Mount Zion in Jerusalem.. What is the truth about its name and the secret of Islamic and Christian interest in it and attempts to Judaize it?

Mount Zion is a name that was repeated a lot on the day of the funeral of the martyr Shireen Abu Aqila, but many were ignorant of what it was, and were suspicious of its repetition. Al-Jazeera Net introduces the reader to this mountain, and the reason for its name.

Occupied Jerusalem

- The funeral of the martyr journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, in Jerusalem on May 13, drew attention to Mount Zion, where she was buried in the Greek Orthodox cemetery, after which questions arose about the history of this mountain rich in archaeological monuments, and the truth of its name, which produced anxiety and sensitivity for fear of its connection with the movement. Zionism.

Al Jazeera Net descended to Mount Zion, which is located in the southwestern part of the Jerusalem Wall, within paths rich in history from its summit to its base, the height of its summit reaches 760 meters, and its slopes extend north to Bab Al-Khalil, and westward to Wadi Ma'man Allah, and south to Wadi Rababah, And east to the Kidron Valley near the Mughrabi Gate.

A square meter of it is not devoid of historical traces, as it is the mountain whose solidity has been told since the era of the Jebusites, and the oldest written documentation of it was in the books of the Torah which mentioned that King David, peace be upon him, took the castle of Zion from the Jebusites.

Al-Qudsian researcher Ihab Al-Jallad comments to Al-Jazeera Net on this, saying, "The mountain was mentioned by its name in the Torah, which means that it existed before the Children of Israel, and what came was a description of an existing place in the first place."

A side of the Greek Orthodox cemetery, one of the Christian cemeteries on Mount Zion (island)

Etymology

Interpretations vary about the origin of the name “Zion,” but Al-Jallad affirms that the word is a description of the mountain and has no political or historical connection, adding that “Zion” is one of the ancient names of the city of Jerusalem, and the most likely interpretations talk about the root of a triple verb (Zah) to which Wau and Noun were added to reduce Or the indication of the place, and the transformation of the verb through time and on the tongues, bearing various meanings such as the high fortified place, or the dry land.

With the exception of Jerusalem, a mountain in the countryside of Lattakia in Syria, and another in Yemen bears the name “Zion” as a metaphor for their height and prohibition, as written references since the Ayyubid era mentioned Mount Zion in Syria.

The sensitivity of the Arabs towards the name stems from its modern political connotation, although it was the Zionist movement that borrowed the name to associate itself with Jerusalem and Mount Zion, not the other way around.

Geographical importance

The mountain enjoys immunity from all sides - except for the side of the Old City - because it is surrounded by valleys, and its summit has been through the ages a destination for those who wanted to control the hill of Jerusalem.

The researcher Al-Jallad states that the Jewish gangs tried hard to occupy this mountain in 1948 and actually succeeded in that, but they were not able to occupy the rest of it inside the wall.

Some parts of the mountain are inside the Jerusalem wall, and most of them are outside it. This differed after the Ottoman restoration of the Jerusalem wall, where the wall’s area was slightly reduced, and the effects of the Ayyubid wall appear until today.

Gate of the Prophet David, one of the gates of the southern wall of Jerusalem, which leads to Mount Zion (the island)

His connection with the Prophet David

The mountain is also called the Mount of the Prophet David. Likewise, it is called one of the gates of the Jerusalem wall that intersects with the top of the mountain, and which remained closed between 1948 and 1967 until the occupation of East Jerusalem, because it directly overlooked the partition of western Jerusalem.

Al-Jallad says that the Crusaders claimed the presence of the tomb of the Prophet David on the mountain and built their monuments on it. He adds, “The most likely that the Prophet David was buried in Jerusalem, but there is no definitive confirmation about the location of his grave, and the evidence on Mount Zion is the shrine of the Prophet and not his grave.”

Islamic interest

The Mamluk Muslims were interested in Mount Zion and built a huge complex over the Crusader monuments, and the ownership of the place at that time moved between Muslims and Christians according to the policy of the Mamluk ruler.

However, the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent established the ownership of the place for Muslims in the 16th century, and gave it special attention, so he expanded and built the surroundings of the shrine, and established the “College of the Prophet David,” which included a mosque, a school, a kitchen and spacious rooms to accommodate guests.

The neglected and occupied Dajani cemetery, and behind it the Dormition of the Virgin Church (Al-Jazeera)

Dajani neighborhood and cemetery

The legal sultan appointed Sheikh Ahmed Dajani to guard the shrine of the Prophet David, so that the Dajani family (also called Daoudi) took care of guarding the shrine for more than 4 consecutive centuries, and built houses in the 19th century around the shrine to form what was known as Dajani neighborhood or Daoudia.

Next to the neighborhood are 3 cemeteries: the large one for the offspring of Sheikh Suleiman Al-Dajani, the middle one for the offspring of Sheikh Anis Al-Dajani, and the smaller one (160 meters) called “Torbah Al-Mansi” where the children were buried. One of the conquerors of Jerusalem.

The Last Supper Room, according to Christian belief, which turned into a mosque and then was invalidated by the occupation and opened to tourists (Al-Jazeera)

Christian standing

The greatest luck on Mount Zion was for the different Christian sects, for it embraced several religious landmarks attributed to different events, most notably the executioner explained to Al Jazeera Net:

Attic of Zion or the Room of the Last Supper: A two-story building that houses the shrine and the mosque, and the occupation turned its first floor into a synagogue around what they believe to be the tomb of the Prophet David.
But Christians believe that this attic is the place of the events of the “Last Supper” and “the washing of the feet” between Christ, peace be upon him, and his disciples, and it is the place of “Pentecost” where the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples, so that each of them spoke in a different language and transmitted the new religion throughout the earth, and therefore they are considered Christian they are the time and place of the birth of the first church.
Church of the Dormant Virgin: the most prominent architectural monuments on the mountain that characterize its general scene, located to the west of the shrine of the Prophet David, and it is the site of the death of Mary, peace be upon her, according to Christian belief, where she was later buried in the Kidron Valley (the Church of the Tomb of Mary).
It is reported that the current church was built at the beginning of the 20th century, on the ruins of a huge Byzantine church built in the fourth century and destroyed during the Persian invasion.
The Church of the Cock: It was built in the place where St. Peter denied Christ 3 times before the cock crowed. According to Christian belief, the church was also built over the house of the priest “Caiaphas” and the cave in which Christ was kept.
Like the previous church, the cock was built in the Byzantine era, and its current structure dates back to 1931.
Cemeteries and Schools: The Christian interest is evident in the burial on Mount Zion, and therefore, on the west side, it contains cemeteries of the Greek Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, and Armenians.
In addition to containing the Armenian Church of the Savior, and a Christian secondary school called "Zion", which was established during the British occupation era, and the first president of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Ahmed Al-Shugairi, studied there.

Settlers in one of the courtyards of the Prophet David compound and college, which was occupied and became a place for settlers’ celebrations (Al-Jazeera)

lubricate the mountain

The Jewish gangs occupied the mountain in 1948, and took control of the mosque and shrine of the Prophet David and turned it into a synagogue, diverted the direction of the mihrab from the Sacred House to the site of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and destroyed the mosque in the Last Supper room (while maintaining the direction of the mihrab), while the third mosque was completely closed.

The Dajani family, the guardian of the shrine, was displaced, and the occupation seized their homes, demolishing 200 homes, while preventing burials in Dajani cemeteries until today.

The occupation also tried to Judaize the mountain to obliterate the Islamic and Christian landmarks in it, so it built many synagogues such as the Sephardic Synagogue, religious schools such as Diaspora and Hashibano, and built a burial ground for the Holocaust and the Sambuski cemetery.

The six-pointed star and the occupation flags are placed everywhere inside Mount Zion, which is filled with students of Jewish seminaries, synagogues and members of the occupation police, but the history rooted thousands of years ago on this mountain reveals the origin of the story and the people of the mountain.