PILGRIMAGE TO JERUSALEM:

JEWISH, CHRISTIAN, MUSLIM

By Harry B. Partin
JERUSALEM IS ONE of the great cities of human history.
of the things that have made other cities great.

It has almost always been

a small place, whether in terms of area or population.

important political center.
the possible
B.C.) who

exception

Yet it has few

It has not been an

Jerusalem has not been a military power, with

of the time of David and Solomon

(tenth century

extended the borders of the Hebrew Kingdom by military means,

which exception has a modern parallel in Zionist expansionism.

Jerusalem has

never been an important center of

commerce.

It has

neither produced goods on a large scale nor developed trading relations of

the magnitude and importance of, say, the Meccans at the time of Muhammad
(seventh century A.D.).
Jerusalem
cities.

is not

located

on a waterway as are most

of

the great

It is an inland city, a city set among hills on the edge of

Judean wilderness.

the

Specifically, Old Jerusalem sits astride two ridges

forming part of the backbone of Palestine between the Mediterranean to the

west and the Jordan Valley to the east.
For most of its history Jerusalem, as, indeed, the whole of Palestine,
has been betwixt and between the great powers.
were

successively

the Assyrians,

southwest the Egyptians.

influence
Romans
inspired
The
Arab

of

in

To the north and northeast

Babylonians, and

Persians; to the

Later, Jerusalem was subjected to the power and

the West through the appearance of the Greeks and

the area.

Suddenly in the seventh century A.D.

then the
the Arabs,

by a new religion, Islam, arrived at its gates from the south.

early medieval period saw the contest of Western Christendom

and

the

Islamic world ("Islamdom") for Jerusalem in the form of the Crusades

*Harry B. Partin is a member of the Department of Religion of Duke

University.
ENCOUNTER

46:1

(15)

WINTER 1985

16

Encounter

and Muslim

responses

to

them.

Palestine has been again and

battleground and Jerusalem a city often beseiged.

again a

It is little wonder that

Jerusalem has almost always been a walled city, as, indeed is the Old City
today.
The fundamental reason for Jerusalem's greatness is religious.
a

It is

"holy city," a city imbued and invested with sacrality across the centu-

ries.

It has the distinction of being holy city to the adherents of three

major religionsJudaism,

Christianity, and Islamwhich account for more

than a third of the world's population.

The

three

historical

religions

share Jerusalem as a holy city not

reasons but because they share a common

religious

only

for

orientation

which sets them apart from religions of a basically different orientation.

In brief,
rather

the orientation of the "Abrahamic"(l) religions is historical

than

Moreover,

cosmic, monotheistic rather than polytheistic

or monistic.

there are large areas of shared sacred religious history

among

the three religions. Using the term myth in a non-pejorative sense, we may
say

that

centering

they

participate in important elements of

common mythology

on Jerusalem to which each religion brings its own

distinctive

associations and interpretations.

Adherents
as

pilgrims.

view

the

religions
through

of each of the religions still make their way to Jerusalem

Jerusalem is a city of pilgrims.

From a certain point of

three religions are pilgrimage religions.

in

They are

the general sense that they see human beings

pilgrimage

as

journeying

this world of time (history) to the presence of God at the end of

or beyond

history

Pilgrim Progress.

by

John Bunyan's

Thus pilgrimage is a paradigm for life.

as exemplified in a particular way

They are also

pilgrimage

religions

tradition

of valuing

in

the specific sense that each has

an

important

journeys in time and space to places held

to be

special and sacred.

JEWISH PILGRIMAGE
Jerusalem
became
of

has been a pilgrims' city for several thousand

years.

It

the goal of pilgrimage for the Hebrews following the establishment

the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem around 1000 B.C. after David's

capture of the Jebusite stronghold, Urushalimma.(2)

Hebrew pilgrimage is older than the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
23,

34, and Deuteronomy 16 enjoined:

Exodus

"Three times in the year shall all

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem

17

your males appear before the Lord . . . "(3) Deuteronomy added:

the place which he will choose" (16:16).
the

The occasions were

feast of unleavened bread (Passover, or Pesach),

(Pentecost, or Shavuot), and

". . .at
specified:

the feast of weeks

the feast of booths (Succot). During the

period of the judges Shi loh, some twenty miles north of Jerusalem, was the
place of tribal gathering and appearing before the Lord on the occasions of
the

thrice-annual pilgrim festivals.

Temple

Jerusalem

importance

became

With the construction of the First

the primary place of pilgrimage

as a symbiotic relationship developed

and grew in

between Jerusalem and

pilgrimage in Jewish religious life.

Jewish

pilgrimage

to Jerusalem has been directly

Temple, whether existing or in ruins.

related

to the

The period of the Babylonian Exile

(587-538 B.C.) constituted a break in the observance of pilgrimage, as in

some other aspects of Jewish religious life, especially those centering on
the Temple.

In some ways the significance of Jerusalem and its Temple was

heightened by forced absence from them.

the

completion

of

With the return of the exiles and

the temple of Zerubbabel in 515 B.C. the pilgrimage

festivals were again observed but now with a portion of the pilgrim

"going

up" to Jerusalem from outside the land.

The

last great

Pilgrims

period

of pilgrimage was that of Herod's

temple.

came not only from Babylon but also from Syria and from a new,

important

center of Jewish life, Alexandria in Egypt.

destruction
much more

of the Temple in A.D.

With the Romans'

70 participation in pilgrimage

individual and far less frequent.

became

The policy of exclusion of

Jews from Jerusalem which obtained from the time of Hadrian's razing of the
city

in A.D.

Aelia

Capitolina

several
Jewish
ninth

135 following the Bar Kokhba revolt and its conversion

(4) until the fifth century resulted

centuries in Jewish pilgrimage.

In the fourth

into

in a hiatus of
century, however,

pilgrims were allowed to visit the temple site once a year on the
day of

the Jewish month of Av,

the anniversary

of

the Temple's

destruction, as the policy was slightly relaxed.

With

the capture of Jerusalem by the Muslims in A.D.

638 Jews were

again able to settle in the city and pilgrimage could be made to the Temple
Mount

although the constructions on it were Muslim, not Jewish.

religious

interest

surviving

section

began
of

to focus on the Western

the great

impressive setting for the Temple.

the end of

Jewish

("Wailing") Wall,

rampart Herod had constructed

as an

Until the beginning of the Crusades at

the eleventh century Jerusalem

was open

to Jewish (and

18

Encounter

Christian) pilgrims although it was in most respects a Muslim

city.

For

the most part Jerusalem was an interfaith city as regarded pilgrimage.

During

the

period

of the Latin (Crusaders') Kingdom

of

(1099-1187 A.D.) Jews were again excluded, as were Muslims.

demise

Jerusalem
With

its

they were able to return and there was a continuous Jewish presence

as well as pilgrimage until the division of Jerusalem in 1948 as a

result

of the Arab-Israeli War.

CHRISTIAN PILGRIMAGE
There
pilgrim.

is a sense in which Christian pilgrimage began with Jesus as a

In the Gospel according to Luke it was written:

"Now his parents

went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was
twelve years old,
was

ended, as

Jerusalem"

they went up according to the custom; and when the feast

they were

(2:41).

returning,

the boy

Jesus

stayed

It was also at Passover that Jesus and his

"went up" to Jerusalem for the last time, shortly before his
and crucifixion.

behind

It is possible, indeed likely,

in

disciples

condemnation

that Jesus journeyed to

Jerusalem at the times of other pilgrim festivals.

Christian
example

pilgrimage

to Jerusalem is not

of Jesus as a pilgrim.

based, however, on

His pilgrimage was not

paradigmatic

the
for

Christians as, for example, were his baptism and his eating of the Passover
meal with his disciples.
crucial

Rather, Christian pilgrimage is based mainly on

events which occurred in Jerusalem during the time of his

final

visitation.
The earliest Christian pilgrimages about which we know definitely were
made

in

the

fourth century from the West.

There were

likely earlier,

shorter pilgrimages, perhaps, for example, from the Galilee, Caesarea, and
Pella

across

the Jordan to which Christians had fled at the time of

destruction of the Temple.

Clearly,

the

the fourth century A.D. was the time

of the transformation of Jerusalem into an attractive and frequented center

of Christian pilgrimage.

The Jerusalem of the Emperor Constantine and his

mother Helena was magnificent,

largely

due

to

their patronage and

initiatives. Most imposing were the domed Anastasis ("resurrection") over

the tomb of Jesus and the Martyrium, a basilica immediately to the east of
the Anastasis.
The anonymous Pilgrim of Bordeaux is usually accorded the
of

distinction

having left the earliest extant account of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem by

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem
a Christian.

He arrived in Jerusalem in A.D.

19

333, two years before

completion and consecration of Constantine's basilica.

likely

time of

the

pilgrimage of the redoubtable

pilgrimage to Jerusalem had developed considerably.

By A.D.

the

381, the

Spanish nun Egeria,

Of particular value is

her description of the liturgy which had come into existence in connection
with sacred places, times, and objects (e.g., the True Cross) in Jerusalem.
The

Bordeaux

others to follow.

pilgrim and Egeria blazed the trail, as it were, for

By land and sea venturesome Christians, religious and

lay, made their long, arduous journeys. They were a select group, however,
and their number did not approach that of the Middle Ages, the great era of
Christian

pilgrimage, whether

visitations.

Christian

to Jerusalem

pilgrimage

had

or other

not yet

places

of pious

acquired

the multiple

pilgrimage

to Jerusalem

motivations and uses of medieval pilgrimages.

Perhaps
before

the

the Muslim

Antoninus Martyr,

last narrative of a Christian

conquest of the city was that of an

late in the sixth century.

great

clutter had accumulated at the tomb.

ended

nor

prevented

the

further

although it changed its conditions.

in which

Italian pilgrim,

By the time of his visit a

The Muslim occupation neither

development

of

Christian

they had not been in Byzantine Jerusalem and had

themselves

accordingly.

Because

pilgrimage

Christians were now guests in a sense

of

the

to accomodate
importance

of

pilgrimage in Islam Muslims had some understanding and appreciation of

fundamental

the

desire of Christians to visit Jerusalem.

As

the period of the Crusades approached pilgrims

experienced

difficulties, especially with local Muslim authorities en route.

some

Bernard

the Wise, a Breton monk, journeyed to Jerusalem about a century before the
Crusades.

He

reported harassments and solicitations of bribes on the way

but little difficulty once he reached Jerusalem.

In fact, Western pilgrims

were somewhat privileged as the result of an agreement between

and

Charlemagne

the renowned khalif Harun ar-Rashid (786-809) to permit the endowment

of hostels and other facilities for Western Christians.

marked

(This agreement

the beginning of official Latin Christian presence in Jerusalem and

was greeted by the Jerusalem patriarch with consternation.)

Toward the end of the eleventh century, however, horror stories about
the experiences of Christian pilgrims began to be promulgated in the West.
In

1095 Pope Urban II at the conclusion of the Council

France
wrest

initiated
the Holy

the

of

first Crusade by calling on Western

Sepulchre from "the wicked race." While

Clermont

in

Christians

to

this and

the

20

Encounter

succeeding

Crusades were

complex

in causes

and motivations

they can

resonably be seen as mass, armed pilgrimages to Jerusalem.

The

Crusaders were offered plenary indulgences.

encouraged
century

an

in

This offer greatly

incipient trend which had appeared as early as

the Jerusalem

pilgrimage.

The

systems

of

indulgences was to become characteristic of Western medieval

Journeys

the eighth

penances and
Christendom.

to holy places, Jerusalem importantly included, became means of

penances and opportunities for indulgences.

The Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099 A.D., massacring its Muslim
and Jewish population.
builders

as well

They changed the face of Jerusalem,

as warriors.

They rebuilt the Church

for they were

of

the Holy

Sepulchre, bringing the tomb and Calvary under one roof. The church as it
exists

today

is essentially

the

Crusaders' church.

Other

Jerusalem

churches, notably the Church of St. Anne near the Temple Mount, were built
or

rebuilt.

Moreover, monasteries

pilgrims were
appropriation

constructed.

Of

and hospices offering

passing importance was

services

for

the Crusaders'

of the principal Muslim buildings, the Dome of the Rock and

the al-Aqsa Mosque.

The former was converted into a church under the name

Templum Domini (Temple of the Lord) and the latter headquartered the newly
established Order of the Knights Templar.
The

Crusades

heightened

Western

Christians'

consciousness

of

Jerusalem. Minds and hearts were centered on Jerusalem.

Negatively,

the

Crusades

greatly increased the enmity

of Muslims.

Jerusalem was recaptured by Salah ad-Din in 1187 and the Latin Kingdom of
Jerusalem
mainly

came

to an ignominous end.

Eastern

Christians who were

displeasure of Muslims.

As the Westerners withdrew it was

left

to bear

the brunt

of

the

Subsequently, Western pilgrims, associated in the

minds of Muslims with the Crusaders, could expect to be met with suspicion
and disdain.
In general, the Middle Ages was the great

period

of

Christian

pilgrimage. While some redoubtable souls made their way to Jerusalem, more
by far were pilgrims bound for Santiago de

Compostela, Rome, Canterbury,

and other Western, more accessible places. Pilgrimage became a major form
of

Christian

existence, a recognized and approved species

of

Christian

religious behavior.

Jerusalem pilgrimage found itself in competition with

other

Its great advantage was that it more than any other

pilgrimages.

Christian pilgrimage was connected with the root paradigms of the faith.
During

the Renaissance

and

the

Reformation,

pilgrimage,

like

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem
manasticism
continued

and,

but were increasingly criticized.

pilgrimage

had

especially

as

perhaps

to some extent, asceticism,

21
fell into disrepute.

There was a sense

run its course and could the more readily

abuses had become patent.

Pilgrimage

be

All

in which

criticized,

to Jerusalem was

less affected by the criticisms than pilgrimages to other places

because of its continuing identification with biblical events,

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem has increased during the past century. In part
this is due to improved means of transportation and the growth of

tourism.

It has become difficult in many cases to distinguish between pilgrim and

tourist.

The distinction, in any case, is seldom absolute, for, as Victor

Turner has observed,

the pilgrim is half a tourist and the tourist is half

a pilgrim.(5)
MUSLIM PILGRIMAGE

Islam is unique among the monotheistic religions in making pilgrimage

a fundamental religious duty.
of

being

religious.

places in its vicinity.

the House

certain

"It is the duty of all men towards God to come to

a pilgrim .

obligation was

It is more than an option, one of the ways

The goal of Muslim pilgrimage is Mecca and

.

reinforced

."(6) So states the Qur'an

by the personal and

explicitly.

paradigmatic

The

example of

Muhammad's own pilgrimage (the "farewell pilgrimage") several months before

his death in A.D.
have

addressed

632. At the conclusion of this pilgrimage he is said to

the

pilgrims in the words of

Sura

5.5:

"Today

I have

perfected your religion for you . . . "

But what of Mis lim pilgrimage to Jerusalem?
the goal of the pilgrim's hajj.

Indeed,

been reserved for the Mecca journey.

Mecca, not Jerusalem, is

the term hajj has traditionally

But Muslims have, in fact, journeyed

to other sacred places, including Madina and Jerusalem as well as tombs of

saints.

The term ziyarah ("visit, visitation") has typically been applied

to these "pilgrimages"

in order to maintain the distinction. However, the

distinction is largely terminological, for phenomenologically these ziyarah

are pilgrimages.
Briefly, the religious significance and value of Jerusalem for Muslims
derives from the historical fact that it was the first qiblah of prayer for
Muslims.

Qiblah

is

the point or direction to which Muslims

turn in

praying.

Jerusalem was historically the first of the two qiblahs.

The

second and later was Meccan, specifically the ka'ba in Mecca, dating from

22

Encounter

the second year of the Prophet's hijrah ("migration") from Mecca to Madina.
The

religious significance of Jerusalem was greatly enhanced by the early

appearance

and development of a religious narrative or myth according to

which Muhammad was miraculously carried by night from Mecca

where

to Jerusalem

he led other, former prophets in prayer and there ascended into the

near presence of Allah.

If one sees Muhammad himself as in some sense the first Muslim pilgrim
to Jerusalem (his "night flight"),

then the second was 'Umar, the second

Khalif, who entered the city in A.D. 638 to receive its surrender from the
Christian

patriarch

Sophronius.

He

is said to have

entered

Jerusalem

reverently on foot and to have searched out the holy places, especially the
Temple Mount.
The Muslim "Constantine" of Jerusalem was the ninth khalif,

'Abd al-

Malik

(685-705), who undertook the construction of the Dome of the Rock.

Under

the dome of this magnificent octagonal building lies the great

associated
Moriah,

variously with Abraham's intended

rock

sacrifice of his son on Mt.

the station of the Ark of the Covenant, and the altar of the House

(Temple) of Jerusalem.
Why

did

'Abd al-Malik build the Dome of the Rock?

already suggests one reason.

beauty

Its domed

shape

He intended a Mislim building surpassing

and magnificence the nearby domed Church of the Resurrection

Sepulchre).

(Holy

In this ambition he succeeded.

Ya'qubi, one of
wrote

in

the early Muslim historians (ninth

century

A.D.),

that 'Abd al-Malik built the Dome of the Rock with the intention of

drawing Muslim pilgrims away: from Mecca to Jerusalem as Mecca was then in
the hands of a rival khalif, Ibn Jubayr, who sought to extend his political
and

religious

sway by compelling pilgrims to swear allegiance to him. (7)

'Abd al-Malik urged pilgrims to circumambulate the Rock in Jerusalem rather

than

the Black Stone (in the ka'ba) in Mecca.

He failed to divert the

pilgrimage from Mecca but the building of the Dome of the Rock
in

the following

successor) of

century,

the replacement by al-Walid

the simple mosque

of 'Umar by

the great

and, early

(his son and

al-Aqsa made

Jerusalem increasingly attractive to Muslim visitors.

At

the same

recognition

time

there was evidently

some

of Jerusalem as a place of pilgrimage.

resistance
Conflicting

(Traditions) indicate that during the second century A.H.

A.D.) controversy was considerable.
was

(eight

to

the

hadiths
century

The position which gradually won out

that represented by the following Tradition:

"You shall only set out

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem
for three mosques:

the Sacred Mosque (in Mecca), my mosque (in Medina) and

al-Aqsa mosque (in Jerusalem)."(8) Negatively,

limit

on

places of pilgrimages; positively,

this Tradition

placed a

it validated pilgrimage

to

Jerusalem (and Medina).

The capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders in A.D. 1099 interrupted the
continuity of Muslim pilgrimage.

The Crusaders arrogated the

city.

Not

only were the principal Muslim holy places seized, modified, and converted
to

the

Crusaders' uses but Muslims as well as Jews were

Jerusalem.

excluded

from

The Crusaders' seizure of Jerusalem increased its significance

for Muslims.

As with Jews during the Babylonian Exile so with Muslims

Jerusalem became dearer still.

The recovery of Jerusalem by Salah ad-Din in 1187 brought rejoicing in
the

Islamic World,

for the event was seen as having religious as well

military and political meaning.

conscious

emulation

as

Salah ad-Din's entry into Jerusalem was in

of 'Umar's five and a half

centuries

earlier.

The

Muslim holy places were cleansed and restored and pilgrimage resumed.
While Jews were allowed to return and the Christians were permitted to
maintain
behalf

of

Jerusalem

presence through the intervention of the Byzantine emperor

the Orthodox community in the Church of

on

the Holy Sepulchre,

became once more a largely Muslim city and remained so for over

seven hundred years until its capitulation to the British army in 1917.
General Allenby entered Jerusalem on foot through the Jaffa Gate on
December

11, 1917.

He

addressed a proclamation "to the inhabitants of

Jerusalem the Blessed" in English, French, Italian, Arabic, and Hebrew.

His proclamation concluded:
. . . since your city is regarded with affection by the adherents
of three of the great religions of mankind, and its soil has been
consecrated by the prayers and pilgrimages of multitudes of
devout people of these three religions for many centuries,
therefore do I make known to you that every sacred building,
monument, holy spot,
traditional shrine, endowment, pious
bequest, or customary place of prayer, of whatsoever form of the
three religions, will be maintained and protected according to
the existing customs and beliefs of those to whose faiths they
are sacred.(9)
The

policy

of maintaining

the status quo as

regards holy

ennunciated by General Allenby was largely followed by the British

the period of the Mandate until its termination in May,

places
through

1948. On its face

the policy was reasonable and fair but it was not easy to implement, mainly
because

there were

Controversy
Wall),

conflicting religious claims

to particular places.

focussed especially on the Western Wall (the so-called Wailing

remnant

of the great platform on which Herod's Temple once

stood.

The Jewish community associated it with the destroyed Temple. The Muslims,

24

Encounter

however, saw it as marking the boundary of the Haram (sacred territory) and
moreover as connected with Muhammad's night journey and ascension.
specifically

identified

as

the wall of

al-Buraq, Muhammad's

It was

celestial

mount, in which are located the tethering ring of the marvelous animal, the
Door

of

the Prophet

through which he

entered

the Haram, and Misi im

religious propertry (waqf).

It

is not

conflict
places

our purpose to recount the history

of

the Arab-Jewish

during the Mandate period although it included conflict over holy

and

prerogatives.

Throughout

the period Muslims, Jews, and

Christians continued to visit Jerusalem as pilgrims. The more significant

development, portent
immigration

of

the future, was the large

and

in Jewish

as the result of the pogroms in Eastern Europe and, with

approach of the Second World War,

Germany

increase

and Austria.

the

the extraordinary persecution of Jews in

Following the war survivors of the Nazi holocaust

other Jews sought to reach the Holy Land as a place of refuge and new

beginning.

The Arabs resisted the large increase in immigration and

British sought to regulate it.

the

With the encouragement of Zionist ideology

and practical assistance from world Jewry Jews made their way to Palestine,
not as pilgrims but as those who would settle in and possess the land.
With

the withdrawal

proclamation
resulting

of the British

1948; the

immediate

in the division of Jerusalem with the Jordanians holding the Old

City, Jewish pilgrimage was halted.

Jews

in May,

of the State of Israel; and the consequent Arab-Israeli War

and Arabs

The Western Wall became inaccessible.

faced one another across the barbed wire

of

divided

Jerusalem with most of the holy places, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian, in
the Jordanian

sector.

This situation obtained until the Six Day War of

June, 1967, when Arab Jerusalem was seized by the Israeli army.
time a

process

of Judaization of Jerusalem

has

proceeded

Since that

apace which

threatens its future as an inter-religious city.(10)

PILGRIMAGE AS JOURNEY
Pilgrimage involves a journey to a place considered sacred in hope and
expectation of receiving benefis, spiritual and/or material (or in recognition

of such benefits already received).

It requires one to leave home

and to separate oneself from one's accustomed world.

The benefits may

be

specific, e.g., the healing of a disease, or rather general, e.g., a sense

of "blessing" and religious wellbeing.

In any case, it requires a journey.

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem
Pilgrimage is thus a rite of passage.
analyzed

by

experiences

the anthropologist

25

As passage it has been perceptively

Victor Turner who

has

explored

the

of liminality and communitas which he finds characteristic

of

pilgrimage.(11)
The pilgrimage journey is usually an actual, physical journey. Rarely
is

it entirely "spiritual," a journey made "in the spirit." Typically

is both

in that physical movement is accompanied

withspiritual experience.

byideally

it

integrated

This commonplace observation does not exhaust

the multi-dimensionality of the pilgrimage journey.

Thus one may find that

as the pilgrim moves forward in space he moves backward in time and that as
he moves outward toward some distant goal he moves inward
center of his own being.

in quest of the

One of the reasons for the persistence of pilgri-

mage is its potential for realizing such multi-dimensionality.

While

the

three monotheistic religions share this multi-dimensionality in their Jerusalem journeys each of the pilgrimages has its own distinctive emphases.
CHARACTERISTIC SYMBOLIC GOALS OF THE PILGRIMAGE JOURNEY
At

the

risk of oversimplification we suggest that the three pilgri-

mages can be significantly and appropriately distinguished in terms of

the

symbolic goal of the journey.

The
the

religious symbolism which most illuminates Jewish

symbolism

of the center.

their world and of the world.

Jonathan

Z.

Smith

pilgrimage

For Jews Jerusalem is the center

is

both of

Pilgrimage is thus a journey to the center.

in his essay "Earth and Gods" cited a well-known

rabbinic text which gives direct expression to the centrality of Jerusalem:

Just as the navel is found at the center of a human being, so the
land of Israel is found at the center of the world . . . and it
is the foundation of the world.
Jerusalem is at the center of
the land of Israel, the Temple is at the center of Jerusalem, the
Holy of Holies is at the center of the Temple, the Ark is at the
Center of the Holy of Holies and the Foundation Stone is in front
of the Ark, which spot is the foundation of the world.(12)
Virtually all of the characteristics of the center which historians of
religions
have

and others who have studied this important

found are illustrated by Jerusalem.

Thus,

symbolism

for example, it is the

"navel" of the earth, the place where creation began.

may

religious

Illustrative of what

be called sacred geography it has the form of a mountain ("Mt.

and is the highest point on earth.

Jerusalem

although

it

is actually

Zion")

(A Jewish pilgrim always "goes up" to

lower

than

some

other

places

in

Palestine.) Jerusalem is the center of the geographical world on the horizontal plane.

Vertically it is situated at the midpoint on the axis which

Encounter

26

intersects the netherworld (Tehom) and the upper, celestial world.

Jonathan

Smith:

Wrote

"For the Jew to journey up to Jerusalem is to ascend

to

the very crucible of creation, the womb of everything, the center and fountain of reality,

the place of blessing par excellence.

It is, in Eliade's

terms, to journey to the place which is pre-eminently real . . ."(13) This

superabundance
ways,

of

reality

for example,

expresses itself specifically in a number of

in terms of holiness, purity, wisdom, fertility, and

fecundity.
Historically, Jerusalem has been the central city for the Jewish community.
City

King David seems deliberately to have chosen it as his city ("the

of David") because it was centrally located between the northern and

southern tribes.
first

in a

Here was brought to rest the mobile Ark of the Covenant,

tent (reminder of its

earlier mobility), and

then, under

Solomon, installed permanently, as it was hoped, in the first Temple. With

the division of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms the political and

reli-

gious

rival

centrality

of

Jerusalem was contested by the appearance

of

centers in the North but Jerusalam eventually prevailed. During the period
of

the Babylonian Exile Jerusalem became a powerful symbol

as

a broken

center on which memories and hopes for return and restoration were focussed
("If I forget you, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand wither" Ps. 137:5.) For
Jews

of the Diaspora both before and afater the destruction of the Temple

in A.D.

70 Jerusalem was and remained the central point of orientation.

Wherever

in

the wide world the Passover

(a pilgrim

festival, as one

recalls) was celebrated it concluded with the expressed hope:

"Next year

in Jerusalem."
One

does not

references
because

to Jerusalem

to

search far

to

find

Christian

as the center of the world.

This

Christians and Muslims have appropriated this among

images.

More

symbolism
applied

have

significantly, Muslims

and Muslim
is

in part

other Jewish

appropriated virtually the entire

of the center as it had developed in relation to Jerusalem and

it to Mecca.

its highest

(Thus Mecca was said to be the navel of the earth,

point, situated between the lox^er and upper worlds, source of

fertility, et cetera.) While Muslims may speak of Jerusalem as the center

of

the world

(as historians of religions have

paradoxically, many

"centers

learned,

of the world"), Mecca is

there

can be,

the pre-eminent

Muslim center.
Christians,
Again,

this

is

too, speak

of

Jerusalem as the center

of

the world.

in part because Christians appropriated elements

of

the

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem
Jewish

image of Jerusalem.

27

However, while the Jews identified the center

with the Temple (center of the central city) Christians identified it with
the place of crucifixion and resurrection.
dead at the center of the world.

Calvary,

Jesus died and rose from the

the "hill" of his crucifixion,

was

perhaps paralleled with the Rock on which the sacrificial altar

and

on x^hich Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son.

the Holy
today

The Tomb

of Holies of the Temple (the "empty" place of

one is shown "the center of the world" in the

Orthodox

stood

paralleled

darkness).

Catholicon

Even

(Eastern

custody) situated between the Tomb and Calvary in the Church of

the Holy Sepulchre.

Nevertheless,
expresses
best

it is not the symbolism of the center which essentially

the Christian valuation of Jerusalem.

understood

Christian pilgrimage

in terms of a journey to the origin.

is

Jerusalem

is the

events, that

is, of

source-place of the Christian faith.

The

origin is conceived primarily in terms of

crucial, climactic

events which "took place" (the expression is instruc-

tive) in Jerusalem.

While most of Jesus' life and activity took place out-

side Jerusalem

the

dramatic

events of his

final week,

including his

passion, crucifixion, and resurrection, occurred in Jerusalem.

"No other

sentiment draws men to Jerusalem," wrote St. Paulinus of Nola late in the
fourth century,
than the desire to see and touch the places where Christ was
physically present, and to be able to say from our very own
experience 'we have gone into his tabernacle and adored in
the very places where his feet have stood' (Ps. CXXXII.7)
. Theirs is a truly spiritual desire to see the places
where Christ suffered, rose from the dead, and ascended into
heaven . . . The manger of His birth, the river of his
baptism, the garden of His betrayal, the palace of His
condemnation, the column of His scourging, the thorns of His
crowning, the wood of His crucifixion, the stone of His
burial; all these things recall God's former presence on
earth and demonstrate the ancient basis of our modern
beliefs.(14)
Events
consequence
journeys,

occur
is

in

that

time and space;

they

"take

in journeying to the origin

imaginatively

the

in

time.

Christian pilgrim

at least, to a time as well as to a place.

time is the time of the events, first century A.D.,

time of Jesus.

place"

the Jerusalem of

The
the

This helps us to understand the characteristic effort of

the Christian visitor to imagine Jerusalem as it was then.

In fact, the

Christian visitor, whether consciously pilgrim or not, is often distracted

by and even resentful of all he or she sees which does not fit the picture
of

first-century Jerusalem.

Such a picture often exists in the minds and

imaginations of Christian visitors, a picture derived from the Gospels and

28

Encounter

other sources.

It is one of the reasons that many Christian visitors, and

not Protestants

only, are disappointed by,

Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

It does not look like a tomb and it is dif-

ficult to imagine that it really is.

tion of

the

unauthentic.

say, the tomb of Jesus in the

It also helps to explain the attrac-

so-called Garden Tomb ("Gordon's Calvary") although

it is

It is a tomb (probably second century) and looks like it.

John Wilkinson has observed in discussing the authenticity of various

Christian holy

places

in Palestine that they

memorials.(15)

That is, whether or not a particular site is authentic it

has served to recall an event or person.

Christian
became

religion

should

be understood

As the center of gravity of

shifted westward and the original

Christian

as
the

events

accessible only in narrative form there seems to have been a desire

to confirm, as it were, the Christian events by visiting the places where

they had

occurred.

visitations

gave

It was not that pilgrims

them

sense of historical

doubted

but

as well

as

that

their

transcendent

reality.

So it may have been with Origen, sometimes mentioned as a pilgrim

although

of uncertain status, who ostensibly visited the Holy Land in the

third

century

for biblical information more than for

Also, visiting

the holy places was believed to

reasons

of piety.

increase understanding.

Wrote St. Jerome late in the fourth century: "One may only truly understand
the Holy Scriptures after looking upon Judea with one's own eyes."(16) He
lived

the

last

thirty-five years of his life

in Bethlehem

engaged

in

biblical translation. He also wrote a description of the pilgrimage of his

protegee Paula, a Roman matron, describing her initial visits to the holy
places

in terms of what Jonathan Sumption has called "a constant effort of

imagination."(17) Wrote Jerome:

"She fell down and worshipped before the

Cross as if she could see the Lord hanging on it."(18) Hers was perhaps a
more

intense experience of the general kind which has been

characteristic

of Christian pilgrims.
Islamic pilgrimage to Jerusalem is best understood as a journey to the
end.

For Muslims Jerusalem is the place of culmination.

Although the Mecca pilgrimage, like Jewish pilgrimage to Jerusalem, is

fundamentally

journey

to the center of the world,

eschatological significance.

In particular,

it evidences

some

the "standing" (wuquf) on the

plain of 'Arafat before the Mount of Mercy is appropriately to be seen as a

rehearsal

of the final judgment.

Pilgrims from the whole of the Islamic

world, all wearing the simple, white pilgrimage garment (ihram) recalling
the burial shroud,
and on the Last Day.

"stand" before Allah and pray for divine acceptance now

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem
If
locus

'Arafat (near Mecca) is the place of "rehearsal," Jerusalem is the

of

the actual

Jerusalem

that

event.

According to Muslim mythology

the general resurrection of the dead will

final judgment occur.

("day

29

It is said,

it is at

begin and the

for example, that when the yaum ad-din

of reckoning") arrives Mecca and Madina will come to Jerusalem (as

will all the world).

In order to understand the significance of Jerusalem for Muslims it is

necessary

to understand

history.

In brief, Muslims claim the Jewish religious history is a highly

significant

part

"Muhammadan

Islam,"

Adam.

of

how Muslims relate

the pre-history

Islam

to Jewish

of Muhammadan

Islam.

religious
One says

for Islam in essence is believed to be as ancient as

Muhammadan Islam is Islam restored in the seventh century A.D. by

Muhammad.
In and

through

the religious history of the Jews Allah

sought to

restore Islam (in the fundamental sense of submission to the will of Allah)
but without success although true prophets proclaimed it.
himself as

Muhammad saw

in the line of these prophets and indeed sought acknowledgement

as such from the Madinan Jews shortly after the hijrah A.D. 622. His claim
was not acknowledged and so a rupture with the Madinan Jews
Muhammad

ensued, but

never ceased to regard himself as a messenger (rasul) of the One

God whom the Jewish prophets had proclaimed.

The myth

of Muhammad's

night

flight

and ascension

is entirely

congruent with this understanding of Jewish religious history.

It involves

a spiritual (and, say some Muslims, actual) flight from the Ka'ba in Mecca
to

"the farther mosque"

in Jerusalem.

The latter

is the Temple,

commemorated by Muslims by the al-Aqsa ("farther") Mosque near the site of

the Jewish Temple.

(Al-Aqsa refers not only to the building known as the

al-Aqsa Mosque but to the entire haram ash-sharif,

including the Dome of

the Rock.) The myth thus linked the two temples, Meccan and Jerusalemite.
Moreover,

it was here that Muhammad was greeted by Jewish prophets of the

past and led them in prayer,

company.

thus affirming his membership in this exalted

The whole myth has an initiatory structure and content, for not

only was Muhammad

subsequently

greeted and acknowledged by earlier

ascended

from

"near presence" of Allah.

prophets

the Rock through the seven heavens

but he
into the

In the course of his initiatory journey he saw

and learned many things and received instruction (e.g., about the number of
daily prayers) from Allah. A historian of religions would observe that the
structure of this ascension myth is characteristically shamanistic.

30

Encounter
While

Jews and Judaism have consistently denied Muhammad's

religious

claim to continuity with Jewish religious history Muslims have persistently

affirmed
should
held

it and consequently laid religious claim to Jerusalem.

have come into possession of Jerusalem in the seventh

it

into

Kingdom, has

the twentieth, except for the brief period

seemed

That they

century and

of

the Latin

to Muslims not only appropriate but evidence

of a

continuing, progressive religious history and ultimately of divine guidance

and favor.
To

summarize, although

each of the three pilgrimages

to Jerusalem

shares some of the characteristics of the others, Jewish pilgrimage is most

characteristically a journey to the center, Christian pilgrimage a journey
to the origin, and Islamic pilgrimage, to the end.

PROBLEMS OF PILGRIMAGE

Each

of these emphases has generated particular problems in relation

to the later history of pilgrimage in the several religions.

In the case

of Judaism in the modern period there has been a tendency, much influenced
by

Zionism,

Should
visit

Should

to Jerusalem.

immigration

aliyahs.

living

called

is a term used

in diaspora.

an

since

perhaps

live

ancient

used

Thus Jewish historians refer

of immigration

as

the

to the

The possibility of fulfilling one's religious

by

for

first, second, third,

authentically Jewish religious life in diaspora

into question

there?

times for

In modern times it has come to be

to the land of Israel.

successive waves

et cetera
and

continue

one not rather return to the center and

("going up, ascent")

pilgrimage
modern

it problematic for Jews to

not a Jew do more than orient himself toward Jerusalem and

it?

Aliyah

to make

the creation of the state

of

duties

has been

Israel

and

its

ideological development as Eretz Israel. The Museum of the Diaspora at the

University

of

Tel Aviv,

for example, communicates this message

to its

visitors.
"The most archaic way Israel has of talking about her
Jonathan Z.
in Vietnam:
continued:

land,"

Smith, "may be described under a rubric borrowed from the war

Israel

is an 'enclave' or a 'strategic

hamlet.'"(18)

He

"For the ancient Israelites, the wilderness or desert was not

seen as neutral ground, but rather as sacred landsacred in

way.'"(19)

wrote

It was a wild,

strange, demonic powers.

the

chaotic, and dangerous place, the

'wrong

realm of

But it was land to be claimed, conquered, and

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem
cosmicized.

31

One did that by fighting and dying for it and by living in it.

Even so, the possession and prosperity of the land were always fragile and
contingent.
powers

Moreover,

the land was always surrounded by strange, hostile

to be kept at bay.

The "enclave" was a place of

asylum

to be

defended against the enemy.

This
from

conception of sacred space differs, though it is not unrelated,

its conception primarily as the center.

while enclave implies habitation.

inhibited

Center implies

orientation

Pilgrimage thrives on the former and

is

by the latter, for pilgrimage involves leaving one's accustomed

place of habitation to journey to a sacred place and to return, having been

significantly

transformed during

the course of the journey.

In brief,

pilgrimage is a rite of passage.

Christians
Their

have

always had a problem with pilgrimage

attitude has been ambivalent.

to Jerusalem.

As suggested above, Christians have

seen the pilgrimage as a journey to the place (and perhaps the time) of the
crucial events central to the Christian faith.
significant

place

important.

The

in

the world

ambivalence,

and

Thus Jerusalem is the most

journey

however,

was

territorialization tendency of the New Testament.

spatially localized notions of sacredness.
analyzed

to

it appropriate and

created

by

the

de-

This tendency dissolves

W.D. Davies has

perceptively

the New Testament's "spiritualization" of the realia of Judaism,

Jerusalem included.(20)
An

Englishman, Philip, from

the Diocese of Lincoln departed

pilgrimage to Jerusalem early in the twelfth century.

Clairvaux

en route.

abbot

Clairvaux,

of

destination.

revealed

and
that

He planned to visit

his bishop received a letter from Bernard,

informing

Wrote Bernard:

his heritage .
inhabitant

Shortly

on a

him

that Philip had

arrived

at his

"He has entered the Holy City and has chosen

. He is no longer an inquisitive onlooker but a

an enrolled citizen of Jerusalem."(21) But

this Jerusalem is Clairvaux.

devout

then Bernard

"She is the Jerusalem,"

he

wrote, "united to the one in heaven by wholehearted devotion, by conformity

of

life, and

by

a certain spiritual affinity."(22) It was

this

same

Bernard who preached the Second Crusade and helped establish

the Knights

Templars,

attitude of

thus

exhibiting

in himself

the aforementioned

ambivalence toward Jerusalem.

Bernard referred to the Jerusalem "in heaven." This is the celestial,
heavenly

Jerusalem,

the

"new Jerusalem" which, according to Revelation

21:2, is seen "coming down out of heaven from God . . . "

There is also the

32

Encounter

terrestrial

Jerusalem which may be Jerusalem or Clairvaux

matter,

"England's green and pleasant land"in other words, in any

in

or, for

that

place "united to the one in heaven."

On the one hand,
as

"the holy

Christians have cherished the Jerusalem of Palestine

city" and

have come at all

times

"to visit

the

sites

associated with the mystery of salvation and to permeate their souls with
the blessing of his mystery at the very place of its earthly and historical
manifestation."(23)

On the other hand,

they have understood not only how

unspiritual pilgrimage may be but that the Christian center is not Golgotha
and

the Tomb

but Christ himself resurrected and ascended

and

that his

earthly "body" is the new community wherever it exists.

Some of the major Christian churchesthe Latin and, especially, the
Orthodoxhave
experience
heavenly

assumed

and

and

that

that

physical

pilgrimage

there is no necessary

the terrestrial Jerusalem.

can be

incompatibility

spiritual

between

The ambivalence is not

dissolved but pilgrimage is recognized as an approved species of

the

thereby

Christian

religious behavior, a "good work" which does not assure salvation but is an
occasion

of grace.

heightened
destroy
strong

Some

Protestant groups, on the other

the ambivalence to the point that pilgrimage

the ambivalence by rejecting pilgrimage

is

outright.

tradition of suspicion and criticism of pilgrimage.

hand, have
suspect, or
There

is a

One recalls,

for example, Erasmus1 In Praise of Folly, the Reformers' castigations, and

John Milton's description of the paradise of fools:
"Here Pilgrims roam, that stray'd so far to seek
In Golgotha him dead, who lives in Heav'n."(24)
In

spite of

such criticisms and jeers many

Christians, even

radically

Protestant ones, have continued to feel the "pull" of Jerusalem.

Muslims also have a problem with the Jerusalem pilgrimage.

It is that

for the present at least the pilgrimage has been "lost," for Jerusalem has
been

lost.

One has to see this loss in the wider context of Muslim hopes

and expectations as these are related to their theory of history.

Smith has written,

As W.C.

there is a tension "between their sense on the one hand

of what Islamic history is essentially,

and their awareness on the other

hand

today

of what

history
guided

their actual history

is

observably."(25)

Islamic

is essentially the actualization on earth of a divinely willed and

community and order

(social, political, economic, "religious").

Observed Smith:
Collectively and singly they have sought both Paradise beyond
this world and, within history, a kind of society which, they
believe, is proper to personal preparation for that Paradise
and at the same time proper to the mundane scene itself,
correct both for the individual for the next world and for
the community for this.(26)

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem

33

The tension between theory and actuality is not new.

end

It arose toward

the

of the brilliant, successful period of the first several centuries of

Islam

and has been renewed each time Muslims have become keenly

the incongruity between expectations and realizations.

aware of

Throughout most of

their history Muslims (Islam) have succeeded often enough to validate

theory.
Islam

But, to quote Smith again,

the

"The fundamental malaise of modern

is a sense that something has gone wrong with Islamic

history."(27)

One sees at the present time various attempts to rehabilitate that history,
including most dramatically the Iranian Shi'ite revolution.
One

of

the ways

in which

the Muslim

vindication was in territorial expansion.

into

the

shari'a

of history

or abode of war).

(sacred
It was

the dar al harb

The former was the territories where

law) obtained and the latter those where it did

not

found

Muslims early divided the world

dar al-islam (the house or abode of Islam) and

(the house
obtain.

theory

a matter

of attachment to land

as

the

not yet

such but of

sovereignty and order.

Jerusalem became part of the dar al-islam in A.D.

638 only six years

after the Prophet's death, and remained so for almost twelve centuries. Its
surrender
led

to

Islam

to a Western power (Great Britain) in 1917 began a process which

its loss in 1967 to a religious community which Muslims

to have superseded in religious history.

thought

History has gone wrong.

Current events as regards Jerusalem are seriously retrogressive.

Comparatively
1967.

few Muslim pilgrims have journeyed to Jerusalem

since

Extra-Palestinian Muslims hesitate to visit Jerusalem under de facto

(if not

de jure) sovereignty

acknowledge

the actual

passively.

Most

the same reason.

of the Israelis.

situation;

To do so would

to refrain is

to protest

be

to

if only

of the Arab governments discourage would-be pilgrims for

Also, it is difficult for Arab Muslims who would require

visas from the Israeli authorities actually to obtain them.

In

the present situation Muslims find some hope in resorting

Crusades
abandon

as

Jerusalem

expectation
will

a model.

not

after

They remember that the Crusaders were

eighty-eight

years.

It

is

succeed

in arrogating

Jerusalem

to

their hope and

that the latest Westerners (for so they regard

ultimately

to the

forced

and

the

Zionists)

that Muslim

pilgrimage will again be resumed and continue until the Last Day when all
peoples shall

be gathered there for divine judgment.

34

Encounter
NOTES

1.
Each of the three religions claims and has special regard for
Abraham.
For Jews he is "father Abraham," for Christians the exemplar of
faith (cf. Heb. 11), and for Muslims he "was not a Jew, neither a
Christian; but he was a Muslim and one pure of faith" (Sura 3.60; Arberry's
translation), and archetypal prophet.
2.
Urushalimma means "foundation of Shalem" or "Shalem has founded,"
not "city of peace" as is sometimes said.
Shalem was a Canaanite deity.
Urushalimma was evidently established as a religious foundation in his
honor.
(See William F. Stinespring, "Jerusalem: The First Thousand Years
in
the
Perspective
of
Canaanite
Religion,"
in
Jerusalem: Key to Peace in the Middle East, ed. by 0. . Ingram [Durham,
N.C.: Triangle Friends of the Middle East, 1978], p. 4.)
3.

Biblical quotations are taken from the Revised Standard Version.

4.
The Roman emperor Hadrian attempted to destroy Jerusalem totally
and gave the city a new name.
5.
Victor and Edith Turner, Image and Perspective in Christian Cul
ture (New York: Columbia University Press, 1978), p. 20.
6.
by A.J.
1955).

Quotations from the Qur f an are taken from the English translation
Arberry, The Koran Interpreted (London: George Allen and Unwin,

7.

Al-Ya 'qubi, Historiae, ed. T. Houtsma (Leyden, 1883), Vol. 2, p.

311.
8.
On this hadith see M.J. Kister, "You Shall Only Set Out for Three
Mosques," Le Museon, Vol. 82 (1969), pp. 173ff.
9.
Quoted in John Gray, A History of Jerusalem (New York:
1969), p. 289.

Praeger,

10.
On the Judaization of Jerusalem see The Transformation of Pale
stine, ed. by Ibrahi Abu-Lughod (Evanston, 111.: Northwestern University
Press, 1971).
11.

Turner, Op. Cit., Chapter I.

12.
Midrash Tanhuma, Kedoshim 10, quoted in Jonathan Z. Smith, "Earth
and Gods," The Journal of Religion, Vol. 49 (1969) p. 111.
13.

Smith, Op. Cit., p. 112.

14. Quoted in Jonathan Sumption, Pilgrimage: An Image of Medieval

Religion (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and LIttlefield, 1975), pp. 89f.
15. John Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims Before the Crusades (Warminster,
England: Aris and Phillips, 1977), p. 38.
16.

Quoted in Sumption, Op.Cit., p. 91.

17.

Ibid.

35

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem
18.

Smith, op.cit., p. 108.

19.

Ibid.

20.
W.. Davies, The Gospel and the Land (Berkeley, Calif.: University Of California Press, 1974), Part II, "The Land in the New Testament."
21.
Quoted in R.J. Zwi Werblowsky, "Jerusalem: Holy City of Three
Religions" (Israel Universities Study Group for Middle Eastern Affairs,
1977), p. 6.
22.

Ibid.

23.

Ibid., p. 7.

24.
Paradise Lost, III, 476.
The Works of John Milton (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1931), Vol. II, p. 94.
25.
W.C.
Smith, Islam in Modern History
University Press, 1957), p. 27.
26.

Ibid., p. 26.

27.

Ibid., p. 41.

(Princeton:

Princeton

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