Chain Gate (Jerusalem) Explained

The Gate of the Chain or Chain Gate (Arabic: باب السلسلة,) is one of the gates to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. It was known early Islamic period Bāb Daud, which means David's Gate.^{[1] [2] [3] [4]} It was also known as Bāb al-Maḥkama (Arabic: باب المحكمة), Gate of the Law Court, named after the nearby Maḥkama (Shari'a court) in the Tankiziyya building.^[5]

Description and history

Its rectangular doors are 4.5 m high. There is a small opening large enough for one person to pass through when the gate is closed.^[6]

It is known today as Bab Al-Silsilah and Bab Al-Sakinah. It was considered the most beautiful of the Al-Aqsa mosque gates. It has two entrances, the northern one is called the Gate of the Sakinah (Tranquility Gate) and the southern one is called the Gate of Al-Silsilah (Chain Gate).^{[7] [8]} The entrance to the Gate of the Sakinah is closed and is not opened except for necessity. It worth to notice that the closure of the northern gate happened a long time ago, where the historian Al-Omari (746 AH /1345 CE) mentioned that the northern gate had been closed.^[9] While the entrance to Bab Al-Silsilah is open. And it has an opening large enough for one person to enter when it is closed.^[7] According to Nasir-i-Khusraw, in order to reach the gate one had to pass through the market in the eastern section of the city and the gate itself had two openings that led into a large hall.^[1] Its construction was renewed in the Ayyubid period 1200 CE 600 AH during the reign of the great King Issa.^{[7] [10]}

Its twin gate

is the northern half of the double gate that includes the Chain Gate.^[11] It is always closed.^[12] Its names:

• (Arabic: باب السكينة): the Gate of the Divine Presence,^[13] the Gate of God's Presence,^[14] or the Gate of Tranquillity. (cf &)
  • Originally was the name of another gate at the Southern Wall, possibly one of the Double Gate.^[15]
• (Arabic: باب السلام): the Gate of Peace.^{[16] [17]}

Environs

The southwestern part of the Muslim Quarter is outside the gate. The neighborhood is named after the gate.^[18] Chain Gate Street leads toward a market and eventually the gate.^[19] Once inside the compound, one can immediately see the Dome of Moses (south) and Fountain of Qasim Pasha (north, also named, after the gate). The southwestern colonnade is the closest of the Mawazin.

The Chain Gate Minaret is just north of it. And north of that, one finds the al-Ashrafiyya Madrasa. South of the gate, and part of the compound wall, one sees the at-Tankiziyya Madrasa.^[6]

Archaeology

The results of archaeological excavations along the western wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque have shed some light on the history of this gate. Where it confirmed that it was located in an elevated position above the main street located adjacent to the western wall, which is the reason for building the bridge leading to Al-Aqsa Mosque through this gate, and based on that, it can be believed that this gate was built at the same time as the bridge that was built in the early Islamic period.^[8]

Chain Gate after 1967

This Gate is one of the three Gates that open alone for worshipers at the prayers of Isha'a and Fajr since 1967. It is the closest gate leading to the Al-Qibli Musalla hall after the closure of the Maghriba Gate by the Israel. It is also the closest to the Western Wall/Al-Buraq Wall.^[20]

See also

• Dome of the Chain, also in the compound

References

31.7773°N 35.2343°W

Notes and References

1. Book: Prawer, Joshua . Joshua Prawer . Ben-Shammai . Haggai . The History of Jerusalem: The Early Muslim Period (638-1099) . 1996 . NYU Press . 75 .
2. Al-Ratrout, H. (2004). The Architectural Development of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Islamic Jerusalem in the Early Islamic Period: Sacred architecture in the shape of 'The Holy'. Al-Maktoum Institute Academic Press. pp. 349-358.
3. Al-Hanbali, M. (1968). الأنس الجليل بتاريخ القدس والخليل [The honorable amiability in the history of Jerusalem and Hebron]. Al-Haydari Press Publications.
4. Al-Jallad, I. (2017). معالم المسجد الأقصى تحت المجهر [Al-Aqsa Mosque landmarks under the microscope]. Baytul Maqdis Center for Literature.
5. Necipoglu . Gülru . The Dome of the Rock as Palimpsest . Muqarnas . 2009 . 25 . 20 . Brill . Gate of the Chain […], also known as Gate of the Law Court after the Shari'a Court to its south . Leiden . 978-900417327-9 .
6. Web site: باب السلسلة . qudsinfo.com. 2020-06-15.
7. Maruf, A. & Marei, R. (2010). Atlas Ma’alem Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa [Atlas of Al-Aqsa Mosque landmarks]. Al-Fursan institution.
8. Al-Ratrout, H. (2004). The Architectural Development of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Islamic Jerusalem in the Early Islamic Period: Sacred architecture in the shape of ‘The Holy’. Al-Maktoum Institute Academic Press. pp.349-358.
9. Al-Omari, S. (n.d.). مسالك الأبصار في ممالك الأمصار (Vol. 2).
10. Al-Jallad, I. (2017). معالم المسجد الأقصى تحت المجهر [Al-Aqsa Mosque landmarks under the microscope]. Baytul Maqdis Center for Literature
11. Book: Hawari . Mahmoud . Ayyubid Jerusalem (1187-1250) . 2007 . Archaeopress . 978-1-4073-0042-9 . 74 . Bāb al-Silsila / Bāb al-Sakina […] The twin gate is bounded to the north by the Baladiyya Madrasa, the Ashrafiyya Madrasa and the Bāb al-Silsila Minaret, to the east by the West Portico.
12. Web site: باب السلسلة - أرشيف المسجد الأقصى المبارك. alaqsa-archive.com. 2020-06-15 . ar . أما الباب على اليمين فهو مغلق دائماً واسمه باب السكينة . [As for the door on the right, it is always closed, and its name is Bāb as-Sakīna.].
13. Prawer et al. (1996), p. 429: "Bāb al-Sakīna […] Gate of the Divine Presence, see Shekhina Gate."
14. Web site: Bab al-Silsila . Institute for International Urban Development (I2UD).
15. Book: Grabar, Oleg . Jerusalem . 2005 . First published 1965. Ashgate . 978-0-86078-925-3 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220518180402/https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/media.archnet.org/system/publications/contents/5040/original/DPC1763.pdf . May 18, 2022 . the Bab al-Sakina, shown first to have been on the southern side – probably one of the sides of the Double Gate – and migrating to the northern part of the Bab al-Silsila (on the western side of the Haram) at some undetermined date, but probably after the Crusades when the southern entrances to the Haram were blocked off […] [p. 54:] the double gate Bab al-Salam-Bab al-Silsila […] Such is already the list provided by Mujir al-Din, with the substitution of Bab al-Sakina for Bab al-Salam […] The same number is already present in al-‘Umari (c. 1350), with, curiously, the name Bab al-Salam for the northern half of the double gate. . 52–54.
16. Book: Warren, Charles . The Survey of Western Palestine . 1878 . Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund . through a handsome double gate. The southern gate is called the Báb as Silsilé (Gate of the Chain), the northern Báb as Salâm (Gate of Peace). [footnote:] Mejr ed-Din states that the gate was built in A.H. 877 (1492-3 A.D.), and he calls the Báb as Salâm the Gate of Tranquillity (Sekiné)..
17. [:File:WilsonHoshAlBurak.png|Wilson's map]
18. Book: Büssow . Johann . Hamidian Palestine: Politics and Society in the District of Jerusalem 1872-1908 . 2011 . BRILL . 978-90-04-21570-2 . 152 . The Silsila neighbourhood owed its name to one of the gates to the Haram al-Sharīf, the Chain Gate or Bāb al-Silsila..
19. Nazmi . Jubeh . Tariq Bab al-Silsila . Jerusalem Quarterly . 2021 . 87 . 105–125 . Institute for Palestine Studies.
20. Maruf, A. & Marei, R. (2010). Atlas Ma’alem Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa [''Atlas of Al-Aqsa Mosque Landmarks'']. Al-Fursan institution.