The struggle for Jerusalem was far from over, the agitations from the Christians were still mounting. They could not bear the presence of the Muslims in the Sacred City.
The Crusaders (known as 'Saleebiyyoon' in Muslim records) saw Jerusalem as their pet-project, they said it was the home of their lord and saviour.
To the Muslims, Jerusalem is a Holy City, Al-Qudus in the Islamic parlance, the Third Sacred Place after Haram Makkah, Haram Madeenah, because it housed different Prophets of Allaah at different times. The legacy of those Prophets must be protected. What legacy? That Only Allaah is worthy of worship in that precinct and other places.
So after several failed attempts to wrestle Jerusalem from the Muslims, the Crusaders succeeded in their Sixth Crusade of 1229CE. It was however going to be a very short one for the Muslims were coming back in 1244 to take it.
All along, the Jews were not in the scheme of affairs, openly though. There were however secret plots by the Jews to return to Palestine en masse. There was a report of some 300 rabbis entering Jerusalem in 1212CE during the Muslim rule which of course would not stop them because of its policy of you-are-all-welcome.
So in 1244CE the Muslims, now championed by the Mamluks (of former court slaves) who had removed the Ayyoobid Dynasty of Egypt, took Jerusalem again while four years later the Crusaders made another daring effort but to no avail. They struggled for two years but the Muslims were at home.
With Jewish connivance, the Mongols (the people of Ghegis Khan (d.1227CE), who had taken over some parts of the larger Muslim lands, annexed Palestine to their rule in 1260CE but they met an instant defeat in the hands of the Mamluks who dealt them a fatal blow near the River Galilee called Ayn Jalut in the Islamic usage.
That halted the advance of the Mongols in the region. They would later be defeated finally in 1303CE by the mamluks in the Battle of Marj Saffar near Damascus. Shaykhul Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, that was born in 1264CE, took part in the battle under the leadership of the mamluks. Ibn Taymiyyah died in 1328CE.
In 1516CE the Ottomans (which Dynasty had started since 1299CE and which had routed the remnants of the Byzantine Power in Europe) took over power from the mamluks in the Levant. There were two hot battles at Aleppo (Halab) and Gaza that gave victory to the Ottomans. Thus Palestine came under their radar.
The rule of the Ottomans went on till 1917CE when the British Forces with their allies defeated them im World War I. A sad episode in the Islamic history that brought a sense of weakness upon the Ummah which it continues to suffer from till date.
Napoleon Bonaparte, a one time French Emperor, tried in 1799CE to capture Egypt and Syria from the Ottomans. He was defeated by an allied forces of the Ottomans and the British at the Battle of Acre.
So Palestine remained under the Muslim rule till 1917CE.
All along the Jews intensified their efforts towards returning to Palestine. There was one Rabbi Juddah Alkalai making prolific writings on Jewish 'homecoming'.
So also was one Moses Hess who in 1862 was one of the biggest canvassers for the Jews.
In 1882CE about 25,000 to 35,000 Jews crossed to Palestine.
In 1897CE, the first Zionist Congress was held preparing the ground for a future State of Israel.
When the Jewish immigrations to Palestine became worrisome, the Ottoman rulers restricted them in 1901CE (perhaps it was too late).
Then came 1917CE!
Arthur Balfour Declaration supporting a national home for the Jewish people followed.
Balfour was the UK's Foreign Secretary. He delivered the letter of the British Government to Lord Rotchschild who was the leader of the British Jewish Community.
In 1920CE, the British Mandate of Palestine (still not Israel) was established. A fake mandate preparing the ground for the Jews.
The Jews were then freely coming in initially the host Palestinians welcomed them until it dawned on the former that the latter were coming in to supplant them.
Some conflicts would follow but there was no human power to protect the Muslims though the British Government claimed they would protect the Palestinians. That was a big lipservice from the Britons.
The Jews had a conference in Jerusalem in 1923CE where Albert Einstein, the father of relativity, who himself was a Jew (though would later not openly support the Jewish agitations) delivered a keynote address to the Jewish audience.
There was a 'civil war' in Palestine in 1947CE followed by an Arab-Jewish War in 1948 (where the British government tactically supported both sides against each other) with the Jews winning at the end of the day, their first victory since 733BC when the Assyrian Rulers delivered the Philistines (the ancestral Palestinians who were the original owners of Palestine just as the Red Indians were the original owners of the American and Australian continents) from them.
So in the morning of 14th May, 1948CE the British Forces left Jerusalem, the Mighty Royal Forces of the United Kingdom!
Then at 4pm of same day (14th May, 1948CE), the Jews declared a State of Israel! Phew!
Since then the region had known no peace.
There would be a Six-Day War between the Zionists and the Arabs in 1967, 5th to 11th June. The Zionists, with full military support from the US, UK, France, etc, defeated the Arabs (Egypt, Syria and Jordan) who went into the war on the platform of the new rising Arab Nationalism championed by Jamal Abdun-Nassir, the President of Egypt at the time.
In the war, the Zionists, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, got four times of the land they grabbed in 1948CE capturing West Bank (partially being ruled by the Palestinian Authority now), Gaza Strip (which later legally came under Hamas control and now being criminally bombed by the Zionists), Sinan Peninsula (captured back by Egypt in the Zionist-Arab War of 1973) and the Golan Heights (which the Jews claimed from Syria and still occupies till date).
We will end this narrative with an epilogue as to how the Muslims can win back Palestine. Watch out in the next edition Inshaa Allaah.
Click HERE for the earlier parts.
