The Prohibition on Non-Muslims Entering Mosques in the Ottoman Empire as Reflected in European Sources

Prohibition on Non-Muslims Entering Mosques 43 THE PROHIBITION ON NON-MUSLIMS ENTERING MOSQUES IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AS REFLECTED IN EUROPEAN SOURCES by Eliezer Bashan Eliezer Bashan is an associate professor in the Department ofJewish History at Bar IIan University in Israel. His main academic interest is the history of the Jews in the Middle East and North Mrica in the Ottoman period. He has published 118 papers and edited several books-currently he has two books in press and one in preparation-as well as reading papers at conventions dealing with the history of Jews in Muslim countries and the Sephardi congregations in the Mediterranean area. According to the Koran non-Muslims must not enter any sanctuary of the believers. Sura IX, Repentence, vs. 17 states: "It is not for the idolaters to tend Allah's sanctuaries"; vs. 18: "He only shall tend Allah's sanctuaries who believeth in Allah and the last day and observeth proper worship, payeth the poor-due and feareth none save Allah"; and vs. 28: "0 ye who believe! The idolaters only are unclean. So let them not come near the Inviolable Place of worship. ,,1 Originally these passages were applied only to literal idolaters and not to Christians and Jews. However, the history of the mosque in the early centuries of Islam shows an increase in its sanctity, which was intensified by the adoption of the traditions of the church, and especially by the promulgation of the cult of saints. The natural result of this increase in sanctity was that one could no longer enter a mosque at random as had IMohammed Pickthall, TheMeaning ofthe Glorious Koran: An Explanatory Translation (New York: Mentor Mooks, 1953), pp. 146-47. Another translation, by J. V. Rodwell, (London and New York: Everyman's Library, 1909, repro 1943), No. 380, pp. 472-73, translates 'temples of God' and 'sacred Temple' in place of 'sanctuaries.' 44 SHOFAR Winter 1997 Vol. 15, NO.2 been the case in the time of the Prophet. In the early Ummayad period, Christians were still allowed to enter mosques without molestation, since according to Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the Aht at Kitab (or Aht at 'Ahd) (=dhimmis), and their servants were allowed to enter the mosque of Medina, but not polytheists. However, at a later date, entrance was forbidden to Christians, and this regulation is credited to Umar.2 The Makhpela Cave This prohibition was not kept uniformly because the attitudes of Muslim rulers differed from place to place. In Hebron, Jews and Christians were admitted on payment to the sanctuary of Abraham (the Makhpela Cave) until 1266. In that year the Mameluke Sultan Baybars visited Hebron and forbade Jews and Christians to enter.3 • European travelers who visited Hebron before the Ottoman conquest and during the Ottoman period (1517-,1917) and who tried to visit the cave were not allowed in, and they wrote that the same applied to the Jews. They were permitted to pray only outside the walls. John Mandeville, for example, who was born in England and pilgrimaged to the Holy Land in 1336, arrived at Hebron and wrote the following: "They suffer no Christian man to enter into that place but if it be of special gr;'lce of the sultan, for they hold Christian men and Jews as dogs, and they say, that they should not enter into so holy place."4 2J. Pedersen, "Masdjid," Efl, VI, p. 654. ~J. Pedersen, p. 654; E. Strauss, History 0/ the jews in Egypt ami Syria under the Mameluke Rule Oerusalem, 1944), I., p. 322 (Heb.); M. Sharon, Cathedra 40 Ouly 1986), p. 104 (Reb.). 411:Je Travels 0/Sirjohn Maruleville (London, 1900), pp. 44-45; Johann Schiltberger, 11:Je Borulage arul Travels of. .. a Native 0/Bavaria 1396-1427, translated from the Heidelberg MS. (London, 1897), p: 60; Steffans von Gumpenberg, 1449, in S. Feyerabend, ed., Reisenbuch des Heyligerl Laruls (Frankfurt a. M., 1583), p. 239; B. von Breitenbach Beschreibung der Rheyse 1483, in Reyssbuch Meisner-Rohricht, Deutsche Pilgerreiserl (Berlin, 1880), p. 136; M. Baumgarten, "The Travels of ... a Nobleman of Germany through Egypt, Arabia, Palestine and Syria," in J. Churchill, ed., A Collection o/Voyages arul Travels (London...