Islam, Jews and the Temple Mount
This study presents the first comprehensive survey of the abundant early Islamic sources that recognize the historical Jewish bond to the Temple Mount (Masjid al-Aqsa) and Jerusalem, analyzing these sources in light of the views of contemporary Muslim religious scholars, thinkers and writers, who in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict deny any Jewish ties to the Temple Mount and promote the argument that no Jewish Temple ever stood on the Temple Mount.
The book describes how this process of denying Jewish ties to the site has become the cultural rationale for UNESCO decisions in recent years regarding holy sites in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron, which use Muslim Arabic terminology and overlook the Jewish (and Christian) history and sanctification of these sites. Denying the Jewish ties to the Temple Mount for political purposes inadvertently undermines the legitimacy of Islams sanctification of Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock as well as the credibility of the most important sources in Arabic, which constitute the classics of Islam and provide the foundation for its culture and identity.
Identifying and presenting the Jewish sources in the Bible, Babylonian Talmud and exegeses on which these Islamic traditions are based, this volume is a key resource for readers interested in Islam, Judaism, religion and political science and history in the Middle East.
Yitzhak Reiter is an expert on Islamic, Middle Eastern and Israeli studies. He heads the Department of Israel Studies at the Ashkelon Academic College. Reiter specializes in, inter alia, conflicts in holy places, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli Arabs, Middle Eastern politics and Muslim law, and is active in Jewish-Arab dialogue in Israel and indirect peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. His most recent two books are Contested Holy Places in Israel-Palestine: Sharing and Conflict Resolution (2017) and The Eroding Status Quo: Power Struggles on the Temple Mount (2018).
Dvir Dimant is a graduate of the Shalem Academic Center in Jerusalem, from which he earned a BA in Humanistic Studies and Middle East and Islam. Dimant served as a research assistant at the Truman Institute for Peace Research and the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, and worked on the Israeli-German Biblica Arabica Project. In recent years he has been involved in the study of Palestinian textbooks at the Impact-SE Institute and research projects on the Muslim world. He is currently a scholar of radical Islam movements around the world. This is the first research book in which he takes part as an author.
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Islam, Jews and the Temple Mount
The Rock of Our/Their Existence
Yitzhak Reiter and Dvir Dimant
For a full list of titles in the series, please visit: www.routledge.com/middleeaststudies/series/SE0823
First published 2020
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2020 Yitzhak Reiter and Dvir Dimant
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Reiter, Yitzhak, author. | Dimant, Dvir, author.
Title: Islam, Jews and the Temple Mount : the rock of our/their existence /
Yitzhak Reiter and Dvir Dimant.
Description: 1. | New York : Routledge, 2020. | Series: Routledge studies
in middle eastern politics; 101 | Includes bibliographical references and
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020000688 (print) | LCCN 2020000689 (ebook) | ISBN
9780367470357 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003032977 (ebook) | ISBN
9781000033144 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781000066791 (epub) | ISBN
9781000049015 (mobi)
Subjects: LCSH: Temple Mount (Jerusalem)History. | Temple Mount
(Jerusalem)In rabbinical literature. | Temple of Jerusalem (Jerusalem). |
Masjid al-Aq (Jerusalem) | JerusalemHistory. | JerusalemIn Islam. |
Arab-Israeli conflict.
Classification: LCC DS109.28 .R455 2020 (print) | LCC DS109.28 (ebook) |
DDC 956.94/42dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020000688
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020000689
ISBN: 978-0-367-47035-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-03297-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Our thanks are due to the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research for hosting this study and publishing this book. Special thanks go to Lior Shilat, director of the institute, Dr. Sarit Ben Simhon, also of the institute, Meir Kraus, former director general of the institute, and Prof. Shaul Mashal of the Interdisciplinary Center for reading the manuscript and making important comments.
Yitzhak Reiter wishes to thank a number of academic institutions in which I am engaged in research: the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, which undertook the publication of the book, the former Institute director Meir Kraus and the current director, Lior Shilat, as well as the institutes wonderful staff; Ashkelon Academic College, which is the main base for my teaching and research; the Truman Institute at the Hebrew University, which allowed me a research space and hosted my research partner Dvir Dimant. I am also grateful to Shalem Center and to Odelia Yatzkan, head of the Center for Internship and Leadership, who cosponsored Dvir as my research assistant during his internship. I would also like to thank Emory University and especially Prof. Kennet Stein, head of the Israel Studies Program, who during the fall 2018 semester allowed me to conduct research and get ready for writing the book, and to the Israel Institute, which financially supported me during that semester.
Dvir Dimant wishes to first and foremost thank Prof. Yitzhak Reiter for the collaborative work throughout the writing of the book, from which I learned much. A big thank you to the Shelem College in Jerusalem and its academic and administrative staff, including the faculty in the Middle East and Islamic Studies program, and especially to Prof. Zeev Magen, who instilled in me the love and understanding of the importance of the field of Middle East Studies and the Arabic language. Special thanks to Prof. Yohanan Friedmann for the privilege of learning from such a great man and scholar. Prof. Friedmann reviewed and commented on part of the manuscript in one of its earlier stages, and we are grateful. I thank my teachers in the Arabic language and especially Dr. Aric Sadan. Last but not least, thanks to my beloved wife, Renana, for her support and encouragement, through which I could devote my time to writing the book.
