ABSTRACT
A visitor to Samuel’s Tomb (Hebrew: Kever Shmuel HaNavi; Arabic: Nabi Samwil) today would be impressed by the peaceful cohabitation in a holy site where Jews and Muslims conduct their prayers simultaneously. The situation in this particular site is extraordinary: this is the only place in the world where a functioning synagogue operates underneath an active mosque, and an open ventilation shaft connects the mosque floor with the Jewish prayer room ceiling in such a way that from the middle of the mosque one can observe the Jews praying below. The mosque is administered by a local imam who is subject to the waqf authorities and the Palestinian Authority. The Jewish prayer room is controlled by Israel’s IDF Civil Administration of the West Bank as a national park, containing also an archaeological site and nature reserve. Given its location-the highest place overlooking Jerusalem from its outskirts (908 meters above sea level), and the political situation-amidst the Palestinian-Israeli strife over territory and sovereignty, and in view of the record of friction and violence in two other major sacred places where Jews and Muslims conjunct-the Temple Mount/Al-Haram al-Sharif and the Cave of the Patriarchs/Al-Haram al-Ibrahimi-Samuel’s Tomb looks like an oasis amid the desert. At the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, where Muslims and Jews have
also shared the sacred site since June 1967, the record of violent clashes peaked with a massacre carried out by a Jewish extremist settler from nearby Kiryat Arba during Muslim prayers in 1994. How can we explain the different reality of these two holy sites, venerated simultaneously by adherents of the two religions who also belong to two peoples embroiled in an intense and ongoing conflict? Why is it that only a strong military regime can guarantee peace and order at the Hebron site, while at the Samuel’s Tomb a situation of relative coexistence prevails between Jewish and Muslim worshipers? In order to address these questions, let me first present the broader context
of shared sacred places in Palestine. For adherents of the three great monotheistic religions, Palestine is a holy land. Many sites in this land are associated with important figures in the faith and Holy Scriptures of Jews, Christians,
and Muslims.1 The Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron is a good example of a place that all three religions see as a holy site of “their” patriarchs, but today only Muslims and Jews worship there and claim sovereignty over the site. The Bible mentions it as the burial plot that Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite for his wife Sarah (Genesis 23) for 400 shekels. Jews believe, as mentioned in the Bible, that the three great Patriarchs and their wives are buried there (Genesis 49:27; one tradition also includes Adam and Eve). The Patriarchs are also mentioned many times in the New Testament, and the Byzantines and Crusaders built a church above the cave. Later on Muslims, who view the Patriarchs as “primordial” Muslims, destroyed the church and erected a mosque over the cave. The Cave of the Patriarchs is only one remnant of a syncretic medieval culture of numerous cults which inhabited Palestine to venerate the tombs of saints and turn them into popular prayer rooms and buildings.2 As the history of the Holy Land shows, an interesting state of coexistence was maintained during the Middle Ages at the tombs of saints in the Galilee; Muslims, and Jews visited the sites and performed similar rituals at them, without interference from the other group. Most of the sacred sites in the Galilee (more than sixty tombs of saints) were maintained by Muslims, though Jews took an active part in the rituals. Likewise, Muslims worshiped and performed rituals at sites maintained by Jews. In some cases, adherents of the two religions held joint ceremonies. A local subculture developed in the Galilee founded on the same traditions and textual sources and shared by all the settlements and religious communities. There are living examples of a phenomenon from the past in which Jewish
and Muslim worship prevailed in dozens of saints’ tombs in the Galilee and elsewhere.3 Today there are at least seven active holy sites in which both Muslims and Jews (and in some cases Christians as well) share a common belief or ritual. In some of these sites they worship simultaneously, while at others, only one group worships while the other is excluded due to the current security and political circumstances. In such cases the barred party claims that if the situation were different its followers would hurry to venerate and worship at the place. The Temple Mount/Al-Haram al-Sharif is paramount among these holy
sites. Muslims worship on the Mount/Haram, while Jews worship at its outer Western Wall. Its centrality in the religious belief of the two communities turned this site into a bone of contention and a place of violent struggle as well as the source for holy war.4 Rachel’s Tomb at the outskirts of Bethlehem and Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus are examples of sites that are holy to both Jews and Muslims (although are more central places in the Jewish tradition), but due to political circumstances Muslims are barred from Rachel’s Tomb and Jews today have no free access to Joseph’s Tomb. A different case is that of David’s Tomb on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion. This place is holy for Jews and Muslims as well as for Christians, who identify it as the Coenaculum (Cenacle), the room of the Last Supper. In 1948 the place was under exclusively Jewish control but was accessible to all, and each group had its own room and
prayer space. Another interesting site is a tomb cave on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem which Jews identify as the burial place of Chulda the Prophetess, Muslims identify as the grave of Rabi‘a al-‘Adawiyya and Christians as Saint Pelagia. Inside the cave is a Muslim prayer niche (mihrab) close to a carved place in the floor which Jews believe signifies Chulda’a grave. The site is controlled by Muslims, who since 1967 have allowed Jews (and others) to visit and pray there. Perhaps the most interesting place is Elijah’s Cave, located at the western slope of the Carmel Mountains in today’s Bat Galim neighborhood of Haifa. This place has been venerated since medieval times by Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Druze. Until 1948 it was administered by the Muslim waqf, and since the founding of the State of Israel it has been under Jewish control. Nevertheless, today people of the other three religions venerate it on a sporadic and personal level.5 While it is true that Muslims lost their status in this place, they are not prevented from venerating it. Returning to the theme of this study, what are the conditions which make
peaceful cohabitation between Jewish and Muslim worshipers in one place possible? What makes the situation in Samuel’s Tomb and Elijah’s Cave different from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem? Can two communities of different religious denominations coexist in a holy site sanctified by both? Anti-religious rivalry and competition have generated hatred, hostility, and rejection of the Other. At the same time, we have seen that in certain historical periods complex political situations have engendered mechanisms of equilibrium resulting in a modus vivendi among believers from different religions.6
