Muslim Quarter (Jerusalem)
One of the four traditional quarters of Jerusalem's Old City
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Boundaries
The Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem is bordered by the Christian Quarter to the west, the Jewish Quarter to the south, and the Armenian Quarter to the southwest. The old city walls border the Quarter from the north.
The convention of a "Muslim Quarter", in what was then a Muslim-majority city, may have originated in its current form in the 1841 British Royal Engineers map of Jerusalem, or at least Reverend George Williams' subsequent labelling of it. The city had previously been divided into many more ḥarat (Arabic: حارَة, romanized: ḥārat: "quarters", "neighborhoods", "districts" or "areas", see wikt:حارة). The city had previously been considered in sections relating to a much wider range of medieval groups. From the mid-19th century onwards, with the influx of Jewish immigrants, the areas of the city inhabited by Muslims began to decrease.
The table below shows the evolution of the area today known as the "Muslim Quarter", from 1495 up until the modern system:
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History
The Muslim Quarter had a mixed population of Jews, Muslims and Christians until the 1929 Palestine riots.
Some 60 Jewish families now live in the Muslim Quarter. Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim is the largest yeshiva.
In 2007, the Israeli government started funding the construction of The Flowers Gate development plan, the first Jewish settlement inside the Muslim Quarter since 1967. It would include 20 apartments and a synagogue.
Landmarks
Jewish landmarks include the Kotel Katan or Little Western Wall, and the Western Wall Tunnels, which run below the neighborhood along the Western Wall. There are many Roman and Crusader remains in the quarter. The first seven Stations of the Cross on Via Dolorosa (Way of the Cross) are located there.