Jerusalem 1900: The Holy City in the Age of Possibilities

226 Pages·2017·2.186 MB·English

by  Vincent Lemire, Catherine Tihanyi, Lys Ann Weiss

jerusalem 1900

jerusalem 1900
The Holy City in the Age of Possibilities
vincent lemire
Translated by Catherine Tihanyi and Lys Ann Weiss
the university of chicago press
chicago and london
www.centrenationaldulivre.fr
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2017 by The University of Chicago
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Published 2017
Printed in the United States of America
Originally published in France as Jérusalem 1900. La ville sainte à l’âge des
possibles, by Vincent Lemire
© Armand Colin, Paris, 2013
ARMAND COLIN is a trademark of DUNOD Editeur, 11 rue Paul Bert, 92240
Malakoff
26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 18823- 2 (cloth)
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 18837- 9 (e- book)
doi: 10.7208/chicago/9780226188379.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-P ublication Data
Names: Lemire, Vincent, 1973– author. | Tihanyi, Catherine, translator. |
Weiss, Lys Ann, translator.
Title: Jerusalem 1900 : the Holy City in the age of possibilities / Vincent Lemire ;
translated by Catherine Tihanyi and Lys Ann Weiss.
Other titles: Jérusalem 1900. English
Description: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2017. | Translation of:
Jérusalem 1900 : la ville sainte à l’âge des possibles. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2016033493 | isbn 9780226188232 (cloth : alk. paper) | isbn
9780226188379 (e- book)
Subjects: lcsh: Jerusalem— History— 19th century. | Jerusalem— History—
20th century. | Urban anthropology— Jerusalem. | Municipal government—
Jerusalem.
Classification: lcc ds109.925 .l4613 2017 | ddc 956.94/42034— dc23
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016033493
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48– 1992 (Permanence
of Paper).
To Robert Ilbert,
citizen of the Mediterranean
When history tries to rebuild, to reconstitute what in the past was the
way of life, the way of perceiving the world, the way of living relation-
ships with others, one must keep in mind that the people of the past had
a future that may be called the future of the past, which forms part of
our own past. Yet a great part of the future of the past was never realized.
People of the past had dreams, desires, utopias that make up a reservoir
of unrealized meaning. An important aspect of the rereading and revision
of the transmitted traditions thus consists in discerning the promises
not fulfilled by the past. The past is not only events, what happened and
can no longer be changed (a very inadequate definition of the past), but
something that remains alive in memory, thanks to what I might call
the arrows of the future that were not shot or whose trajectory was inter-
rupted. In this sense, the unrealized future of the past perhaps makes up
the richest part of a tradition.
— Paul Ricoeur, “Identité narrative et communauté historique,”
Cahiers de politique autrement (October 1994)
contents
List of Maps and Illustrations xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Translators’ Note xvii
Introduction: The Year 1900, the Age of Possibilities 1
Forgotten History 2
A Moment to Delineate, a Period to Define 3
The Causes of Failure 5
The Causes of Forgetting 7
Why Remember? 10
An Itinerary 12
1. The Underside of Maps: One City or Four Quarters? 15
A Rough-C ut Cartography 17
External Boundaries, Internal Fractures 18
Language, Citizenship, Property: Some Useful Concepts 19
Inside and Outside City Walls 21
The Four Quarters: A Late and Exogenous Topography 26
The New City: Mixed Neighborhoods and Jewish
Neighborhoods 30
Summary: Of People and Places 32
2. Origins of the City as Museum 39
Turning One’s Back on the Modern City 41
Lament over the Tomb- City 42
A City Becoming Unreadable 44
From Scholarship to Archaeology 46
vii
viii contents
Reconstructing Christ’s Jerusalem 48
Toward an Intimate History of Archaeology and
Pilgrimage 50
Biblical Archaeology: “No Return” Inventions 52
3. Still- Undetermined Holy Sites 56
Maurice Halbwachs as Advance Scout 58
Localization and Designation 59
How to Construct a Holy Site: The Example of the
Garden Tomb 61
Global and Structural Uncertainty 67
Original Hybridity 70
4. The Scale of the Empire 77
Ottomanism: A Defense against Fracturing Identities? 80
The Seraglio People: Imperial Administration in
Jerusalem 82
Countering the Image of the “Turk’s Head”: A Gallery
of Portraits 85
September 1, 1900: Imperial Jubilee in Jerusalem 89
The Road Network: A City Opened Up, a Region
Ottomanized 92
The Railway: A Jewish Contractor, French Capital, and
Muslim Inauguration 94
Ottomanism and Shared Urbanness: Drinking Water
for All 98
5. The Municipal Revolution 102
Origin of the Municipality: An Urban Community? 104
Garbage Collection and the Municipalization of
Urban Powers 107
Elected Council Members: Citizens, City Dwellers, and
Property Owners 109
Yussuf Ziya al- Khalidi, the Founding Mayor 112
At the Heart of Municipal Action: The Defense of
Public Space 116
Urbanites All? Public Health, Leisure, and Municipal
Finances 120
6. The Wild Revolutionary Days of 1908 125
What Time Was It in Jerusalem? 127
The Wild Days of August 1908: Jerusalem’s Forgotten
Revolution 132
contents ix
Unexpected Fracture Lines 136
New Vectors of Lively Public Opinion 138
Underneath Communities, Classes? 141
7. Intersecting Identities 145
Albert Antébi, Levantine Urbanite 147
An “Arab Awakening” in the Chaos of Battle 151
Jerusalem and the Parochialism of the “People of the
Holy Land” 154
Jerusalem, the Thrice- Holy City, and the Municipium 158
Conclusion: The Bifurcation of Time 163
The Bird People 164
Ben- Yehuda, the Outsider 165
Toward a Shared History 168
Notes 171
Bibliography 191
Index 199