March 10

On the last day of class, we handed in our final papers and learned about modern-day Jerusalem.  We started off with the Six Day War that happened in 1967 where Israelis pre-empt the Arab's pre-emptive strike and take control of the Sinai peninsula.  The UN rejects the Israelis annexation of Jerusalem.

The War of Independence in 1948 resulted in a divided Jerusalem.  It became east versus west, which is how we come to get Jerusalem as a state itself.  Palestinians are made because they were supposed to have a state, but the Arabs rejected the Peel Commission, so now Palestinians do not have a state.  Israelis do not want to give back this land because they have worked on building it up and they have people occupying it now.  Israelis say that Palestinians had their chance, but they gave it up.

After Yasser Arafat died, the other military group Hamas wins in the election, but they do not know how to rule so they end up continuing to pick fights with the Israelis.  The main reason that Hamas won that election is because after Arafat died, people were no longer afraid to mention all of the corrupt things he had been partaking in, and they didn't want to vote for that again. I personally don't have a solution for this unfortunately.  Any solution that comes up though will be much more easily said that done.

March 8

In class on March 8, Professor Cargill mentioned that Jordan was one of his favorite places, but I have to disagree.  I lived in Jordan for 4 months, and while I had some interesting experiences there, it definitely never became my favorite place, nor would I ever want to live there.  I understand that I am not an archaeologist and Jordan does have amazing archaeological sites, but if I were to be one, I would still choose to live in Egypt, but I am probably bias seeing as how I travel to Egypt quite often.

During lecture though we learned about the Sykes-picot agreement, Churchill's White Paper, & the Peel Commission.  The agreement of 1916 state that the British were going to control everything below the border between Lebanon and Israel. They're going to have influence on Iraq and Jordan.  The French were going to control Beirut, Lebanon & Syria.  Churchill's White Paper was written in 1922 and it clarified how Britain viewed the Balfour Declaration.  Originally, Britain didn't support a Jewish national home, but they supported the continuation of a Jewish community in Palestine.  The Peel Commission of 1937 established boarders in Israel between the Arabs and the Jews.  The Arabs were granted most of the land, but they were discontented because they wanted all of it, so they did not agree to the commission.  Jewish people then began to build up infrastructure and grow in numbers in land that was originally proposed to Arabs under the Peel Commission. Then there was the Arab-Israeli war, or the War of Independence, in 1948.

March 3

For Thursday's lecture, we backtracked a little bit to finish talking about the time up until the crusades, then we finished up Crusader Jerusalem, and moved onto the Mamluks. Before the crusades we had the Abbasid Dynasty that ruled out of Baghdad and was in power from 750-969.  Al-Mamum claims that he built the Dome of the Rock, but when he changed the name, he forgot to change the date so it was clear that he was lying.  The Fatimids were a group of Ismaili Muslims who ruled out of Egypt from 969-1099 and depending on the ruler the Fatimids either tolerated or persecuted those who were not Muslim.

Finishing up the crusades, Saladin conquers Jerusalem and Jerusalem eventually surrenders to Saladin in 1187.  After he wins the city, Saladin allows people to leave.  In learning about Ayyubid Jerusalem, we learned about the 3rd-7th crusades.

Mamluk means owned and the Mamluks were slaves who became soldiers and converted to Islam.  It was a grassroots slave movement.  Their architecture included red and white stones, maqarnas which are architectural features, and the buildings would have a semi-dome and a large niche.  They established Islamic schools known in Arabic as madrasa, and they built on the western and northern sides of the temple mount, which today is the area known as the Islamic quarter. 

March 1

On Tuesday, March 1 Professor Cargill was out of town and Ryan Roberts took over to teach us about Crusader Jerusalem.  In the beginning of the class he took a minute to review what we talked about the previous class period: the five pillars and the Dome of the Rock.  He gave a couple of factors that lead up to the crusades.  There was a political emergence of the holy Roman Empire which lead to divisions in Christianity, and there were also religious reactions to the persecution of Christians in Jerusalem.  He talked about what a crusade is and indulgences, and the four crusader principalities which were Antioch, Odessa, Tripoli, and Jerusalem.

Crusader Jerusalem was divided up into different areas.  The patriarch's quarter is where all of the religious activity took place.  The knights were based in the templar's quarter on the temple mount, and the Syrian quarter is where the walls are first breeched.  There was also the location of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Armenian quarter.

Professor Roberts showed a video game that takes place in Jerusalem and he pointed out which parts of it where accurate and which parts were very incorrect.  In the game, the Dome of the Rock was plated with gold, but at the time of the video game he said it would not have been gold plated.  He commented that the dress of the character was pretty accurate according to what scholars know. 

Feb. 24

On Thursday we talked about Islam and The Dome of the Rock.  There are five pillars in the Islamic faith. They are the shahada, salat, zakat, sawm, and the hajj.  The shahada is the proclamation of faith stating 'la ilaha il-allah' meaning there is no God but God.  Salat is the Muslim prayer that is said five times each day at designated times.  Zakat is the almsgiving to the poor.  Each person is required to give a certain amount for zakat if they are able to.  Sawm is the fasting Muslims do during the month of Ramadan. They fast for a month without consuming even water while the sun is up.  When the sun is down they feast.  The hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca that each Muslim is required to take at least once during their lives as long as they are able.

The Dome of the Rock is basically a shrine that has been placed atop a rock.  It has an octagonal shape and it was built by a Christian.  There is Arabic calligraphy around the outside of it.  Abd al-Malik built the Dome of the Rock and it was financed by tax revenues. The builders were under budget so they then decided to cover the Dome of the Rock in pure gold.  When it was damaged in an earthquake, the gold was removed and sold for currency in order to restore the Dome of the Rock.  

Feb. 22

Tuesday, February 22 was a special day. It was Professor Cargill's Birthday!  When I was in elementary school, birthdays were always the best because the birthday boy or girl would bring a tasty treat to class, usually donuts.  For Professor Cargill's birthday, he brought the class Diddy Riese cookies; they were delicious.

The topic of Tuesday's lecture was Byzantine Jerusalem, and the changes that occurred.  Much of the lecture related to what I had written my paper about.  The temple in Jerusalem in the past was the central feature of religion.  People went there to be a community and to pray, but as the Christian tradition grew, the idea of the temple became more of a spiritual one.  In the Bible Jesus said that the temple would be destroyed and it would be built again in three days.  The people said that was impossible because the temple took years to build; however, Jesus was referring to his body as the temple.  The focus starts moving from the temple itself to the idea of Jesus as the temple.

When Constantine came to power he fundamentally changed Christianity.  Under his rule, the Edict of Milan and the Council of Nicea both happened. The Edict of Milan legalized Christianity and made it acceptable for people to convert and practice the religion.  The Council of Nicea set the belief in the Trinity, the belief that God was made up of three entities, God, his son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit who lives in everyone.