Chain Gate (Jerusalem)

The Chain Gate (Arabic: باب السلسلة, Bāb as-Silsila) is one of the gates to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compund on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. It was previously known as David's Gate.[1] It was also known as Bāb al-Maḥkama (باب المحكمة Gate of the Law Court), named after the nearby Tankiziyya (the Maḥkama).[2]

"Chain Gate" redirects here. For the gate adjacent to Wells Cathedral, see Chain Gate, Wells.
Chain Gate

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.[3]

It was considered the most beautiful of the Temple Mount gates. 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.[4]

Its twin gate
From inside the compound: the Chain Gate (left) and Sakīna Gate (right/north)

Bāb as-Sakīna is the northern half of the double gate that includes the Chain Gate.[5][6] It is always closed.[7] Its names:

Environs

The southwestern part of the Muslim Quarter is outside the gate. The neighborhood (Bāb as-Silsila / Bāb al-Silsila) is named after the gate.[16] Chain Gate Street leads toward a market (Sūq Bāb as-Silsila) and eventually the gate.[17] Once inside the compound, one can immediately see the Dome of Moses (south) and Fountain of Qasim Pasha (north, also named Sabīl Bāb al-Maḥkama, 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.[3]

See also

References
  1. The "Gate of the Dwelling" is a rare translation.[11] Sakīna is sometimes translated as "the indwelling (of the divine presence)".[12][13] cf. a related word with a short i: sakina (سكنة, 'dwelling').[14]
  1. The History of Jerusalem: The Early Muslim Period (638-1099), edited by Joshua Prawer
  2. Necipoglu, Gülru (2009). "The Dome of the Rock as Palimpsest". Muqarnas. Leiden: Brill. 25: 20. ISBN 978-900417327-9. Gate of the Chain […], also known as Gate of the Law Court (bāb al-maḥkama) after the Shari'a Court to its south
  3. "باب السلسلة". qudsinfo.com. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
  4. The History of Jerusalem: The Early Muslim Period (638-1099), edited by Joshua Prawer
  5. Hawari, Mahmoud (2007). Ayyubid Jerusalem (1187-1250). Archaeopress. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-4073-0042-9. 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
  6. Grabar, Oleg (2005) [First published 1965]. Jerusalem (PDF). Ashgate. pp. 52–54. ISBN 978-0-86078-925-3. Archived from the original on 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.
  7. "باب السلسلة - أرشيف المسجد الأقصى المبارك". alaqsa-archive.com (in Arabic). Retrieved 2020-06-15. 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.]
  8. Prawer, Joshua; et al. (1996). The History of Jerusalem: The Early Muslim Period (638-1099). NYU. p. 429. ISBN 978-0-8147-6639-2. Bāb al-Sakīna […] Gate of the Divine Presence, see Shekhina Gate.
  9. "Bab al-Silsila". Institute for International Urban Development (I2UD).
  10. Warren, Charles (1878). The Survey of Western Palestine. 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).
  11. Murphy-O'Connor, Jerome (2008). The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide. Oxford: OUP. ISBN 978-0-19-164766-6. The left bay (north) is Bab al-Sakina, 'the Gate of the Dwelling', and the right Bab al-Silsila, 'the Gate of the Chain'.
  12. Heath, Peter (2010). Allegory and Philosophy in Avicenna (Ibn Sina): With a Translation of the Book of the Prophet Muhammad's Ascent to Heaven. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 182. ISBN 978-0-8122-0222-9. it is this (force) which is called in Arabic the Indwelling (al-sakîna) and the Holy Spirit (rûḥ al-quds).
  13. Zawanowska, Marzena, ed. (2021). The Character of David in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. BRILL. p. 140. ISBN 978-90-04-46597-8. the indwelling of the Divine Presence (Ar. Sakīna) [among them]
  14. Wehr, Hans (1979). A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic. Otto Harrassowitz. p. 488. ISBN 978-3-447-02002-2. ‏سكنة‎ sakina, pl. -āt: residence, home
  15. Wilson's map (1865): "Bab as Salâm (Gate of Peace)"
  16. Büssow, Johann (2011). Hamidian Palestine: Politics and Society in the District of Jerusalem 1872-1908. BRILL. p. 152. ISBN 978-90-04-21570-2. The Silsila neighbourhood owed its name to one of the gates to the Haram al-Sharīf, the Chain Gate or Bāb al-Silsila.
  17. Nazmi, Jubeh (2021). "Tariq Bab al-Silsila" (PDF). Jerusalem Quarterly. Institute for Palestine Studies (87): 105–125.

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