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Khān al-Ẓāhir – bi-Ẓāhir al-Quds!

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2009

KATIA CYTRYN-SILVERMAN
KATIA CYTRYN-SILVERMAN*
Affiliation:
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Institute of Archaeology and Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
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Abstract

In Jumādā II 661/April 1263 the Mamlūk sultan al-Ẓāhir Baybars visited Jerusalem and undertook various pious works, including the erection of a public khān for lodging those visiting the Holy City. Unfortunately Baybars's khān has not survived and much speculation has been made regarding its location. The Arabic sources relating to Baybars's deeds provide a good deal of information relating to his khān, which, once combined with western sources and archaeological evidence, allows us to suggest its probable site, its architectural type, and even range of services.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , April 2009 , pp. 149 - 171
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2009

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Footnotes

1

This article was first written in July 2000 during my year as a Visiting Student at Oxford University, UK, as part of my doctoral research on Mamluk khāns in Palestine (K. Cytryn-Silverman, The Road Inns (Khāns) of Bilād al-Shām during the Mamluk Period (1260–1516): An Architectural and Historical Study. Unpublished PhD thesis, 2 vols. (Jerusalem, 2004), forthcoming in British Archaeological Reports, International Series). I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr Julian Raby, then of the Oriental Institute at Oxford (and today Director of the Freer/Sackler Gallery in Washington D.C.) for his help and guidance. I am most grateful to Professor Reuven Amitai and Professor Amikam Elad of the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, for reading various drafts, for making invaluable comments and contributions, as well as for their incessant support. My deep gratitude goes to my husband David Silverman, both for editing the text and for photographing the inscriptions found in this article, as well as the Lions' Gate in Jerusalem (illus. 4–6).

References

2 Summarised from Ibn al-Furāt, Ta'rīkh al-duwal wa'l-mulūk, Vienna Nationalbibliothek MS Flügel 814, fol. 24v. See also note 15 below.

3 For a general rendering of this episode, see Thorau, Peter, The Lion of Egypt, Sultan Baybars I and the Near East in the Thirteenth Century, translated by Holt, P.M. (London and New York, 1992), p. 137, fn. 22Google Scholar.

4 Abel, Felix Marie, “Jérusalem, Fouilles aux abords de la Tour Pséphina,” Revue Biblique X (1913), pp. 88–96Google Scholar. Summarised in Vincent, Louis-Hughes and Abel, Felix Marie, Jérusalem, Recherches de Topographie, d'Archéologie et d'Histoire, ii, “Jérusalem Nouvelle” (Paris, 1926), p. 977Google Scholar.

5 Khān al-Ẓāhir is the name used by the Jerusalemite historian Mujīr al-Dīn (d. 928/1522) to name the khān erected by the Mamluk sultan al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Rukn al-Dīn Baybars (r. 658–676/1260–1277) in Jerusalem. See al-Ḥanbalī, Mujīr al-Dīn al-˓Ulaymī, Al-Uns al-jalīl bi-ta'rīkh al-Quds wa'l-Khalīl (Beirut, 1968), ii, p. 87Google Scholar. Translated into French in Sauvaire, H., Histoire de Jérusalem et d'Hébron depuis Abraham jusqu'a la fin du Xve siècle de J.-C., Fragments de la Chronique de Moudjir-ed-dyn (Paris, 1876), pp. 238–239Google Scholar.

6 In the map of Jerusalem during the Mamluk period published by Bahat, Dan (The Illustrated Atlas of Jerusalem (Jerusalem, 1996), p. 109Google Scholar), Khān al-Ẓāhir is placed at the site between Notre Dame de France and St Louis Hospital, facing the Old City's “New Gate”. This location has also been associated with the Lepers' Hospital of the Order of St Lazarus of the Crusader Period (Bahat, Atlas p. 91). See recent discussion in Bahat, Dan and Maeir, Aren M., “Excavations at Kikkar Safra (City Hall), Jerusalem 1989,” ‘Atiqot XLVII (2004), p. 187Google Scholar.

7 The identification of the site of the khān at the Central Bus Station was suggested by ˓Ali Sa˓īd Khalaf (see below). The village of Liftā (Lat N 31,48/Long E 35,11), whose lands are listed as part of the khān's endowment (see below), has also been suggested as the site of the inn's location. See report by Yasser al-˓Aqabī in the internet site: http://www.arabs48.com/display.x?cid=38&sid=171&id=25193, in which the text reads (in Arabic): “Khān al-Ẓāhir Baybars is located at the eastern portion of the lands of al-Shaykh Badr. . .”

8 Maeir and Bahat, Kikkar Safra, pp. 188–189.

9 Wright, William, A Grammar of the Arabic Language, Third Edition (Cambridge, 1986), p. 279Google Scholar.

10 Berchem, Max van, Matériaux pour un Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum (CIA), Jérusalem I (“Ville”) (Cairo, 1922), p. 446, note 1Google Scholar.

11 al-Dabbāgh, Muṣṭafā Murād, Bilādunā Filasṭīn (new edition, Kafr Qara˓, 2002), part 2, ix, pp. 258–260Google Scholar.

12 al-˓Asalī, Kāmil Jamīl, Min Āthārinā fī Bayt al-Maqdis (˓Ammān, 1982)Google Scholar; Ḥamdān ˓Abd al-Rāziq Ḥusayn Manṣūr, Dirāsa li'l-Nuqūsh al-˓Arabiyya fī al-Matḥaf al-Islāmī bi'l-Quds. Unpublished M.A. thesis (˓Ammān, 1995). See also Michael Meinecke, Die Mamlukische Architektur in Ägypten and Syrien (648/1250 bis 923/1517), Abhandlungen des Deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts Kairo, Islamische Reihe, Band 5 (Glückstadt, 1992), i, p. 15.

13 The shāfi˓ī qāḍī al-quḍāt Tāj al-Dīn b. bint al-A˓azz (d. 27th Rajab 665/April 24th 1267), also known as Tāj al-Dīn ˓Abd al-Wahhāb b. Khalaf, See Shaddād, ˓Izz al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ˓Alī b. Ibrāhīm Ibn, Ta'rīkh al-malik al-Ẓāhir, edited by Hutait, Ahmad, Bibliotheca Islamica XXXI (Wiesbaden, 1983), p. 43, note 8Google Scholar.

14 al-Ẓāhir, Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ˓Abd, al-Rawḍ al-Ẓāhir fī sīrat al-malik al-Ẓāhir, edited by ˓Abd al-˓Azīz al-Khuwayṭir (Riyad, 1976), pp. 220–221Google Scholar; translation based on Syedah Fatima Sadeque's Baybars I of Egypt (Dakka, 1956), pp. 235–236.

15 Ibn ˓Abd al-Ẓāhir writes: “He and the Shaikh of the sanctuary [the Ḥaram al-Sharīf in Jerusalem, KCS] climbed up to the dome which was on the Rock, by the outer side. He inspected those parts which needed repairs himself. He went and saw these sacred places, after which he performed the Friday prayer and gave alms. He looked into the affairs of the waqfs and the registration of their revenue and expenditure. He gave written orders for the protection of the waqfs, saying also that whatever he demanded from Syria for repairs should be sent quickly. By his orders it was proclaimed that no one should halt in a sown field, as a consequence of which the Atābek beat one of his mamlūks because of a little dry grass which he brought for feeding his horse. Then the sultan went towards Karak” (Ibn ˓Abd al-Ẓāhir, Rawḍ, p. 162; translation by Sadeque, Baybars I of Egypt, p. 178).

16 al-˓Asqalānī, Shāfi˓ b. ˓Alī, Kitāb ḥusn al-manāqib al-sirriyya al-muntaza˓a min al-sīra al-Ẓāhiriyya, edited by al-Khuwayṭir, ˓Abd al-˓Azīz (Riyad, 1976), pp. 86–87Google Scholar.

17 Shāfi˓ b. ˓Alī, Ḥusn, p. 58.

18 Lane, Edward William, Arabic-English Lexicon, Book I - 8 parts (London and Edinburgh, 1863–1893), I/3, pp. 924–925Google Scholar; Dozy, Reinhart P.A., Supplément Aux Dictionnaires Arabes, 2nd ed., I, (Leiden, 1927), p. 467Google Scholar.

19 For the term māristān/bīmāristān see Lane, Lexicon, I/7, p. 2708; Dozy, Supplément, II, p. 572.

20 Qarārīṭ (sing. qīrāṭ), is usually employed as a measure of length, meaning 1/24 of any unit. See Popper, William, Egypt and Syria under the Circassian Sultans – 1382–1468 A.D.: Systematic Notes to Ibn Taghri Birdi's Chronicles of Egypt, 2 vols. (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1955, 1957), ii, p. 36Google Scholar. Here the term is applied to lands endowed as awqāf to a charitable establishment, making it a measure of area, most probably to be equalled to 1/24 of a faddān, i.e., 265,3 m2. For faddān (pl. fadādīn) and its various estimates, see ibid., p. 37 and C.E. Bosworth, “misāḥa,” The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., vii, p. 138.

21 Apparently Ṭurra in Jordan, Lat N 32,38,29/Long E 35,59,31.

22 Text al-Mushārifa, read al-Mushayrifa [?] according to Quṭb al-Dīn Mūsā b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Quṭb al-Dīn al-Yūnīnī, al-Ba˓labakkī, Dhayl Mir'āt al-Zamān (Ḥyderabad, 1954–1961), i XLVII, p. 554 and “al-Mushayrifa min ˓amal balad al-Sawād” according to Ibn al-Furāt. See discussion below.

23 In the text “a˓mār al-Quds” [sic!]. cf. al-Yūnīnī, ibid.

24 For this kind of footwear, see Dozy, Supplément, I, p. 584, who writes: “Chez les Arabes aussi, cétait, à ce qu'il semble, une espèce de pantoufle que portaient les esclaves. . .”

25 Shaddād, Ibn, al-A˓lāq al-khaṭīra fī dhikr umara' al-Shām wa'l-Jazīra: Ta'rīkh Lubnān wa'l–Urdunn wa-Filasṭīn, edited by al-Dahhān, Sāmī (Damascus, 1962), pp. 237–238Google Scholar. My translation.

26 On Bāb al-˓Īd, see al-Qalqashandī, Aḥmad b. ˓Alī, Kitāb Ṣubḥ al-A˓shā fī Ṣinā˓at al-Inshā', 14 vols. (Damascus, 1987), iii, p. 395Google Scholar; al-Maqrīzī, Al-Mawā˓iẓ wa'l-I˓tibar fī Dhikr al- Khiṭāṭ wa'l-Āthār, 2 vols. (Bulāq, 1853), i, p. 435.

27 See Lane, Lexicon, I/1, p. 608.

28 Bayṭār can also be translated as veterinary. Lane, Lexicon, I/1, p. 217.

29 Ibn Shaddād, Ta'rīkh, p. 351, my translation.

30 al-Yūnīnī, Dhayl, i, p. 554.

31 Ibn Taghrī Birdī's account presents a similar version to al-Yūnīnī's, both being most probably based on a lost section of Ibn Shaddād's accounts. See al-Atābakī, Jamāl al-Dīn Abū al-Maḥāsin Yūsuf b. Taghrī Birdī, al-Nujūm al-Ẓāhira fī Mulūk Miṣr wa'l-Qāhirah, 16 vols. (Cairo, 1929–1972), vii, p. 121Google Scholar.

32 According to al-Kutubī (d. 764/1363) this same amir (Jamāl al-Dīn ibn Nahār) was also entrusted with the construction of a bridge over the Jordan (Nahr al-Sharī˓a) in 664, between Dāmiya (Lat N 32,6/Long E 35,32,60) and Qarāwa. See al-Kutubī, Muḥammad b. Shākir, ˓Uyūn al-Tawārīkh (Baghdad, 1980), 20: 340Google Scholar. Ibn Kathīr, clarifies that the construction of this ‘famous bridge’ (al-jisr al-mashhūr) between Qarārā [sic] (read Qarāwā) and Dāmiya was entrusted to Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Bahādar [!] and Badr al-Dīn b. Raḥḥāl, governor (wālī) of Nābulus and the valleys (al-aghwār, plural of ghawr; perhaps meaning the Jordan Valley?). See Kathīr, ˓Imād al-Dīn Ismā˓īl b. ˓Umar b., al-Bidāya wa'l-Nihāya, 15 vols. (Beirut, 1993), xiii, p. 287Google Scholar. See also Ibn Taghrī Birdī, Nujūm, vii, p. 141. The ‘famous bridge’ is no other than Jisr al-Dāmiya/Adam Bridge. Qarāwa should be identified with Qarāwā described by Yāqūt as “a village in the Ghawr in the territory of al-Urdūnn, where excellent sugar [-cane] is cultivated” (al-Ḥamawī, Shihāb al-Dīn Yāqūt b. ˓Abdallāh, Mu˓jam al-Buldān, edited by al-Jundī, Farīd ˓Abd al-˓Azīz, 7 vols. (Beirut, 1990), iv, p. 319)Google Scholar. Still with reference to Qarāwā and sugar production, Yāqūt quotes a ninth-century source (Aḥmad b. al-Ṭayyib al-Sarakhsī, d. 899), who writes: “[The Jordan River] waters the estates of the Ghawr – and most of the revenues of the Ghawr come from the sugar, which is exported to all the countries of the East from there; and there are many villages [in the Ghawr], among them Baysān, Qarāwā, Arīḥā (Jericho) and al-˓Awjā'.” (Yāqūt, Mu˓jam, i, p. 147). See also Le Strange, Guy, Palestine under the Moslems (London, 1890), pp. 53, 480Google Scholar. My thanks to Professor A. Elad for drawing my attention to the above passages by Yāqūt. For the identification of Qarāwā as Coreae mentioned by Josephus and also illustrated in the Madaba Map with Tell el-Mazār near the Jiftlik Station at Ghawr al-Fāri˓a (Wādī al-Fāri˓ah), see Moulton, Warren J., “A Visit to Qarn Sarṭabeh,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research LXII (1936), pp. 14–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

33 See editor's note, “bi'l-maṭar” in the Oxford manuscript. Al-Yūnīnī, Dhayl, i, p. 554, footnote 1.

34 The editor transcribed the village in question as Kayfā, according to MS. Istanbul, Aya Sofya nos. 3146 and 3199 from the Süleymaniye Library. He brought to attention, nevertheless, that the manuscript from Oxford (MS. Oxford, Bodleian Pococke 132 (Uri 700) reads “Lifyyā” instead, while Ibn Taghrī Birdī's Nujūm reads “Lubna” (al-Yūnīnī, Dhayl, i, p. 554, fn. 3), pointing out, nevertheless, that the version “Liftā” does appear in an addition to the margin of the Nujūm, which reads: “in ˓Uyūn al-Tawārīkh the village Liftā.” But by checking al-Kutubī, ˓Uyūn al-Tawārīkh, xx, p. 294, it reads Lifyā. In any case, it is clear that the abovementioned versions – Kayfā, Lifyā and Lubna – are all corruptions of the name Liftā.

35 al-Dawādār, Baybars al-Manṣūrī, Zubdat al-Fikra fī Ta'rīkh al-Hijra, History of the Early Mamluk Period, edited by Richards, D.S., Bibliotheca Islamica XLII (Berlin-Beirut, 1998), p. 81Google Scholar.

36 Māmillā is located to the west of Jerusalem's Old City. During the Mamlūk period it served as the main cemetery of the city. Mujīr al-Dīn remarks that “Māmillā is outside Jerusalem on its western side, and it is the largest cemetery of the city. The notables (al-a˓yān), the savants (al-˓ulamā˒), the pious (al-ṣāliḥūn) and the martyrs (al-shuhadā˒) are [buried] there. And regarding its name “Māmillā”, some say it derivates from “mā manna Allah” (“that bestowed by Allah”), others from “bāb Allah” (“the gate of Allah”), and others “zaytūn al-milla” (“the olive tree of the faith”). It is told that al-Ḥasan said: “That who was buried in Jerusalem in Zaytūn al-Milla is as he was buried in the Lower Heaven”. Its name according to the Jews is ‘Bayt Malwā'’ and to the Christians ‘Bābīlā’. It is commonly known by the people as ‘Māmillā’.” Mujīr al-Dīn, al-Uns, ii, p. 64; Sauvaire, Histoire de Jérusalem et d'Hébron, p. 198.

37 Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāya wa'l-Nihāya, xiii, p. 323. My gratitude goes to Professor A. Elad and Dr Nimrod Luz for pointing out to this passage, of great topographical value. See also passage under year 662 (ibid., xiii, p. 271) in which Ibn Kathīr brings a short note on the building of this khān and its related awqāf.

38 I would like to thank Professor R. Amitai for drawing my attention to this important aspect on Ibn al-Furāt's work. It should be noted that these passages do not appear in the Selections edited and translated by U. and M.C. Lyons. See Muhammad ibn ˓Abd al-Rahim Ibn al-Furāt, Ayyubids, Mamlukes and Crusaders, Selections from the Ta'rikh al-duwal wa-al-muluk, translated by U. and M.C. Lyons (Cambridge, 1971), i, p. 78. Joseph Drory (“Mameluke Historiography and its Contributions to the History of Eretz Yisrael”, Cathedra I (1976), p. 125, in Hebrew) has already noted Ibn al-Furāt's extensive use of Ibn ˓Abd al-Ẓāhir on the accounts of years 1274–1283. Note that Donald P. Little, following Eliyahu Ashtor, has mainly referred to Ibn al-Furāt's extensive use of al-Nuwayrī's Nihāyat al-arab fī funūn al-adab (Little, Donald P., An Introduction to Mamlūk Historiography (Wiesbaden, 1970), pp. 73–75Google Scholar). The passage on Baybar's khān, nevertheless, is not present in al-Nuwayrī's accounts of years 661 or 662, but appears as a short note in the beginning of his account on year 663: “wa fī Ṣafar min al-sana, waqafa al-sulṭān al-khān bi'l-Quds al-Sharīf, wa-quri'a kitāb waqfihi bi-ḥuḍūr al-sulṭān wa-qāḍī al-quḍāt Tāj al-Dīn”. See al-Nuwayrī, Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ˓Abd al-Wahhāb, Nihāyat al-arab fī funūn al-adab, 33 vols. (Cairo, 1923–1998), xxx, pp. 81–82 (on year 661), pp. 93–110 (on year 662), p. 111 (on Ṣafar 663)Google Scholar.

39 Ibn al-Furāt, Ta'rīkh al-duwal wa'l-mulūk, Vienna Nationalbibliothek MS Flügel 814, fol. 24r.

40 ibid., fol. 38r.

41 ibid., fol. 56r. “wa-fīhā amara al-sulṭān al-malik al-Ẓāhir bi-inshā' khān bi'l-Quds al-Sharīf wa-fawwaḍa amr binā'ihi li'l-amīr Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Nahār. Wa-naqala ilayhi min al-Qāhira bāb min ba‘ḍ dihlīz quṣūr al-khulafā’ bi-Miṣr. Wa-awqafa awqāf, ḥasana minhā qīrāṭ wa-niṣf min qaryat al-Ṭurra min a˓māl Dimashq, wa-thulth wa-rub˓ qaryat al-Mushayrifa min ˓amal balad al-Sawād wa-niṣf qaryat Līfā [sic!] min ˓amal al-Quds. Yuṣrafu dhālika fī thaman khubz wa-iṣlāḥ ni˓āl man yaridu ilayhi min al-musāfirīn al-mushāt wa-fulūs. Wa-banā bi'l-khān ṭāḥūn wa-furn wa-ja˓ala al-naẓar fīhi li'l-amīr Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Nahār [the name here is garbled].” Note that Ibn al-Furāt mentions the village of al-Mushayrifa as “min ˓amal balad al-Sawād,” and writes “Līfā” or “Layfā” (the letter fā not clear as slightly smudged) instead of Liftā.

42 Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad b. ˓Alī al-Maqrīzī, Kitāb al-Sulūk li-ma˓rifat duwal al-mulūk, edited by Muḥammad M. Ziyāda, 2 vols. (i-ii) in 6 pts. (Cairo, 1934–1958), edited by S. ˓Ashūr, 2 vols. (iii-iv) in 6 pts. (Cairo, 1970–1973), i/2: 491, translated into French by Étienne Quatremère, Histoire des Sultans Mamelouks, écrite en Arabe par Taki-eddin-Ahmed-Makrizi, 2 vols. (Paris, 1837–1844), 1, p. 205; On Bāb al-˓Īd, see above, note 26.

43 See above, note 40.

44 al-Maqrīzī, al-Sulūk, i/2, p. 505; Quatremère, Histoire, i, p. 230.

45 Theoretically ni˓āl (sing. na˓l) can also refer to sandals, but given Ibn Shaddād's reference to zarābīl (see above), ‘shoes’ seems a better translation.

46 al-Maqrīzī, al-Sulūk, i/2, p. 521; Quatremère, Histoire, i, p. 248; see Ibn al-Furāt, Vienna MS Flügel 814, fol. 56.

47 Mujīr al-Dīn, al-Uns, ii, p. 87; Sauvaire, Histoire de Jérusalem et d'Hébron, pp. 238–239. Sauvaire translated the portion on the charitable deeds as follows: “Il imposa pour conditions à cet établissement, entre autres bonnes oeuvres, qu'une distribution de pain serait faite aux pauvres, à sa porte, que les chaussures de ceux qui y descendraient seraient raccommodées, qu'on leur fournirait à manger, etc.” (ibid., p. 239). It is clear that when mistakenly translating “iṣlāḥ ḥāl al-nāzilīn” as “shoe repairing” Sauvaire had in mind the different versions of this passage by earlier Arab authors in which the expressions in use were either “iṣlāḥ zarābīl” (Ibn Shaddād, al-A˓lāq al-khaṭīra, 238) or “iṣlāḥ ni˓āl” (Ibn al-Furāt, Vienna MS Flügel 814, fol. 56r).

48 Mujīr al-Dīn also provides indirect evidence regarding the location and later use of the khān. He mentions the location of the tomb of a renown shaykh – Shihāb al-Dīn Abū al-Khayr Bādr b. ˓Abdallāh al-Qarnawī al-Baṣīr (d. Sha˓bān 780/December 1378) – as “in the vicinity of Khān al-Ẓāhir” (bi'l-qurb min Khān al-Ẓāhir), also stressing that this tomb was by the side of the road (˓alā jānib al-ṭarīq; Mujīr al-Dīn, al-Uns, ii, p. 160). Mujīr al-Dīn also refers to the fact that the mansion (qaṣr) erected by the shaykh Tāj al-Dīn Sa˓d (d. 892/1487), son of the renown ḥanafī chief qāḍī Shams al-Dīn Abū ‘Abdallāh Muḥammad b. al-Dayrī, was next (˓inda) to the khān (ibid., ii, pp. 232, 297). This mansion, erected outside the city (bi-Ẓāhir al-Quds) in the vineyards of Tāj al-Dīn Sa˓d (bi-arḍ karmihi), is described as a building of enormous proportions (˓imāra hā'ila), whose building was concluded in 866/1461–2 (ibid., ii, p. 238). Mujīr al-Dīn also refers to sultan Qāytbāy's encampment by Khān al-Ẓāhir on Monday, Rajab 17th, 880/November 17th, 1475, after riding for a day from Hebron (ibid., ii, p. 315). Later on, he reports on the amir Āqbirdī, the Grand Dawādār (on him, see Mayer, L.A., Saracenic Heraldry, Oxford, 1930 and 1999, p. 65)Google Scholar as spending two days at the khān in Dhū ‘l-Ḥijja 895/October-November 1490, after which he entered the city and visited al-Aqṣā (ibid., ii, p.355). In his renowned biographical dictionary, al-Sakhāwī (d. 902/1497) adds interesting information regarding the knowledgeable Muḥammad b. ˓Alī b. Muḥammad b. ˓Alī b. ˓Alī b. Qāsim b. Mas˓ūd Abū ˓Abd Allāh al-Aṣbaḥī (al-Ghranāṭī al-Mālaqī al-Mālikī, known as al-Azraq) who arrived in Jerusalem from Cairo as qāḍī in Shawwāl 17th, 895/September 3rd, 1490. He died on Dhū ‘l-Ḥijja 17th/November 1st, soon after his arrival, and was buried outside the gate of Khān al-Ẓāhir (wa-dufina khārij bāb Khān al-Ẓāhir). See al-Sakhāwī, Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ˓Abd al-Raḥman, Al-Ḍaw' al-Lāmi˓ li-Ahl al-Qarn al-Tāsi˓, 12 vols. (Cairo, 1934–1936), ix, pp. 20–21Google Scholar. This qāḍī is also mentioned by Mujīr al-Dīn, who reports that he is buried at Māmillā, to the side of Ḥawsh al-Bisṭāmī, on the west (Mujīr al-Dīn, al-Uns, ii, pp. 255–256). On other burials in Ḥawsh al-Bisṭāmī/Bisṭāmiyya, see ibid, ii, pp. 46, 132, 162, 173, 196, 221, 226, 227, 243, 246.

49 Superintendent (nāẓir) of the two Ḥarams (Jerusalem and Hebron) both for Baybars and al-Manṣūr Qalāwūn. On him, see Burgoyne, Michael Hamilton, Mamluk Jerusalem, An Architectural Study (London, 1987), p. 117Google Scholar.

50 İpşirli, Mehmed and al-Tamimi, Mohammed Da'oud, The Muslim Pious Foundations and Real Estates in Palestine (Istanbul, 1982), pp. 21, 165Google Scholar; Burgoyne, Mamluk Jerusalem, pp. 117–119. D.S. Richards, in his translation of this waqfiya (Burgoyne, Mamluk Jerusalem, p. 119), proposes al-˓Umariyya instead of al-Qaymariyya, even though followed by a question mark to note its problematic reading. If İpşirli and al-Tamimi's reading should be preferred, it could be suggested that “the lands of the Qaymariyya” were located in today's west Jerusalem, to the north-west of the Old City. Such proposal could be based on the existence, until these days, of a domed building in Strauss St., not far from Jaffa Rd. in the city centre, in which the tombs of five members of that family have been documented. See Dea'dlee, Tawfiq, Al-Qaymariyya Mausoleum in Jerusalem (Jerusalem, 2005)Google Scholar, Unpublished Masters thesis (in Hebrew) and Mahmoud K. Hawari, Ayyubid Jerusalem (1187–1250): An architectural and archaeological study, BAR International Series 1628 (Oxford, 2007), pp. 178–182. Worth mentioning is the fact that until the end of the nineteenth century the mausoleum was identified as al-Qaymariyya (al-Qaymuriyya according to Hawari), but later on, when a mosque and a tomb were added to it, the complex became known as Nabī ˓Ukāsha. It seems that the Khālidī family, at that time in charge of the administration of the Awqāf of Jerusalem, was responsible for this later addition. It has been even suggested that by building that mosque, the Khālīdīs intended to blur the original ownership of the lands – in 1936 evaluated as ca. 1.23 acres (5000 m2) – and eventually take over their control. Dea'dlee, Al-Qaymariyya, p. 13.

51 Del viaggio in Terra Santa fatto e descritto da ser Mariano da Siena nel secolo xv., edited by Moreni, D. (Firenza, 1822), p. 23Google Scholar. Considering that according to Mariano da Siena the distance between St Stephen's Gate to the Golden Gate in the eastern side of the city wall is “mezza balestrata” (ibid., p. 38), one “balestrata,” at least in this case, corresponds to ca. half a kilometer.

52 Voyage de Georges Lenngherand, Mayeur de Mons en Haynaut, à Venise, Rome, Jérusalem, le Mont Sinay et le Kayre (1485–1486) (Mons, 1861), p. 117. On Emmaus, the village where Jesus appeared to his disciples after Resurrection, and its identification with three different locations – ‘Imwas-Nicopolis (Lat N 31,49,60/Long E 35, Old Israeli grid 149.138), Abū Ghosh-Qaryat al-‘Inab (Lat N 31,48,20 /Long E 35,6,10, Old Israeli grid 160.135) and al-Qubayba (Lat N 31,49,60/Long E 35,7,60, Old Israeli Grid 162.138) – see Pringle, Denys, The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, A Corpus (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 7–17, 52–59, 167–175Google Scholar and Ellenblum, Ronnie, Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Cambridge, 1998), pp. 112–114CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

53 The use of khāns by non-Muslims during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods is clear both from the epigraphic evidence, and from the many passages found in western sources. Most instructive in this regard is the foundation inscription from Khān al-˓Aṭni in Syria, built in ca. 631/1233–1234. It reads: “. . .Rukn al-Dīn Mankuwirish, son of ˓Abd Allāh, al-Ḥurr (the freedman), al-Malikī, al-˓Ādilī al-Mu˓aẓẓamī, may Allāh accept (this) from him, and he had it (the khān) assigned inalienably for (the benefit) of the Muslims and others, whatever they believe in. He assigned for that matter the shops inside its gate, (intended) for maintenance and whatever remains from their rental . . .” (J. Sauvaget, Caravansérails Syriens du Moyen-Âge, I. Caravansérails Ayyūbides (env. 1125–1260 A.D.),” Ars Islamica VI (1939), pp. 54–55; see Cytryn-Silverman, Road Inns, i, pp. 23–24). The foundation inscription from Khān al-Sabīl (Inqirātā), on the route between Homs and Aleppo, 773/1371–1372, is also of interest in the matter of non-Muslim usage. Its fourth line says (parts of inscription unclear): “. . .The endowment mobilised for this khān . . . the agricultural field of al- . . .next to . . . for the upkeep of the khān and the mats for the westerners . . . (Sauvaget, J., “Caravansérails Syriens du Moyen-Âge, II. Caravansérails Mamelouks,” Ars Islamica VII (1940), pp. 11–12Google Scholar; in Cytryn-Silverman, Road Inns, i, pp. 34–35). As for the vast corpus of literary evidence drawn for the western sources, see Cytryn-Silverman, Road Inns, i, pp. 101 ff.; ii, passim. Amongst others, worthwhile mentioning the Italian traveller Niccolò Frescobaldi (1384), who wrote on the cane where his party stayed outside Gaza, as well as on that inside that town: “We reloaded our beasts and in the evening we reached a khan, a little outside Gaza, and we had taken ten days to come from St Catherine's to Gaza . . . In that city we were put in a khan (cane), at the entrance to the town, where we were shut up for several days much to our discomfiture [sic]. . .” (Viaggio di Lionardo di Niccolò Frescobaldi Fiorentino in Egitto e in Terra Santa. Con un discorso dell'editore Guglielmo Manzi, sopra il commercio degl'Italiani nel secolo xiv, Roma, 1818, pp. 133–135; Visit to the Holy Places of Egypt, Sinai, Palestine and Syria in 1384 by Frescobaldi, Gucci & Sigoli, translated from the Italian by T. Bellorini and E. Hoade, Jerusalem, 1948, p. 66). The testimony of Bertrandon de La Broquière (1432–1433), who served at the Burgundian court of Philippe le Bon, is also of relevance to the present discussion: “And from there [the valley of Hebron], we traversed a great valley, near which, as they say, is the mountain whereon St John the Baptist performed his penitence. Thence we crossed a desert country, and lodged in one of those houses which they call Kan. This is a dwelling made through charity for lodging in shade the passers-by during their journey. From that place we came to Gaza. . .” (Le Voyage d'Outremer de Bertrandon de la Broquière, publié et annoté par Ch. Schefer, Paris, 1892, pp.18–19; The Travels of Bertrandon de la Brocquiere, counsellor and first esquire-carver to Philippe le Bon, Duke of Burgundy, to Palestine, and his return from Jerusalem overland to France, during the years 1432 & 1433. Translated by Th. Johnes, Hafod, 1807, pp. 98–99).

54 The “new one” being the Citadel next to Jaffa Gate.

55 Bibliothèque Nationale, Fonds latins 4802, fol. 133; Milka Levy, “Medieval Maps of Jerusalem,” in The History of Jerusalem, Crusaders and Ayyubids (1099–1250), eds. Joshua Prawer and Haggai Ben-Shammai (Jerusalem, 1991), pp. 501–506.

56 See fn. 62 below.

57 Burgoyne, Mamluk Jerusalem, p. 86. On the inscription, see discussion below.

58 Abel, Tour Pséphina, pp. 88–96.

59 ibid., p. 95.

60 Mujīr al-Dīn, al-Uns, ii, pp. 51, 59; Sauvaire, Histoire de Jérusalem et d'Hébron, pp. 173, 190.

61 On the other hand, Abel's proposal would match the location of the Palazzo Antico in The Comminelli Map, i.e., inside the north-western corner of the city.

62 Bahat, Dan and Ben-Ari, M., “Excavations at Tancred's Tower”, in Jerusalem Revealed, ed. Yadin, Yigael (Jerusalem, 1975), illus. in p. 109Google Scholar; G.J. Wightman, The Walls of Jerusalem, From the Canaanites to the Mamluks. Mediterranean Archaeological Supplement IV, (Sydney, 1993), p. 276. Bahat's and Ben-Ari's excavations also made clear that the north-western corner of the city-walls remained destroyed until the Ottoman period, when the remains of the tower were levelled and built over (ibid., p. 110). These results contradict the schematic depiction of the north-western corner of the city as represented in the Comminelli Map, discussed above.

63 ˓Ārif al-˓Ārif, Al-Mufaṣṣal fī Ta'rīkh al-Quds (Jerusalem, 1961), i, pp. 198–199; also quoted in al-Dabbāgh, Bilādunā, part 2, ix, pp. 259–260 ; al-˓Asalī, Min Āthārinā fī Bayt al-Maqdis, p. 93.

64 Al-˓Asalī, Min Āthārinā fī Bayt al-Maqdis, pp. 92–93.

65 Not available to the author.

66 Al-˓Asalī, Min Āthārinā fī Bayt al-Maqdis, p. 92. It is unclear from al-˓Asalī‘s summary where Khalaf drew his conclusion from. No published excavations at that area have revealed such a building.

67 ibid., p. 93.

68 Map reference according to Old Israeli Grid 1713/1329. Maeir and Bahat, Kikkar Safra, p. 169.

69 Wilson, Charles William, Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem (London, 1865), p. 72, pl. XXIXGoogle Scholar (2, Mr. Bergheim's House and Grounds).

70 Maeir and Bahat, Kikkar Safra, pp. 170–175.

71 ibid., pp. 175–176; Bahat and Ben-Ari, Tancred's Tower, p. 110. It is tempting to identify the water-channel excavated by Maeir and Bahat as that mentioned in ˓Alā' al-Dīn al-Baṣīr's waqfiya mentioned above.

72 Maeir and Bahat, Kikkar Safra, p. 186. See above, fn. 6.

73 ibid., p. 185.

74 Cotovicus, J., Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum (Antwerp, 1619), p. 150Google Scholar. It reads: “Ad laevam è regione fontis plurimae visuntur vineae, & horti arboribus varijs exculti: iuxta quas in ipsâ viâ Moschea cernitur recens extructa & muris cincta, Leonis simulachro contra Legem Turcarum supra ostium insculpto,” i.e. “To the left is a region of many springs [where] vineyards and gardens cultivated with various trees could be seen. Next to it, right on the road itself, a mosque could be noted, recently [re-]built and surrounded by walls, with the image of a lion carved above the entrance, against the law of the Turks”. See also in Maeir and Bahat, Kikkar Safra, p. 188 for a different translation. Van Berchem (see below), as well as Vincent and Abel (Jérusalem Nouvelle, p. 977) had already related to this passage. The latter wrote: “Les réparations que les Turcs y [khān] apportèrent au xvie siècle respectèrent le lion héraldique du farouche conquérant qui figurait sur l'entrée”. On these carved felines and their proposed identification with those heralding St Stephen's Gate (The Lions' Gate), see below.

75 Maeir and Bahat, Kikkar Safra, pp. 188–189.

76 Sauvaget's articles on Ayyubid and Mamluk road-inns (Sauvaget, Caravansérails Ayyūbides, pp. 48–55 and Sauvaget, Caravansérails Mamelouks, pp. 1–19, see above, fn. 53) are still an important reference to this issue. For further discussion, see also Cytryn-Silverman, Road Inns, i, pp. 178 ff.

77 Sauvaget, Caravansérails Mamelouks, pp. 1–2. Its foundation inscription is also of relevance for understanding the functioning of these khāns, in a way completing the information on Baybars' khān, brought forward above. Its third and fourth lines read: “. . . He [the amir Ḥusām al-Dīn Lājīn] made it a perpetual charitable endowment (waqf), to [the profit] of all Muslims that come and go, for eternity, and it can not be sold and can not be taken into private possession. He constituted as waqf for its [the khān's] benefit and upkeep and for the upkeep of the mosque and water installation inside [its premises], the totality of two shops that are inside [the khān], the totality of an eighth from the great khān located outside the Jābiya Gate [0] [in Damascus] and the shops around this khān and its neighbouring abattoir. [All that] intended for the upkeep of the khān and the mosque and for what is in need [in terms of] oil, mats, ropes and buckets for the [water] installation. For the imām to whom forty dirhams will be paid monthly, to the muezzin thirty dirhams and to the gate-keeper twenty dirhams, the remainder to be distributed to the poor arriving, and to the needy travellers”. My translation, Cytryn-Silverman, Road Inns, i, pp. 28–29.

78 The three domes seen in the illustration included in Zuallart's itinerary might represent the mosque enclosed in the khān's perimeter.

79 For a discussion on the transfer of building material and architectural units such as gates, before and after Baybars's time, see Bloom, J.M., “The Mosque of Baybars al-Bunduqdārī in Cairo,” Annales Islamogiques XVII (1982), pp. 71–73Google Scholar. For surviving tenth and early eleventh century-gates in Fāṭimid architecture, see the projecting portals at the mosques at Mahdiyya in Tunisia (308/921) and al-Ḥākim in Cairo (380–403/990–1013) in Bloom, J.M., Arts of the City Victorious – Islamic Art and Architecture in Fatimid North Africa and Egypt (New Haven and London, 2007)Google Scholar, figs. 13 and 46 respectively. Worthwhile mentioning that in his article on the Mosque of Baybars (see above), Bloom refers to the two gate styles which developed during the Fāṭimid period, the earlier represented by the projecting portal of al-Ḥākim Mosque, the later by the flattened façade of al-Aqmar (519/1125) and al-Ṣāliḥ Ṭalā'i˓ (555/1160) mosques which continued into the Ayyubid period (Bloom, Mosque of Baybars, pp. 52–53). He also assesses the historical context for the revival of al-Ḥākim's projecting gate (and other architectural features drawn from this mosque) in the Mosque of Baybars (Bloom, Mosque of Baybars, pp. 55–61). His conclusions, of relevance to the local architecture, unfortunately do not shed light on the transference of Bāb al-˓Īd to Jerusalem.

80 Al-Maqrīzī, Khiṭāṭ, i, p. 435; Creswell, Creswell, K.A.C., The Muslim Architecture of Egypt (MAE): I. Ikhshids and Fatimids (930–1171) (Oxford, 1952), pp. 33–34Google Scholar.

81 No wooden doors from the Greater (eastern) Fāṭimid palace, seem to survive. A few examples from the Lesser (western) palace (finished in 450/1058) remain, as they were reused in al-Nāṣir Muḥammad b. Qalāwun's madrasa-mausoleum (695–703/1295/6- 1303/4). Nevertheless, we do not know if they originally stood at the gates. See Creswell, MAE, I, pp. 128–129, pl. 39. The pair of wooden doors (3.25 meters high by 1 meter wide each leaf) presented by the caliph al-Ḥākim to al-Azhar mosque in 400/1009–1010, today at the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo (Bloom, City Victorious, pp. 63–65, Fig. 37), is chronologically closer to Bāb al-˓Īd. Even though its original position at the mosque is not clear, Bloom hints to its probable use at the mosque's main entrance.

82 Professor M. Sharon has recently proposed that an inscription found at the end of the nineteenth century in Abū Ghosh on the way to Jerusalem (for location, see fn. 52) could be probably related to the renovation of Khān al-Ẓāhir. This inscription commemorates the construction/renovation (˓imāra) of a “blessed” building (al-makān al-mubārak) by order of sultan Qāytbāy and is dated to the beginning of Rabī˓ II 881/beginning of August 1476. Sharon implied that by being dated less than a year after Qāytbāy's visit to Jerusalem, when he stopped at that khān before entering the city (see above, fn. 48), the inscription could be related to its renovation either ahead of his visit (in which case the inscription was installed eight months later), or after he left, following his order. Sharon, Moshe, Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae, (CIAP) Addendum. Squeezes in the Max van Berchem Collection (Palestine, Trans-Jordan, Northern Syria) Squeezes 1–84 (Leiden, 2007), pp. 5–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the other hand, this inscription could be related to the renovation of the khān at Abū Ghosh itself, whose excavations in the 1940s attested to its renewal during the Mamluk period. See de Vaux, Roland and Stève, A.-M., Fouilles a Qaryet el-˓Enab Abu Gosh, Palestine (Paris, 1950)Google Scholar; Cytryn-Silverman, Road Inns, ii, pp. 175–191.

83 Burgoyne, M.H. and Abul-Hajj, A., “Twenty-four mediaeval Arabic inscriptions from Jerusalem,” Levant XI (1979), pp. 125–127Google Scholar.

84 I would like to thank Mr. Khader Salameh, curator of the al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf Islamic Museum, Jerusalem, for allowing its photograph to be taken, together with that of the inscription seen in ill. 5 (see below).

85 Translation from Burgoyne and Abul-Hajj, Inscriptions, p. 126.

86 Burgoyne and Abul-Hajj's reading of the second line (and the resulting translation) is reproduced here with reservation.

87 Manṣūr, Dirāsa li'l-Nuqūsh, pp. 72–77.

88 van Berchem, Max, Matériaux pour un Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum (CIA), II, Syrie du Sud, Jérusalem, Ḥaram (Cairo, 1927), pp. 436–437Google Scholar, no. 293. According to van Berchem, the inscribed slab was imbedded into the mosque's southern wall of the transept, next to the paving.

89 My translation.

90 Van Berchem (ibid.) has copied this section as “[tha]māniya ashum wa-thulth sahm wa-thulth thumn ˓ushr sahm min arba˓a wa-˓ishrīn sahm. . .”, which he translated as: “huit parts et un tiers de part et un tiers de huitième de dixième de part sur vingt-quatre parts. . .” Note that van Berchem read thamāniya instead of thalātha in the beginning of the third line. For sahm, pl. ashum, meaning an allotted portion, see Mawil Izzi Dien, “al-sahm,” EI 2, viii, p. 842.

91 ibid., pp. 445–446; Creswell, K.A.C., (1926) “The Works of Sultan Bibars al-Bunduqdārī in Egypt,” Bulletin de l'Institut Française d'Archéologie Orientale XXVI (1926), p. 148Google Scholar. Van Berchem (CIA, Jérusalem I, p. 445) writes: “mais ces reliefs ne sont pas in situ. En effet, les fauves de Baibars, dans les exemples que j'ai cités, sont toujours disposés de l'une ou l'autre des deux manières que voici: tantôt ils sont processionnaires, c'est-à-dire rangés à la file, l'une derrière l'autre, et passant tout tous du même côté; tantôt ils sont affrontés deux par deux, aux deux extrémités d'un sujet central, tel qu'une inscription. Ici (pl. C) ils sont bien affrontés deux par deux, comme dans la seconde manière, mais au lieu d'encadrer un sujet, ils sont très rapprochés, comme dans la première, et se regardent surpris et honteux de leur posture; en deux mots ce sont des supports héraldiques, mais privés de leur fonction”.

92 Clermont-Ganneau, Charles, Archaeological Researches in Palestine during the Years 1873–1874 (London, 1896), ii, pp. 110–118Google Scholar; Creswell, The Works of Sultan Bibars, p. 149.

93 “. . .on both sides of which [of St Stephan/Lions gate], against the law of the Turks, [there are] two carved lions facing each other; and this is the same as on top of the entrance to a mosque, on the other side of the city, which was already mentioned where we have spoken of our arrival [to Jerusalem, p. 124].” Jean Zuallart, Il devotissimo viaggio di Gerusalemme. Fatto & descritto in sei libri dal Sig. Giovanni Zuallardo, Cavaliero del Santiss. Sepolcro di N.S. l'anno 1586, Aggiontoui i difsegni di varij luoghi di Terra Santa & altri paefi. Intagliati da Natale Bonifacio Dalmata (Roma, 1587), p. 160, Quoted by van Berchem, CIA, Jérusalem I, p. 446, fn. 2. Note similarity to the passage in Cotovicus' Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum (see above, fn. 74).

94 Zuallart, Il devotissimo viaggio, p. 123.

95 Van Berchem, CIA, Jérusalem I, p. 446, fn. 2. It should be noted that the set of wood-blocks used for Zuallart's publication were reused in Cotovicus' Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum, in George Sandys' A Relation of a Iourney begun An. Dom. 1610, Foure Bookes. Containing a description of the Turkish Empire, of Egypt, of the Holy Land, of the remote parts of Italy, and Islands adjoining (London, 1627), in Alquilante Rocchetta's Peregrinatione di Terra Santa ed' altre prouincie (Palermo, 1630), and others.

96 And Cotovicus sixty years later. See similar comment by Maeir and Bahat, Kikkar Safra, p. 190, fn. 9.

97 If we consider the Citadel as his referential site. See above, fn. 51 and boundary of shaded area in Illus. 8.