret el-'Arman was a lot more appropriateto define
the Armenian region of the city than the modern term 'Armenian
Quarter',the north of which, situatedamongthe ChristianQuarter,
Haret el-Yahud and Haret el-'Arman and comprisingthe Moslem
Haret el-Jawa'na,was definedby the above sourceas 'mixedarea'.92
4. More thanhalfof the familiesrecordedin the JewishQuarter(Silsila)
in 1905 were Jewish. The rest were all Moslem who lived in Haret
el-Magharba.Ninety-eightper cent of the Jewishfamiliesof the Old
City were registeredin Silsila(in Haret el-Yahud)and the adjoining
quartersof Sharafand Wad. Small numberswere recordedin Bab
el-'Amud and Bab Hutta (in that order).
Summary
In the north of the city - as far as the line formed by Via Dolorosa,
'Aqabet el-Khanqahand St Francisstreets- the east and middle parts
were Moslem while the west was Christian.The border between the
areas populated by Moslems and Christiansin that part of the city
was then not the one suggestedby the moderndivisionof Moslem and
Christianquarters- Suq Khanez-Zeyt - but some line west of it, inside
the last quarter.In the middlepartof the city- borderedin the south by
Bab es-SilsilaandDavidstreets- the borderbetweenthe Jewish-Moslem
east (or center, if the Temple Mount is taken into account) and the
Christianwest was, accordingto the censi, identicalwith the boundary
betweenthe MoslemandChristianquarters.Southof thatline, the chain
of traditionalcommunityquarterswhich comprisedmost of the area Haret el-Magharba,Haret el-Yahudand Haret el-Arman,as they were
aligned from east to west - representedthe partitionof the territory
among differentpopulationsmore authenticallythan the cumbersome
divisioninto Jewishand Armenianquarters(whichcovered though the
whole area).
Another way to partitionthe Old City, relyingon the censusresultsis
accordingto populationdensity. From that aspect the city was divided
into the followingthree parts:
1. Region of low density- the West, made of the mostlyChristian
territoryof NasaraandSharaf,in whichthe numerouschurches,
monasteriesand other institutesof various Christiancommunities occupiedconsiderableparts.93Only a little over 13% of
the Old City populationlived in that thirdof the city.
53
2. Region of medium density - the North, made of the censi
quarters of Bab Hutta, Sa'diyya and Bab el-'Amud. In this

Moslem-Christianthird of the city lived a little over a third
of its population.
3. Region of high density- the area lying west and south-westof
the TempleMountwas inhabitedby halfof the city'spopulation
(30% in Silsila, 20% in Wad). Due to that excess of living
density this Jewish-Moslemterritory may be defined as the
slums of the Old City.
CONCLUSION
Thoughthe moderndivisionof the Old City to ethno-religiousquarters

gave a fairlygood indicationof the areasin the city inhabitedby different
populations,its genuinestrongpointslay in its simplicityandthe straight
boundarylines, along main streetsin the city, amongthe four quarters.
These advantagesclaimed, inevitably,theirprice:ignoringmixedzones
and annexing territoriesinhabitedby a certain populationto quarters
attributed to other communities (the outstandinginstances: Jews in
the south of the Moslem Quarter, Moslems in the north-east of the
ChristianQuarter, Moslems in the east of the Jewish Quarter, Jews
in the east of the Armenian Quarter, mixed area at the north of the
ArmenianQuarter).
The negative of this division, if one were to imagine which of the
communitiesdid not live in any of the four quarters,was as follows: the
only communitywhichresidedin all fourquarterswas the Moslem,there
were no Jews in the ChristianQuarterapartfrom its north-eastcorner
inhabitedmainlyby Moslems(Bab el-'AmudtraditionalQuarter),there
were no Christiansin the Jewish Quarterand Armeniansdwelt only in
the ArmenianQuarter.
In the New City
Before attendingto the layout of populationsin the variouspartsof the
New City it is worthwhileto try to find out if the data collected at the
censi can attest the phenomenon,alreadydescribed,of movingfromthe
Old to the New City. The table below reflectsthat processby comparing
the totals of populationin Tables2 and 4.
The relevant findings from the above table are the following: the
percentage of the biggest community in the Old City's population,
the Moslems, had increased from 1883 to 1905 by 6.1%, though the
54
MIDDLE
EASTERN
STUDIES
TABLE 11
1883 & 1905 NUFUS CENSI IN JERUSALEM - TOTALS OF POPULATION FAMILIES BY RELIGIONS
1905
1883
Old City
Total
%
5014
1964
1782
1268
New City
39.2
35.5
25.3
1934
1250
1088
Foreigners
3284
43.5
4272
56.5
%
Religious
Affiliation
Moslems
Jews
Christians
Old City
45.3
29.2
25.5
398
10.1
74.6
15.3
7954
332
2451
501
Total
300
98
2566
3701
1687
32.3
46.5
21.2
number of Moslem families registeredin the Old City had decreased

by 30 from census to census. In contrast,the percentageof Jews in the
Old City was reducedby about the same rate (6.3%) between the censi
and the numberof Jewish families by more than 500. The percentage
of Christianfamilies in the Old City remained steady although their
number decreased by 180 between the censi. In the New City, three
quartersof the families registeredin 1905 were Jewish, 15% and 10%
Christianand Moslem, accordingly.All these datapoint in the direction
of what was said above:the slownessof the Moslemsin leavingOld City
(or, in other words: the stabilityof the Moslem populationinside the
Walls) and on the other hand the quickerpace of the Jews leaving it
and settling outside the Walls. Of course, as can be understoodfrom
the numbers,not all the Jewishfamilies registeredin 1905 in the New
City came from the Old City - some of them were new immigrantsto
the country. The Christianslagged behind the Jews but outnumbered
the Moslems, by more than 5%, in settlingNew Jerusalem.
The table below presents data pertaining to the three religious
denominationsin the 1905 census, calculatedfrom Table 1 according
to the five regionsof the New City outlinedearlier.
There follows an outline of the distributionof populationsfrom the
three religions in the New City as depicted by the data presented in
Tables 4 and 12.
Lying north of the Old City, region 1 was the only New City part in
which the Moslemsmade the largestgroup, followed by equal numbers
of Jewish and Christianfamilies. Its east part, Sheykh Jarah, was the
only census quarteroutside the Walls with Moslem majority. Beside
the Moslems there were there many Jewish families and few Christian
55

TABLE 12
1905 NUFUS CENSUS IN NEW JERUSALEM - FAMILIES BY RELIGIOUS
AFFILIATIONS IN THE FIVE REGIONS
Total
Total
Jews
2451
3284
17.1
1.
6.7
North part of
the New City
Center of New City

%
0.1
7.4
352
West of the
City Center
51.4
South and west

of the Old City
10.4
1033
0.7
28.1
97
32.4
4.8
4.0
299
2.4
52
94.5
7.7
42.1
1093
8.1
27
40.9
9.1
5.
28.7
144
181
33.3
4.
99.9
10.7
3.
0.2
976
41.9
39.8
977
71.1
236
29.0
29.8
2.
32.6
163
29.1
o%
332
164
North of the Old City 563
Moslems
501
Region
Christians
18.4
141
47.2
61
20.4
ones. Continuingwestwardswe arriveat Mas'udiyyawhere the Moslem

families recorded were equal in number to the Christianand Jewish
ones put together. The last group was by far the smallest. In Musrara,
situated west of Mas'udiyya,begins the Jewish-Christianterritoryof
central Jerusalem.The large Christianmajorityhere was followed by
a big Jewish minority and a tiny Moslem one. The population in the
center of the city (region 2) - smaller, as expected, than in most of
the residentialareas- was made of a marginalJewishmajority,a large
Christianminorityand a smallnumberof Moslemfamilies.We findhere
the adjoiningquartersof Manshiyyaand Habashin whichthe Christian
familiesmade the majorityfollowed by nearlyequal numbersof Jewish
and Moslemfamilies,Yahudiyyawith predominantJewishmajorityand
no Moslemsat all, Sarrafiyya,a Jewish-Christian
quarterand Mahkama
in whichthe largeJewishmajoritywas followed by a Christianminority
and few Moslem families.
South of the city's center, in region5 - the least populatedof the five
regions - the Christianswere the largest group followed by the Jews.
West of the Old City in the scattered-aboutquarterof Bab el-Khalil
more Jewishfamilieswere recordedthan the joint numbersof Christian
and Moslem ones (in that order). Westwards,the neighboringquarters
56
of Ma'manAllah andTalbiyyawere mainlyChristianwith a considerable

number of Jewish families and a negligible number of Moslem ones.
Some distanceto the southlay Baq'ain whichonly MoslemandChristian
familieswere registered,in equal numbers.
North and west of the City Center lay the two most populated
territories of the New City, inhabited almost exclusively by Jews.
The northernbetween them, region 2, consisted of five wholly Jewish
quarters- Birka,Bukhariyya,MasabinandTululel-Masabinin the north
of the city and Ukasha in the vacant area between the north and the
center. The other Jewish-inhabitedterritory,region 4, lay a kilometer
to the west along Jaffaand Agrippasstreets. It also includedfive entire
Jewishquarters- Tawahin,Isra'iliyya,Jadida,Halabiyyaand Rahiliyya.
In Shifa over two thirdsof the registeredfamilieswere Jewish.The rest
consistedof the Christian(mainlyProtestant)familiesof the employees
in 'Schneller'- the SyrianOrphanage.Ya'qubiyyawas a Jewishquarter
with few Moslem and Christianfamilies.
Summary
Relying on the 1905 census results, the New City can be divided into
two distinctzones:
A. Regions 1, 3, 5 - a strip of land adjacent to the Old City, wider
than a kilometernorth of the Walls, narrowingto few hundredmeters
north-westof the Old City- the centerof the New City, wideningagain
west of the Walls and disconnectingfrom them south of the Old City an ethno-religiousmixed territoryin whichthe Christiansand the Jews,
in nearlyequalnumbers,were morenumerousthanthe Moslems.About
90%of the New CityChristiansandalmostits entireMoslempopulation
lived in thiszone whichcomprisedmorethana thirdof the inhabitantsof
the New City.
B. Regions 2, 4 - an area lying north-westof the Old City and the
New City center, in an averagedistanceof a kilometerfrom the Walls,
beyond zone A, which was almost entirely Jewish. Over four fifths of
New Jerusalem'sJews lived in this zone which compriseda little less
than two thirdsof the populationlivingoutside the Walls.
Each of the two zones consisted, by coincidence, of twelve census
quarters.
Conclusion
The generallay-outof the populationin the New City nufusquartersas
reflectedin the 1905 census registersagrees with the process of settling
57
outside the Old City walls even if the population'snumberscannot be

fully relied on, owing to the non-registrationof non-Ottomannationals
in the censi.
Epilogue
Seventy-oddyears passed since the end of Ottomanrule in Jerusalem,
a period in which the city grew considerablyin territoryand number
of inhabitants.The layout of populationin variousparts of the city as
depicted above has changedin consequenceof events whichtook place
in those years. These changesare specifiedbelow:
- The two Jewishestates situatednorthof DamascusGate, Eshel
Avraham and Kirya Ne'emana (see Mas'udiyyaand Musrara
quartersabove) were destroyed in riots that occurredin 1929
and abandoned.
- Followingthe riots of 1929and 1936many of the Jews living in
the Old City moved to the New City.
- The inhabitantsof the Jewishestate of ShamaHouses (see Bab
el-KhalilQuarter)fled in 1938. The Arab familieswhichsettled
there fled in 1948. In 1970the Israeligovernmentevacuatedthe
Jewishpopulationwhichsettledthere as a partof a development
project.
As a result of the 1948war Jerusalemwas dividedinto east and west
parts between Jordan and Israel accordingly.This partition brought
about the followingpopulationmoves:
- The two Jewish estates lying north of the Old City, Shim'on
HatsadikandNahalatShim'on(see SheykhJarahQuarter)were
destroyedand abandoned.
- The JewishQuarterinside the Walls (or what was left of it) was
evacuatedby its Jewishinhabitants.
- The ethnicallymixedestate of Joratel-'Eynab(see Bab el-Khalil
Quarter) was destroyed and remainedin no man's land until
1967.
- The Arabic (Christianand Moslem) population living in the
center of the New City, the quartersof Musrara,Talbiyyaand
Baq'a and the west part of Abu Tor (in Bab el-Khalil censi
quarter)evacuatedthose territories.
The city was reunifiedby Israel in 1967. The changesthis time were
the rehabilitationof Haret el-Yahudin the Old City and the razingto
the groundof the neighboringHaret el-Magharbain order to create an
open space in front of the Western(Wailing)Wall.
58
Other partsof the city, discussedearlierand not mentionedhere, are

inhabitedtoday by the same populationsas in the late Ottomanperiod.
CONCLUSIONS
The physical layout of a city consists of houses, alleys, streets, roads

and open spaces. Quartersare not distinguishablein the scenery of a
city unless they are suburbsdetachedfrom its main part or particularly
old or newly built areas inside it. In any other case referring to a
certain area in a city - usually a system of streets - as a quarter is
a conventional abstractionexpressed through calling it by a certain
name. Naming/definingsections of a city as quartersnecessitates the
existence of self-conscious city's communitywith a measure of selfgovernment. Neither of those two conditions did exist in medieval
Jerusalem. Quarters however did exist in it. They sprang from real
features existing in the city's scenery: streets. The names of those
streets were derived unofficiallyfrom groups of people who lived or
tradedin them or from knownsites lying in them. In the course of time
the territoryarounda certainstreet and the alleys and streetsbranching
from it became known by the street's name. At times the name spread
also to neighboringstreet-systems.In that way a quarterwas formed.
Both the street and the quarterthat developed from it were known as
'hara'.Divided into stages this processwill look as follows:
1. Case a: a group of people (e.g. Bani Zayd) gives its name to
the street in which it lives (Haret Bani Zayd) which
conceptuallybecomes a quarter.
Case b: a site (e.g. Bab HuttaGate)gives its name to the street
in whichit is situated(HaretBab Hutta).
2. The area surroundingthe street becomes a quarterknown by
the same name as the street's (Haret Bani Zayd, Haret Bab
Hutta).
In accordancewith the way they were created, the boundariesof the
late medieval quartersof Jerusalemwere, in most cases, undefinable
since they ran not along streets but among them. In other words:
there were no real borders between those quarters. Peripheralareas
of neighboringquarterscould have belonged equally to each of them
(situationswhichexist also in modern,plannedand less densely built-up
cities than the Old City of Jerusalem)unless the boundariesamong the
quarterswere also amongpopulations.
Since the conceptionof quartersas spatialsub-unitsof a city did not
exist in medieval Jerusalem,areas in it did not acquiretheir names in
59
a direct mannerbut only throughthe stychicprocess describedabove.

Site-namedquarterswere more solid than population-namedones. The
latter were susceptibleto the settling, expandingor vanishingof ethnic
and religious groups in the city, which affected them in the following
ways:
1. Adjoiningquartersinhabitedby ethnicgroupsof the samecreed
'dissolved'in time and were incorporatedinto their neighbors
named after sites.
2. Population-namedquarterswere replaced,partiallyor wholly,
by quarterscalled afterother populations.
3. In a unique case following a big increase in the population
of a certain communityin the nineteenth century, a quarter
called after a site was 'covered'by its neighbornamed after a
population.
The numberof quartersin OldJerusalemof the nineteenthcenturywas
nearlyequalto thatof the sixteenthcentury.About half of themwere, in
name and location, a continuationof their predecessors.Followingthe
quarter-changephenomenathere was, however,a differencein function
between the two relatedquartersystems.That of the earlierperiod was
usually ethno-religious- most of its quartersconstitutedthe dwelling
areas of different groups in the city's population. Consequentlythey
were in most cases small and left among them a lot of 'no man's'land
which did not belong. On the other hand, the later system's function
was mainlygeographical.Its quarterswere, as a rule, biggerthan those
of the sixteenth century, comprisingtogether almost the whole Old
City territory.Few of them retainedtheirmedievalpopulation-oriented
nature.The restwere identifiedsolely withareasin the city, even if some
of them kept their obsolete populationnames. This change of the Old
City from a conglomerateof secludedethnic-religiousterritoriesto one
ethnicallymixedcity (or at least to a city whereboundariesamongareas
settled by differentpopulationswere not as stiff as in previous times)
can be consideredan aspect of its transitionfrom the Middle Ages to
the ModernAge.
In contrast to that process of modernizationwhich the traditional
quartersystemof the city went through,the partitionof the Old City on
maps, drawnby foreign explorersin the nineteenthcentury,was based
on two principlesderivedfrom previoushistoricalperiods:
1. Geographical- the basic, Roman planned, divisionof the city
by two maincrossingstreetsto four big squareparts.
2. Sociological- the medievaltraditionof definingquarterson an
ethnic-religiousbasis. An administrativequartersystem which
60
combined the qualities of the above two systems was that of

the nufus censi, designedin the late nineteenthcentury.While
springingup from the authentic,historicalquartersystem, its
straightwell-definedboundariesamong the quartersand their
covering the whole territory of the city were like those of
the modern division into four quarters. The question as to
which of the systems of quarterswas the most appropriateto
representthe Old City on maps was not decided, however, in
any academicdiscussion.If the Old City is divided on today's
maps, in Hebrew as in the European languages, to the four,
nineteenth-centuryintroduced, community quarters and not
to quarters which existed along centuries, it is because the
foundationsof its moderncartographywere laid by people who
came from outside and not from the city itself.
NOTES
1. Muhammadas-SayyidMuhammad,Asma' wa-Musammayat
min Ta'rikhMisr alQahira,Cairo. 1986,p.41.
2. Probablythe most remarkableembodimentof this Arabic spirit were those armytowns erected in the seventh centuryin Iraq and North Africa by the conquering
Moslems- Kufa, Basra, Fustat and Kairouan- which were made of the dwelling
placesof the tribesand sub-tribeswhichtook partin the conquest.
3. I.M. Lapidus,Muslimcitiesin thelaterMiddleAges, Cambridge,1988.p.85.
4. The Arabicwordused in Tunisiafor a quarteris 'hawma',whichin its colloquialform
'homa' recalls, even more strongly,the Hebrewword 'homa'- which means a city
wall'. If we presumean etymologicalconnectionbetween the two words, 'hawma'
can be interpretedas an area lying inside the walls of a city or possiblyas an area
surroundedby a wall insidea city.
5. H.H. Ben-Sasson,Retsefootmoura(Hebrew),Tel Aviv, 1984,p.161.
6. A nineteenth-centuryWesternvisitorto Jerusalemdescribedthe city's streetsin the
followingmanner:'Streetsin the Europeansense of the word have no existence in
Jerusalem.No Orientalcity has them ... It musthave quartersbut it need not have
the series of open ways, cuttingand crossingeach other, which we call streets ...
such alleys as connect one quarter to another . . . are rarely honoured with public
7.
8.
9.
10.
names ... No true Orientalcity has streets with native names' (W.H. Dixon, The
Holy Land, London, 1856, vol.II, pp.14-15). When Dixon visited it there was
still no municipalityin Jerusalemand no name-platesin the streets. However his
impressionof the chaos of streetswas exaggeratedand resultedfromthe fact that he
did not know the city as well as its inhabitantsand apparentlydid not knowArabicthe languagein whichthe variousstreetsand placesin Jerusalemwere named.
The outstandingexceptionto thatrulewas the areain the middleof the city knownas
Muristanwhichwas built as a modernmarketonly at the beginningof the twentieth
century.
C.W. Wilsonsawin the TempleMountin TheOrdnanceSurveyof Jerusalem(London,
1865)partof the MoslemQuarter.
The mapsof Jerusalemdrawnduringthe MiddleAges (only by Europeans)were all
picturemaps.
J. Prawer,A Historyof theLatinKingdomof Jerusalem(Hebrewversion),Jerusalem,
1971,vol.2, pp.298-9.
61
11. EncyclopediaHebraica- Jerusalem.

12. Al-Uns al-Jalilbi-ta'rikhal-Qudswal-Khalil,Amman, 1973.vol.2, pp.51-55.
13. Or a group belongingto the Arabiantribe of al-Ghawriyya(U. Kahhala,Mu'jam
Qaba'ilal-Arab,Damascus,1949,vol.3, p.889). Anotherpossibilityis that the word
'el-Churiyya'had been copied wronglyfrom Mujir'sad-Din manuscriptand should
have read instead et-Turiyya.Haretet-Turiyyawas mentionedby Mujiron p.57 as
lyingin the same locationas el-Ghuriyya.Apparentlyit was inhabitedby people from
et-Tur- Mountof Olives, situatedacrossthe valley,oppositeHaretet-Turiyyainside
the Walls.
14. The gate was named after the Koranic(Chapter2 - al-Baqara,55) and Islamic
traditionalstoryaboutthe Childrenof Israelwho were told to passthroughit bowing,
utteringthe word'hutta'or 'hitta'(Arabic:'remission')in orderthattheirsinswouldbe
pardoned,but they said instead'hinta'(Arabic)or 'hita'(Hebrew)meaning'wheat'.
15. The name Masharqacould have been appliedto any groupwhichcame to Jerusalem
from the east. Anyhow a group called Masharqawas part of the Bani Sakhr- a
(Kahhala,Mu'jam,vol.3.
largegroupof tribeswhichdwelledmostlyin Trans-Jordan
p. 1097).
16. A Bedouin tribe by that name was a sub-groupof Masharqa(ibid, vol.II, p.251) see previousnote.
17. Namedafterthe bigcolumnwhichstoodin Romantimes,withthe emperor'sstatueon
it, in the centerof a squareat the innerside of the gate. It was used as a starting-point
for measuringdistancesalongroadsbuiltby the Romansin Palestine.
of 'Marchesdu Bain'(French:'stairsof
18. Marzabanor Marzubanis a mispronunciation
the bath-house')as the quarter'smainstreet,today'Aqabetel-Khalidiyya,wasknown
in the thirteenthcenturyJerusalemof the Crusaders.The street descendedfrom the
middleof the city to the bath-housesituatedat its lower (east) end in el-WadRoad,
knownin Arabicas Hammamal-'Eyn(springbath-house).
19. Portrayedas the 'guardiansof Jerusalem'(Kahhala,Mu'jamQaba'ilal-Arab,Beyrut,
Qala'idal-Juman).
1979,vol.v, p.199- cited fromal-Qalqashandi's
20. Ibid, Damascus,1949,vol.II, p.458.
21. Accordingto Mujirthisquarterwasknownbeforeas Haretel-Akrad(KurdsQuarter).
22. Among the inhabitantsof this quarterwere also familieswho had emigratedfrom
MoslemSpain.
23. The informationaboutthose censi was takenfrom 'Arey Erets-Israelbameahha-16'
(Hebrew) by B. Lewis, Yerushalaeem- mekhkareyErets-Israel,Jerusalem,1955,
pp.117-127.
24. This is the only source in which that quarterwas called Bab el-Hutta and not Bab
Hutta.
25. Kahhala,Mu'jam,vol.1, p.378.
26. Salta was a clusterof tribes from the region of Jebel Shammarat the north of the
ArabianPeninsula(ibid., p.364). Partof them migratedto the Trans-Jordanian
town
of Salt whencethis groupapparentlycame to Jerusalem.
27. The lady was TunshuqBint Abd Allah al-Muzaffariyya
who had built in that street
a house known in Mujir ad-Din's days as the 'Lady House' or the 'Big House'.
Tunshuqwas buried in 1398 in a mausoleumopposite her house (al-Uns al-Jalil,
vol.2, pp.64-65). The buildingbecame known in followingcenturiesas the Takya
(Arabic:'hostelfor dervishes')and the streetas 'Aqabetet-Takiya.
28. The convent was recordedin the second census (1533-9). It could not have been
then the FranciscanConventof St Saviour,situatednear today'sNew Gate bought
by the Franciscansfrom the Georgiansin 1559aftertheirmonasteryon MountZion
was taken from them (as-Sayras-Salimfi Yafawar-Ramlawa-Urushalim.Franciscan
FathersPress,Jerusalem,1890,p.172).
29. The monasteryhad appearedonly in the last censusas inhabitedby a communityof
GeorgianChristians.Possiblyits namewas a mistakenwritingof Dir el-Musallabiyya
- Monasteryof the Cross- mentioned60 yearsearlierby Mujiras 'Kanisat(Church)
al-Musallabiyyawhich belongs to the Georgiancommunity'(al-Uns, vol.2, p.51).
62
Monasteryof the Crosslies 2 kilometerswest of the Old Cityin a valley knowntoday

as 'RehaviaValley'.
30. The attitudeof the Ottomanauthoritiesin Jerusalemof the late MiddleAges towards
the Christianminoritieswas negative not only because of the religiousdifference.
OrientalChristiancommunities- Armenians,Copts, Ethiopians,Greek Orthodox,
Syrians- were toleratedbut the Roman Catholics,suspectedfor sympathisingwith
Europeancountrieswhich had ruled Jerusalema few centuriesearlieror were the
contemporaryenemies of the Ottoman Empire, were humiliatedand persecuted.
In their approachtowardsthe Jews who did not have the backingof any political
powerthe Ottomanrulersmixedtolerancewith financialextortion.In the nineteenth
century,underthe pressureand influenceof Europeancountriesand aftera series of
reformsthe statusof non-Moslemsin the OttomanEmpireimprovedconsiderably.
31. Haret el-Malatwas the streetwhich, situatedaccordingto Mujir'sdescriptionat the
north-westcorner of the city, led 300 years earlier to St Lazar Gate in the north
wall of CrusaderJerusalem.Outsidethat gate stood at that period the leprosarium
of Jerusalemcalled'Maladrerie'(French:lazarette)fromwhichthe nameof the street
in Mujir'stime was derived.
32. Bernardovon Breidenbach,Viaje de la TerraSanta, Madrid, 1974. The map is
describedin 'Homot Yerushalaeemlifney Suleiman'(Hebrew)by N. Shor, Kardom
21-23, Jerusalem1982,p.42.
33. As-Sayras-salimfiYafawar-Ramlawa-Urshalim,FranciscanFathersPress,Jerusalem,
1890,pp.163-167.
townsof Salt
34. Haddadinwas a GreekOrthodoxtribewho livedin the Trans-Jordanian
and Karak(Kahhala,Mu'jam,vol.I, p.249). The nameitself means'blacksmiths'.
35. Not only the compoundbutalsothe streetssurroundingit fromall sides- knowntoday
streets- wereknownin the nineteenth
as St James,AraratandArmenianPatriarchate
centuryas 'Haretel-Arman'.
36. This maingate of the TempleMountwas namedafterQubbatas-Silsila(Arabic:'the
ChainDome') - a smallvaultedbuildingsituatedeast of Dome of the Rock - which
in its turnwas namedaftera legendarychainsaid to have hungthere fromthe sky in
Biblicaltimes.
37. In P.H. Vincent'smap (Paris, 1912) the two parallelstreets, on both sides of the
Takya buildingwere called each 'Aqabet et-Takiya.The southernamong them is
knowntodayas 'Aqabetes-Saraya.
38. Those maps were the following: C.W. Wilson, OrdnanceSurvey of Jerusalem
1864/5- Map 1:2500, Southampton,1866;P.H. Vincent, JerusalemRecherchesde
Topographie,d'Archeologieet d'Histoire,vol.I. el-Qudsesh-Sherif- reseaude rues,
Paris, 1912.
39. Mapno.2 in the previousnote.
40. The Sarayor Saraya(Turkish:'palace,governmenthouse') was the buildingknown
before as the Takiya(Arabic:'dervishhospice,asylumfor the needy')situatedin the
middle of the traditionalquarterof 'Aqabet et-Takiya.Its full name was 'Takiyet
KhaskiSultan'afterSultanSuleimanthe Magnificent'swife (knownalso as Roxilana)
who was believed to be the womanwho foundedit in 1522. Actuallyshe built only
an east wingto a buildingwhichwas builtbefore (see note 27). The building(known
in the nineteenthcenturyalso as Helena Hospital)servedas a free kitchenfor poor
people until the early 1870swhen it became the center of Ottomangovernmentin
Jerusalemand was renamedSaray(a)(the other Sarayaof the city - known also as
Kiala- was adjacentto the north-westcorner of the Temple Mount and used as
barracksfor the Ottomansoldiers).Todaythe Takiya-Saraya
buildingis a vocational
school for children.
41. J. Prawer,vol.I, pp.213,419.
42. Rural sub-districtsnamed after Bedouin groups which had separate quarters in
medievalJerusalemexistedin the secondhalfof the nineteenthcenturyin Jerusalem
District,northof the town of Ramallah.These were the sub-districtsof Bani Murra,
Bani Harithand Bani Zayd.
63
warsof 1948and 1967and rebuilt

43. The quarterwas destroyedin the Israeli-Jordanian
afterthe last one with radicalchanges.
44. Calledapparentlyafterhouseno.37in SuqKhanez-Zeyt(lyingnot farfromDamascus
Gate, few steps northof 'Aqabetet-Tuta).The building,builtin Crusadertimes, was
adaptedfor soap manufacturingand used for that purpose,along manygenerations,
by the Qutayna family (A. Cohen, 'Bet-mlakhale-yitsoursabon bi-Yrushalaeem'
(Hebrew), Cathedra,No.52, Jerusalem,1989,pp.120-124).
is dividedtodaybetween
45. The building(lyingoppositethe Greek-CatholicPatriarchate)
the Municipality'sDepartmentof UrbanImprovementand GloriaHotel.
46. The presentSt James Street in the ArmenianQuarterwas namedin Vincent'smap
from 1912 beside 'Haret el-Arman'also 'Haret esh-Sharaf'.The well-knownHaret
esh-Sharafof Jerusalemwas for centuriesthe streetrunningsouthfromthe middleof
Bab es-SilsilaStreetinto the JewishQuarterandthe areaaroundit. It is inconceivable
that the Ottomanofficialstook the namefor the nufusquarterof Sharaffroma small
street knowncommonlyas Haretel-Arman.
47. 'ahya'Islamiyyabahta'in the original('Arif al-'Arif,al-Mufassalfita'rikhal-Quds,
Jerusalem,1961,p.431).
48. See note 83.
49. Waqf(Arabic:'stopping')- the institutionwhichadministersthe real estate property
of the Moslem Community,endowed by its members for charitableor religious
purposes.
50. R. Kark, S. Landman,'Ha-ytseeaha-muslemitmi-hoots le-homot Yerushalaeem'
(Hebrew),Herzogmemorialvolume- Jerusalemin themodernage, Jerusalem,1981,
p.184.
51. See note 55.
52. Herod Gate in the north wall of the Old City, closed until 1874, was opened on
that year at the demandof the Moslems(A.M. Lunz, Moreh-derekhbe-Erets-Israel
(Hebrew),Jerusalem1891,p.101).
53. See note 64.
54. NamedafterHusamad-Dinal-Jarahi,one of Saladin'sofficers,on whose tombit was
built.
55. The Moslemneighborhoodswere not foundedat a particulardate but startedgrowing
from the 1860s,as a resultof intermittentsettlementof people from the Old City in
familyestates outsidethe Walls.
56. The rootof thisnamelies probablyin the colloquialArabicword'sarara'- smallstone,
as the area was covered by stones before it was built. Another possibleexplanation
may be foundin the Arabicword'sirar'- heightnot reachedby water,since northof
that territorylay one of the upperends of Wadiel-Joz.
57. Named after the two heaps of dung whichstood from unknowntimes north of the
Old City, at the corner of St George and Shmuel Hanavi streets (the site which
later became known as the MandelbaumGate - the only passage between Israeli
and JordanianJerusalemfrom 1948 to 1967). In the nineteenthcenturythey were
consideredby Jerusalemitesto be the waste of soap industryof previousages. A
chemical analysisconductedin the 1920s discoveredorganic remainsin their soil
and that led to the suppositionthat they consistedof ashes of animalssacrificedat
the Templein ancienttimes.
58. NamedafterUkashaIbn Muhsin,one of the companionsof the prophetMuhammad,
who settled in Jerusalemfollowingthe Moslemconquest(about AD638), on whose
tomb it was built.
59. The center of the New City and of the whole of Jerusalemis made of the triangleof
Jaffa, KingGeorge and Ben-Yehudastreetsand its vicinity.
60. Namedafterthe buildingwhichstood at that place in previousgenerationsservingas
mahkama(Arabic:'courtof law') for the Moslemfellahinfrom the surroundingsof
Jerusalemwhichthe inhabitantsof the cityweretoo afraidto let into theirWalls.It was
nicknamed'barrani'(Arabic:'outer')in orderto distinguishit from the well-known
Mahkamainside the city, nearthe ChainGate. The buildingwas demolishedin 1834
64
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
by IbrahimPasha,the Egyptianconquerorof the country,followingthe crushingof the

fellahin uprising(Neofityus, 'Annals of Palestine 1821-1841', Journalof Palestine
OrientalSociety,XVIII (1938), pp.125-6).
The map 'Environsof Jerusalem'in the BaedeckerGuide for 1876 included,in the
area of the New City, five windmills.One of them was situatedsouth of JaffaStreet,
north-westof Thalita Kumi School, just in the territoryof Tawahincensi quarter.
Threeothermillsweresituatedalongtoday'sRambanStreet.In C. Schick'smapof the
city from 1894-5 two windmillscan be seen nearRambanStreet. One of them which
has appearedin the formermapstill standsnearKingsHotel. All those millsstood in
a distanceof nearlya kilometerfromTawahinQuarterbut since they were relatively
high constructionswhichstood, roughlyon the same level, in the mostlyempty area
of the New City, it can be assumedthat they couldhave been seen fromthere.
Mamillawas describedby Mujirad-Dinas 'thelargestcemeteryin Jerusalemin which
manyof its notablesand holy people have been buried... called "Bet Milo"by the
Jews and "Babila"by the Christians'(al-Unsal-Jalil,vol.2, p.64).
Named afterthe areain whichit was built, probablycalled aftera land-ownerby the
ArabicnameTalib.
Mujirad-Dindescribed,in the late fifteenthcentury,'al-Baq'a'as 'the area with the
best soil for agriculturein the vicinityof Jerusalemin whichownersof land built for
themselvesluxurioussummerhouses'(al-Unsal-Jalil,vol.2, p.61).
At the outbreakof the First WorldWar, capitulationswere abolishedand foreign
nationals,amongthem manyJews, were expelledfromthe country.
Jews mainlyfrom Mediterraneancountries,whose ancestorslived in medievaltimes
in Spain.Generallyspeaking:OrientalJews.
Most individualand familyadditionsafterthe censi were not recorded.
This assumptionis based on statisticaldata calculatedfrom the requestsfor copies
of nufusbirthregistrationswhichreachedthe IsraelState Archivesin 1977. In most
cases the familiesof Moslem and Christianapplicantswere found in the registers,
even if they themselveswere not to be found as they joined the families after the
censi (see previousnote).
Jews, mainlyfromEasternEurope,whose ancestorslived in Germanyin the Middle
Ages. Generallyspeaking:EuropeanJews.
The reason for that phenomenonwas apparentlythe high percentageof old Jewish
immigrantsto Jerusalemwho were marriedto youngwomen (EncyclopediaHebraica
- Jerusalem - Jewish history).
71. These villageswere the following:Sha'afat(Nahiyetel-Quds- ncrth of Jerusalem),

Silwan, at-Tur, al-'Azariyya,Abu Dis, Sur Bahir (Nahiyet al-Wadiyya- east of
Jerusalem),al-Malha,'Eyn Karm,Bet Safafa,al-Jora(NahiyetBani Hasan- southwest of Jerusalem),Lifta, Dir Yasin, (NahiyetBani Malik- west of Jerusalem).
72. In contrast,the Templarswho lived in the GermanColony of Haifa were registered
in one of the town'snufusledgers.
73. Jews with foreigncitizenshipwere howeverrecordedin the nufusregistersof Haifa,
Haderaand other towns.
74. Y. Ben-Arieh,Jerusalemin the19thcentury:theOldCity(Hebrewversion),Jerusalem,
1977,p.307.
75. Ben-Arieh,Old City,p.314.
76. Loc. cit., p.314.
77. Loc. cit., p.138.
78. Loc. cit., p.312.
79. Loc. cit., p.399.
80. Loc. cit., p.397.
81. Loc. cit., p.403. The SummaryTable is based on documentsand estimationsof
consulates in Jerusalem(especiallythe British), estimationsof various visitors to
Jerusalem,surveysmade by the expeditionof the BritishExplorationFund in the
1870s and other explorers,guide-booksto the Holy Land, private censi made by
local newspapersand internalregistrationof Jewishcommunities(ibid, pp.395-9).
65
Sincethe originalSummaryTablepresentedpopulationnumbersfor everytenthyear

beginningin 1870,the numbersfor 1883and 1905were calculatedfor the table below
by interpolation.
82. Ibid., p.397.
83. Accordingto a summarytable for previousyears (ibid., p.318) the Jews equalledin
1870the two other religiouscommunitiesput together(11,000Jews, 6,500 Moslems,
4,500 Christians).Accordingto that table, the firstdate in whichthe Jews surpassed
the Moslemswas 1840. The numbersfor that year were 5,000 Jews, 4,650 Moslems
and 3,350 Christians.
84. Alderson,Simonds,Aldrich,BritishAdmiraltyMap, London, 1841.
85. Bab el-'Amudwas the only quarterwhichdid not quite fit into that scheme:only its
westerntwo thirdslay in the ChristianQuarterwhilethe areaeastof SuqKhanez-Zeyt
was, on accountof its geographicalposition,a partof the MoslemQuarter(see Map
5).
86. The smallnufusquarterof Nebi Daud, includedin the censitablesin the Old City,was
left out fromthis comparisonbecauselyingoutsidethe Wallsit was not an actualpart
of any of the four communityquarters.
87. In Ebers and Guthe's map from 1882 most of Wad was included in the Jewish
Quarter.
88. As-Sayras-Salim,pp.165-6.
89. And indeed T. Tobler, a prominentexplorerof Jerusalemin the middledecadesof
the nineteenthcentury,saw in that area a part of the MoslemQuarter(Ben-Arieh,
Old City,p.188).
90. As-Sayras-Salim,p.166.
91. Loc. cit., pp.163, 165.
92. Loc. cit., pp.163-4.
93. In EbersandGuthe'smapfrom1882therewasno ArmenianQuarterandthe Christian
Quarterspreadover the whole westernpartof the city.

Jerusalim PDF

Transféré par

Informations du document

Titre original

Copyright

Formats disponibles

Partager ce document

Partager ou intégrer le document

Options de partage

Avez-vous trouvé ce document utile ?

Ce contenu est-il inapproprié ?

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

Jerusalim PDF

Transféré par

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

The Quarters of Jerusalem in the Ottoman Period

Author(s): Adar Arnon

MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

of naming streets and quarters, by any kind of authority, did not

Below are some examples from the nomenclatureof streets and

THE QUARTERS OF JERUSALEM IN THE OTTOMAN PERIOD

Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem,'Ajami Quarterin Jaffa after the

Until the 1860sJerusalemwas constitutedonly of today'sOld City, that

THE QUARTERS OF JERUSALEM IN THE OTTOMAN PERIOD

MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

THE QUARTERS OF JERUSALEMIN THE OTTOMANPERIOD

Sepulchre.Armenianssettled in its south-west,near their Cathedralof

The most detailed descriptionof Jerusalemin the later Middle Ages is

days. The restof Mujir'sharatwill be used for identifyinglocationsin the

A. In the Moslem Quarter

runningnorth of St Stephen'sGate along the city'seast wall.

Haret Bab Hutta (Arabic: 'Forgiveness Gate') - Bab Hutta Street,

runningnorthwardsfrom the middle gate in the north side of the

MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

THE QUARTERS OF JERUSALEM IN THE OTTOMAN PERIOD

in the l ate 15th century

THE QUARTERS OF JERUSALEM IN THE OTTOMAN PERIOD

to the Bedouin clan of Salta)26- see Haret es-Saltin in Mujir's

In most of the censi quartersonly one religiouscommunityhas been

greatpartof the city'swall fearingthat it will fall fortifiedinto the hands

All the quarters called after sites in Jerusalemwere situated in the

future Jewish Quarter and Armeniansaround their monasteryin the

THE QUARTERS OF JERUSALEM IN THE OTTOMANPERIOD

THE LATE OTTOMANPERIOD

Street) - the area between the south part of ChristiansStreet on the

MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

THE QUARTERS OF JERUSALEM IN THE OTTOMAN PERIOD

quarter)plusthe east partof the ArmenianQuarter(Southof Jawa'na

MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

Baldwin II, king of Crusader Jerusalem, brought Christian population

fromTrans-Jordanto the city.41In the late nineteenthcenturyHaddadin

THE QUARTERS OF JERUSALEM IN THE OTTOMAN PERIOD

called after a site - Haretesh-Sharaf,populatedin the Middle Ages by

MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

The nufusbooks of Jerusalemgive us an opportunityto get acquainted

In the late Ottoman Period the Old City of Jerusalemwas mostly a

Bib el- Amel

St. Anne Seminary

THE QUARTERS OF JERUSALEM IN THE OTTOMAN PERIOD

Among Bab Hutta'ssub-quarterswere the following:

South- the west part of Via Dolorosa, 'Aqabet el-Khanqah.

Below are some of Bab el-'Amudsub-quarters:

Haddadin - the traditional quarter of Haddadin - the surrounding of

MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

North- Aqabet el-Khanqah,St FrancisStreet, the city'swall adjacent

Rum Hastahane (Turkish: 'Greek Hospital')45- St Dimitris and

SidnayaMonastreh- the LadyMonasteryin es-SayyidaStreet.

East- Habad (Suq el-Husur)Street.

Quarterto the Kilaor the partof ArmenianOrthordoxPatriarchate

Below are some of Silsila'ssub-quarters:

Khirbet Siknaj (the Hurba Synagogue)- the middle part of Jews

MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

Followingare some of Wad'ssub-quarters:

HaramSharif- the westernporchesof the Temple Mount. Appears

THE QUARTERS OF JERUSALEM IN THE OTTOMAN PERIOD

Bani Harith Bani Harith

MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

and the Jewish. In orderto fill up the vacuumcreatedby ignoringthese