Fatimid desecration of Jerusalem

A diagram of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre showing traditional site of Calvary and the Tomb of Jesus

The Fatmid desecration of Jerusalem refers to the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, churches, synagogues, torah scrolls and other religious artifacts and buildings in and around Jerusalem, which was ordered on 28 September 1009 A.D. by the Fatmid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, known as the "mad Caliph" or "Nero of Islam".

The location of the Fatimid desecration in modern Jerusalem

Prelude to the desecration

At Easter in 1008, Al-Hakim started tightening controls on religious freedoms in Jerusalem, forbidding Christians from making their annual Palm Sunday procession from Bethany.

Holy Sepulchre destruction

On 29 September 1009, Al-Hakim ordered a governor or Ramla called Yarukh to demolish the area around Constantine's original Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Yarukh, along with his son Yusuf, Al-Husayn ibn Zahir al-Wazzan and Abu'l-Farawis Al-Dayf were among those who started destroying various buildings. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was said to be built on the site of the Calvary or Golgotha where Jesus was alleged to have been crucified, over a rock-cut room that Helena and Macarius identified as the location of the resurrection. The destruction was chronicled by Yahya ibn Sa'id of Antioch who noted it "cast down as far as the foundations" and the rock cut tomb was demolished in the attempt to "cause all trace of it to disappear". All sacred remains and holy relics were "completely annihilated". Iron hammers were ineffectual against the bedrock foundations of the tomb, so they resorted to burning it with fire.

Wider desecration

The desecration was not only carried out on Christian sites in and around Jerusalem. In campaigns of 1011 and 1013–14, Al-Hakim continued his campaign of destruction against Jewish synagogues and Torah scrolls along with churches all over Syria. Unlike other Fatimids, Al-Hakim launched persecutions against dhimmis that lasted throughout his reign. Christians were made to wear crosses and Jews forced to wear wooden blocks around their necks. He only stopped when the threats to Mosques from retaliatory attacks became too great.

European reaction

When the news reached Europe, Christians were horrified and Pope Sergius IV sent a circular letter to all churches calling for a holy fight in the Middle East and expulsion of Muslims from the Holy land. The events would later be recalled by Pope Urban II in his preaching for the Crusade at Clermont. Although the crusades happened almost a century after the desecration and caused by various other complex political intrigues, it was still very much in the public mind as a cause. It was considered so by William of Tyre.

Adémar de Chabannes wrote about the events, drawing associations between Al-Hakim (who founded the Druze faith and self-proclaimed himself to be the Mahdi) and the Antichrist, blaming the Jews for inspiring his desecration of the Holy Sepulchre. Rudolfus Glaber also wrote a history of the events blaming French Jews from Orléans for sending a message to the Caliph via a pilgrim disguised as a Jew. The message was said to have been hidden inside a hollow staff and urged the Caliph to destroy the sepulchre on threat Christians would take over his empire otherwise. Rudolfus portrays Al-Hakim as gullible and firmly cast blame on the Jews. This led to outbreaks of antisemitism and violence against Jews across Europe with King Robert II of France ordering forced conversions and Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor to expel Jews from Mainz, condemning Judaism as heresy.

Arabic chroniclers

Al-Qalanisi and Al-Djawizi suggested that Al-Hakim was angered by the supposed miracle of the Holy Fire, which had been reported as early as the 9th century. Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn 'Ali al-Maqrizi suggested the use of black elder and quicksilver was used to cause the fraudulent miracle. Bar Hebraeus and Severas ibn Muqaffa report accounts of a Christian monk named John who had become disenchanted with the Patriarch of Jerusalem informed the Caliph of the fraud to disparage him. Severas notes the Patriarch was arrested at the time of the sepulchre's destruction and Adémar confirms he was killed. The Patriarch of Jerusalem who was secretly put to death over the matter was the appropriately named Arsenius, also a Patriarch of Alexandria and apparently an uncle of Al-Hakim.

Motivations

Al-Hakim's motivations for the desecration are unclear and have been variously attested. As a Stoic, he may have been upset at the size and wealth involved in pilgrimages at Easter. There were also suspicions of Christians colluding with Bedouin tribes to undermine Fatimid power. It was possibly in relatiation for Byzantine attacks. In Master of the Age, historian Paul. E Walker writes that in the popular imagination of the era, Al-Hakim's actions were interpreted by some Muslims as "doing what a Muslim leader should do" by destroying the pre-Islamic cultural heritage as part of a policy seen to be "commanding the good and forbidding the bad". William of Tyre suggested Al-Hakim's mother may have been Christian and he desecrated Jerusalem simply to quash these suggestions. Some note Al-Hakim's shifting religious allegiances finally starting a new Abrahamic religion that incorporated Buddhist beliefs in reincarnation. Others simply think he was psychotic.