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Armenian Quarter

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For other Armenian quarters, see List of Armenian ethnic enclaves.

 

Map of the Armenian Quarter, without the area considered by Israel as part of the Jewish Quarter (centre right). The monastery (Patriarchate) compound is shown in grey. The Cathedral of St. James is shown in darker grey.

The Armenian Quarter (Arabic: حارة الأرمن‎, Harat al-Arman; Hebrew: הרובע הארמני‎, Ha-Rova ha-Armeni; Armenian: Հայոց թաղ, Hayots t'agh)[1][2][a] is one of the four quarters of the walled Old City of Jerusalem. Located in the southwestern corner of the Old City, it can be accessed through the Zion Gate and Jaffa Gate. It occupies an area of 0.126 km² (126 dunam), which is 14% of the Old City's total. In 2007, it had a population of 2,424 (6.55% of Old City's total). In both criteria, it is comparable to the Jewish Quarter. The Armenian Quarter is separated from the Christian Quarter by David Street (Suq el-Bazaar) and from the Jewish Quarter by Habad Street (Suq el-Husur).

 

The Armenian presence in Jerusalem dates back to the 4th century AD, when Armenia adopted Christianity as a national religion and Armenian monks settled in Jerusalem. Hence, it is considered the oldest living diaspora community outside the Armenian homeland. Gradually, the quarter developed around the St. James Monastery—which dominates the quarter—and took its modern shape by the 19th century. The monastery houses the Armenian Apostolic Church's Jerusalem Patriarchate, which was established as a diocese in the 7th century AD. The patriarchate is the de facto administrator of the quarter and acts as a "mini-welfare state" for the Armenian residents. The Armenian community has been in decline since the mid-20th century, and is in immediate danger of disappearing, according to Bert Vaux.

 

Though formally separate from Greek Orthodox and Latin (Catholic) Christians, the Armenians consider their quarter to be part of the Christian Quarter. The three Christian patriarchates of Jerusalem and the government of Armenia have publicly expressed their opposition to any political division of the two quarters. The central reasons for the existence of a separate Armenian Quarter is the miaphysitism and distinct language and culture of the Armenians, who, unlike the majority of Christians in Jerusalem (also in Israel and Palestine), are neither Arab nor Palestinian.[b] However, for all intents and purposes, the Armenians living in the Armenian Quarter are considered Palestinians by Israel and the United Nations (UN). They have faced many of the same restrictions on their lives as have the Palestinians.

 

 

Contents

1Location, borders and surface

2History

2.1Origins

2.2Byzantine, Arab, and Mamluk periods

2.3Ottoman period

2.4World War I, British, and Jordanian periods

2.5Israeli period

3Demographics

3.1Decline of Armenian population

4Landmarks and institutions

4.1Armenian

4.2Other (non-Armenian)

5Political status and views

5.1Armenian views

5.2U.S. Old City division proposal

5.3Palestinian views

5.4Israeli and Jewish views

5.5Christian views

6See also

7References

8Bibliography

8.1Books & book chapters

8.2Journal articles

8.3Other

9External links

Location, borders and surface

The Armenian Quarter is located in the southwestern corner of Jerusalem's Old City.[5] The quarter can be accessed through the Zion Gate and Jaffa Gate.[6] According to a 2007 study published by the International Peace and Cooperation Center, the quarter occupies an area of 0.126 km² (126 dunam), which is 14% of the Old City's total.[7] The Armenian Quarter is formally separated from the Christian Quarter by David Street (Suq el-Bazaar) and by Habad Street (Suq el-Husur) from the Jewish Quarter.[8]

 

History

Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate Rd. signs in Hebrew (top) , Arabic (middle), English (bottom) and classical Armenian (bottom photo)

 

 

Origins

In the early 4th century[c] Armenia, under king Tiridates III, became the first country to adopt Christianity as a state religion. A large number of Armenian monks are recorded to have settled in Jerusalem as early as the 4th century,[12][13] after the uncovering of Christian holy places in the city.[14] However, the first written records are from the 5th century.[15] Jerusalem is thus considered the oldest living diaspora community outside the Armenian homeland.[16] Philip Marsden wrote that the survival of Armenians in Jerusalem–"most intense of all cities"—proves their extraordinary resilience.[17] Armenian churches were constructed during that period, including the St. James Monastery.[18] The latter was last expanded in the mid-12th century.[19] An Armenian scriptorium was in operation by the mid-5th century.[20] A secular community composed of merchants and artisans was established in the 6th century in the Zion Quarter, where an Armenian street existed (Ruda Armeniorum).[13][21]

 

Byzantine, Arab, and Mamluk periods

In the First Council of Dvin (506), the Armenian Church broke off from the rest of Christianity by rejecting the dual nature of Christ, which was agreed upon in the Council of Chalcedon of 451. Thus, the Armenians found themselves in direct confrontation with the Byzantine Empire. Emperor Justinian I persecuted the Monophysite Armenians, forcing them to leave Jerusalem.[20]

 

A 7th-century Armenian chronicler mentioned the existence of seventy Armenian monasteries in Palestine, some of which have been revealed in excavations.[12] The Byzantines ceded Jerusalem to the Rashidun Caliphate after a siege in 637. Until this point, Jerusalem had a single Christian bishop. In 638 AD,[20] Armenians established their own archbishop, Abraham I.[22] He was officially recognized by Rashidun Caliph Umar.[23] The foundation of the Armenian migration to Jerusalem thus solidified.[15] In the 12th century, around one thousand Armenians moved to Jerusalem with the Crusaders, presumably mainly from the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia.[15]

 

 

The entrance to St. James monastery

In 1311, during Mamluk rule, Archbishop Sarkis (1281–1313) assumed the title of patriarch according to a decree by Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad.[21] In the 1340s, the Armenians were permitted to build a wall around their quarter. This signified that the Mamluk rulers felt that the quarter did not pose a threat. Destroying city walls and fortifications had been a staple of Mamluk governance in order to prevent the Crusaders from returning and reestablishing their rule. The Mamluk government also engraved the following declaration in Arabic on the western entrance to the quarter:

 

The order of our master Sultan Jaqmaq [has been issued] which stipulates that the taxes levied [ahdaiha] recently by the town governor (?) regarding the payment by the Armenian enclosure [dayr alarmani] be cancelled, ... and it has been requested that this cancellation be recorded in the Honored Books in the year 854 of the Hijra (1451 C.E.). Anyone who renews the payment or again takes any tax of extortion is damned, son of the damned, and the curse of Allah will be upon him.[24]

Jerusalemite historian Mujir al-Din provided a detailed description of pre-Ottoman Jerusalem in 1495 in which he mentioned Dir el-Arman (Monastery of the Armenians) or Kanisat Mar Ya'qub (St. James Cathedral).[25]

 

Ottoman period

 

An Armenian priest in Jerusalem c. 1900 pictured smoking a hookah with the Dormition Abbey in the background

During Ottoman rule, Jerusalem developed into a cosmopolitan city. There was religious tolerance and an Ottoman administration existed to sort out religious differences between the rival Christian churches and Muslims. Israeli historians Kark and Oren-Nordheim wrote in 2001: "The Armenian Quarter, although Christian, represented a distinct ethnic group with its particular language and culture, intent on retaining separate identity and unity, minimizing the contacts with Arabs and the Ottoman authorities for fear of persecution."[26] However, the Armenian community in Jerusalem was Arabic-speaking (in addition to Armenian or European languages) and self-identified with Palestinian society.[27]

 

In 1538, the current walls of Jerusalem were completed on the orders of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. These walls, along with the internal walls built by the Armenians, determined the outline of the quarter. In the 1562–63 record, only 189 Armenians were counted, whereas 640 were counted by the Ottomans in 1690, an increase of 239%.[28] According to the chronicler Simeon Lehatsi only some twelve Armenian families lived in Jerusalem in 1615–16.[13] The significant increase in the population in 1690 is attributed to urbanization experienced by the Armenians and other Christians. Thus Armenians came to make up 22.9% of Jerusalem's Christians by 1690, becoming the second largest Christian community.[28]

 

In the 19th century, most of the Armenian and Christian quarters had "European-style gable roofs" as opposed to the domes preferred in the Muslim and Jewish quarters.[29] In 1833 the Armenians established the city's first printing press.[19][30][31][32] A seminary was opened in 1857.[20] In 1855 the first photographic workshop in Jerusalem was founded in the Armenian Quarter.[19] Schools for boys (1840) and girls (1862) were united in 1869 under the name Holy Translators' School[20] and became the first coeducational school in Jerusalem.[4]

 

 

An 1883 map of the Old City, showing the four quarters

In 1883, 102 Armenian families (8%) constituted the third largest Christian community in the Old City after the Greek Orthodox and Catholic (Latin) communities.[33] Besides these residents, in the same year, 46 Armenian priests and monks and 55 servicemen lived within the St. James Monastery.[34] According to the 1905 Ottoman census in the Old City, the Armenian Quarter had a population of 382, of which Armenians (121) comprised less than one-third (31.7%). Jews (127) made up 33.2%, other Christians (94) 24.6% and Muslims (40) 10.5%.[35] The Jews, who numbered a little more than the Armenians, inhabited the eastern part of the Armenian Quarter, which in the second half of the nineteenth century, became the western part of the Jewish Quarter.[36]

 

World War I, British, and Jordanian periods

Prior to World War I, there were some 2,000–3,000 Armenians in Palestine, mostly in Jerusalem, which was captured by the British in 1917. From 1915 and onward, thousands of Armenian Genocide survivors from Cilicia (Adana Vilayet) found refuge, and settled in the quarter, increasing its population. [37][38] In 1925, around 15,000 Armenians are believed to have lived in all of Palestine, with the majority in Jerusalem.[39] During the British Mandate period, the number of Armenians is estimated to have reached up to 20,000.[39][31] However, the 1931 British census showed only 3,524 Armenians in all of Palestine.[39]

 

In 1947, around 1,500 Armenians from Palestine repatriated to Soviet Armenia as part of the Soviet government's efforts to boost Armenia's population by a large-scale repatriation of ethnic Armenians, mostly from the Middle East. This marked the beginning of the long-term decline of the Armenian community of Jerusalem.[40] During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the Armenian Quarter was damaged by bombs.[5] It housed many Armenians from around Palestine. An Armenian civil guard, armed with what Der Matossian describes as "makeshift weapons", was formed to defend the quarter. Over 40 Armenians died during the war.[41]

 

Israeli period

Jerusalem's Old City came under Israeli control in the aftermath of the Six-Day War in 1967. However, the Armenian patriarchate is the de facto administrator of the quarter and acts as a "mini-welfare state" for the Armenian residents.[4] The Arab-Israeli conflict significantly impacted the quarter's politically uninvolved Armenian population. A 1992 article published by the Catholic Near East Welfare Association stated that "Armenians in Jerusalem try to maintain good relations with Arabs and Israelis, but they do not deny that their community has been affected by tensions in the city."[19]

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