Notes from “Gaza a History” by Jean-Pierre Filiu Part 6

Gaza’s Great Omari Mosque has been destroyed

Notes from “Gaza a History” by Jean-Pierre Filiu

Part 6

“Gaza was the westernmost point of the Mongol advance, just as it had been the southernmost point of the Frankish Kingdom of Jerusalem. Due to the extreme violence of these turbulent days and the damage and destruction that the city incurred, Gaza’s traditional mercantile connections were left in ruin and its position as a commercial port was compromised. Yet, during the Mamluk period from 1260 onwards, once the chaos had been brought to an end and the city had been rebuilt, Gaza and its hinterland experienced a golden age. After his victory at Ain Jalout, (Mamluk General) Baybars made himself sultan and Gaza regained its past prosperity. The city was soon replete with impressive buildings and Baybars built a new mosque dedicated to Caliph Umar in Gaza, on the site of the Latin Cathedral, where the former mosque had stood, endowing it with a library of more than 20,000 books. This new mosque of Umar/Omar (the Umari/Omari mosque), together with the ‘Pasha’s Palace’, the seat of the governor, or wali, remain to the present day the two principle buildings in Gaza, close to the area of Shujahiya, where the local elite have lived since the Mamluk era. On the other side, the central square extends from the commercial are of Zeytoun, with the Samara Hammam (bath house), restored in 1297. Gaza’s place names still show the influence of Salah al-Din and the Ayyubid dynasty (1170-1250), though this has left few architectural traces. Thus, the Shujahija area is named for the great general Shuja al-Din, who died in 1239 fighting the crusaders at Beit Hanoun, while the street that marks the boundary of this area from the town center proper is called Salah al-Din Street.”

Gaza’s Great Omari Mosque was destroyed in an Israeli air strike on December 8. It is one of over a hundred cultural sites targeted by the IDF.[1][2]

“The successors of Baybars on the Mamluk throne in Cairo continued to exercise their power over Damascus and the Bilad al-Sham, as Greater Syria was known. Once more, the road north through Gaza was crucial. Named the ‘Horus Road’ by the Pharaohs, and the Via Maris by the Roman Empire, the road was now known as the Sultan’s Road (al-darb al-sultani), linking Egypt with Palestine by way of the coast. Gaza became the seat of one of the governorates (wilayat) of the Mamluk Sultanate, normally administered from Damascus. Gaza was occasionally promoted to the status of autonomous province, as for example in 1291, when the Mamluk authorities marked its elevation by adding a further minaret to the Mosque of Umar.”

“The emergence of Sufi brotherhoods during the medieval Islamic period also affected Gaza, which was no exception to the spread of this deeply rooted mystical and social movement. Sultan Baybars himself professed particular veneration for the Moroccan Sufi sheikh, Ahmad Badawi (1200-76), who grew up in Mecca and had been trained by the great Sufi masters in Iraq. Based in the Nile Delta, at the town of Tanta, Badawi spent his life in asceticism and preaching, and at the time of his death he was regarded as the virtual patron saint of Egypt. His devotees banded together into the Ahmadiyya order (tariqa, literally ‘Way’), and built a network of Sufi religious houses (zawiya), which served both as centers for prayer and as places of residence for the order’s disciples. Gaza, which had fallen under the sway of Mamluk and Egyptian culture, flourished as a center for the Ahmadiyya, whose zawiya, close to the governor’s palace, was opened in 1331 and remains active to the present day. Another mystic of Moroccan origin, Sheikh Ali Ibn Marwan, chose to base himself in Gaza where he died in 1316. The mosque adjacent to his mausoleum, restored and extended in 1370, was dedicated to his memory.”

“In 1348 an epidemic of plague which ravaged the entire region is said to have resulted in the deaths of 22,000 people in the province of Gaza alone. The celebrated traveler Ibn Battuta, who made his third visit to Gaza in that year, found the city ‘deserted’ and estimated that 1,000 people fell victim to the plague every day. Gaza eventually overcame the aftermath of the epidemic and was able to resume its normal commercial activities with support from the Mamluk authorities, which encouraged the re-emergence of the market with the construction of a fortified caravanserai half way between Gaza and Rafah. This khan, which served both mercantile and military purposes, was inaugurated in 1387 by Emir Yunis al-Nawruzi. Located close to quarries and to abundant wells, it was the site of a postal relay, an essential facility on the on the road from Cairo to Damascus. The protection provided by this ‘Khan Yunis’, as the place became known, gradually attracted an ever-larger local population, leading it to develop into a proper town that was soon in competition with Rafah to be regarded as the second city of the Gaza region. In all, there were five such postal relays in the region in the Mamluk period, at Rafah, Khan Yunis, Al-Silqa, Darum (Deir al-Balah) and Gaza. North of Gaza, the preferred commercial route went to Damascus via Ramla, but two other itineraries were also possible, namely towards Kerak via Beit Jibrin, or to Aqaba via Asluj. The fortified style in which such structures were built indicates the magnitude of the threat posed by the Bedouin tribes from the Negev and the Sinai.”

“In 1438 plague struck again, this time causing 12,000 deaths. However, as during the previous plague crisis, Gaza was able to count on the concern of the Mamluk government. Sultan Sayf ed-Din Inal (1453-61), who had formerly been governor of Gaza, was especially helpful. In this period, the madrasa (school) of Emir Bardabak in the Shuhajiyya area of the city was built, where the traditional role of the madrasa was combined with the Islamic court, or mahkama. The overwhelming majority of the population at this time were Sunni Muslims who followed the Shaf’i school of law, which had been laid down six centuries earlier by an imam who had been born in Gaza. Yet the Christian communities, who followed the Orthodox rite, were also able to practice their faith in the heart of the city. In addition, Rabbi Meshullam of Volterra, who passed through Gaza in 1481 on his travels, counted sixty Jewish families in the city, together with four Samaritans.”[3]   

   

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[1] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/14/a-cultural-genocide-which-of-gazas-heritage-sites-have-been-destroyed#:~:text=The%20Great%20Omari%20Mosque%20has,another%20for%20about%20two%20millennia.&text=Known%20in%20Arabic%20as%20Al,in%20an%20Israeli%20air%20strike.

[2] https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-gaza-air-strike-hits-great-omari-mosque-oldest

[3] pp.23-25 Gaza a History, Jean-Pierre Filiu