The Gate of Mercy as a Contested Monument: Jerusalem’s Sealed Gate as a Muslim Site of Memory

Christiane-Marie Abu Sarah
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Abstract

English-language guides to the city of Jerusalem often describe the Golden Gate or Gate of Mercy (Bāb al-Raḥma) as sealed by the Muslims to prevent the return of the Messiah. This narrative, inherited from British colonial-era sources, has no basis in Islamic history or theology. A review of Umayyad, ʿAbbasid, and Fāṭimid-era traditions instead reveals that the Gate of Mercy was a site where Muslims prayed for repentance, envisioned the gardens of paradise, and imagined a Day of Judgment when the Prophets Muḥammad, Moses, and Jesus would stand side-by-side at the throne of God. These descriptions of the gate shifted during the Crusades: encountering a blocked passage, pilgrims attempted to explain the gate’s closure. However, rather than blame any particular religious community for the closure, medieval Muslim, Jewish, and Christian pilgrims described the gate as sealed by heaven on account of its great sanctity. These remained the predominant narratives about the monument until the Ottoman and British empires renewed the Gate of Mercy (and other sites in the Noble Sanctuary/Temple Mount complex) as a battleground for imperial claims-making. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, British travellers wove tales about how Muslims in their ‘childishness’ had sealed the gate to thwart the Messiah, and predicted a Christian conqueror would soon ‘wrest the Holy City from the Moslems’. These Orientalist narratives constructed Jerusalem’s Palestinian community as an impediment to be cleared aside, and silenced shared traditions about the gate. The gate’s history thus reflects how pilgrims, politicians, and other ‘memory activists’ use monuments to manifest preferred pasts and favoured futures. Gates emerge as particularly potent sites where visitors act out personal and political transformations.
仁慈之门作为一个有争议的纪念碑:耶路撒冷的封闭之门作为一个穆斯林的记忆地点
耶路撒冷的英语导游经常描述金门或仁慈之门(Bāb al-Raḥma)被穆斯林封锁,以防止弥赛亚的回归。这种叙述继承自英国殖民时期的资料,没有伊斯兰历史或神学基础。对倭马亚王朝、阿巴斯王朝和Fāṭimid-era传统的回顾表明,仁慈之门是穆斯林祈祷忏悔、想象天堂花园和想象先知Muḥammad、摩西和耶稣肩并肩站在上帝宝座前的审判日的地方。在十字军东征期间,这些关于城门的描述发生了变化:朝圣者们遇到了一条堵塞的通道,试图解释城门关闭的原因。然而,中世纪的穆斯林、犹太教和基督教朝圣者并没有指责任何特定的宗教团体关闭城门,而是将其描述为由于其神圣性而被天堂封闭的大门。这些一直是关于这座纪念碑的主要叙述,直到奥斯曼帝国和大英帝国将仁慈之门(以及贵族圣殿/圣殿山建筑群中的其他遗址)作为帝国索赔的战场。在19世纪和20世纪,英国的旅行者们编织了一些故事,讲述了穆斯林如何在他们的“稚气”中封印了大门,以挫败弥赛亚,并预言一个基督教征服者将很快“从穆斯林手中夺取圣城”。这些东方学的叙述将耶路撒冷的巴勒斯坦社区构建为一个需要清除的障碍,并使关于城门的共同传统沉默。这扇门的历史反映了朝圣者、政治家和其他“记忆活动家”如何利用纪念碑来展示他们喜欢的过去和未来。盖茨成为了一个特别有影响力的场所,游客可以在这里实现个人和政治上的转变。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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