ABSTRACT

The division of Aelia Capitolina in the second century AD into four roughly equal-sized quarters by two main thoroughfares (Cardo and Decumanis), served in later times as the basis for ethnic or religious divisions within the city. Under Islamic rule the Muslims, a minority in the city, settled mainly in the region of the Temple Mount. The Jews were located in the south-west on Mount Zion, until it was excluded from the city after the reconstruction of the walls following the earthquake of 1033. They then resettled in the north-east of the city, in the quarter that subsequently came to be known as Juiverie or Judaria. Armenians were already settled in the northern part of Mount Zion within the new walls. In the north-west, the Christian Quarter was occupied predominantly by members of the Orthodox Church, although there was a certain Latin presence in the area south of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which later became the quarter of the Hospitallers of St John.