On the wall of one of the Jordanian royal family's palaces in Amman hangs a painting called "At the Entrance to the Temple Mount," painted in 1886 by the German artist Gustav Bauernfeind and bought for the late King Hussein (father of the current king, Abdullah II) by his emissaries in Germany.
It is not difficult to see why the picture captured Hussein's heart. It portrays Muslim rule over the place holiest to Jews, and Hussein saw himself as guardian of Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, even after the 1967 Six-Day War.
Bauernfeind wrote a letter to his sister, who lived in Beirut, describing his "very good" idea for the painting, saying it would portray a group of Jews standing in the shadows before the Cotton Gate, straining to look at what he called their "Garden of Eden," which he would paint glowing in the sun. A guard at the gate, armed with a spear, would prevent them from entering. Meanwhile, the Muslims inside would be depicted in bright colors, strolling around and relaxing. "A good contradiction, no?" he asked.
In recent years, Jews have trickled back to the Cotton Gate, one of four gates in the western wall of the Temple Mount compound. They visit on Tisha B'Av, on the eve of Shabbat and holidays, and sometimes during the week. They are mostly observant and mostly come alone. As long as their presence and prayers do not create a disturbance, the police allow them to stand at the gate, praying and gazing into the unreachable "Promised Land" of the Temple Mount, just like the Jews in Baurenfeind's painting.
The Cotton Gate is becoming a magnet for Jewish visitors and worshippers, because of its location directly opposite what is believed to have been the location of the Holiest of Holies under the middle of the Dome of the Rock. The site is closer to the Holiest of Holies than the Western Wall prayer plaza, and even closer than the "little Western Wall," the part of the edifice that extends past the Iron Gate in the Muslim Quarter. Jews who for reasons of Jewish law do not allow themselves to enter the Temple Mount come here to be as close as possible without entering the compound and also to look at the site, which they cannot do from the Western Wall plaza or the little Western Wall, both of which block the view of the Temple Mount. The tradition of gathering at the Cotton Gate is not a new one, but it is being renewed.
Flour mills and public baths
The Cotton Gate is one of many Jewish prayer sites along the Western Wall, and belongs to a reality that is largely unknown today. Even before the Ottoman sultan allocated an alley along the Western Wall to the Jews for prayer in the 16th century – a narrow lane bounded by the wall along one side and by houses on the other, which would later be cleared to create the Western Wall plaza – Jews would come to pray at various sites along the wall.
Archaeologist Professor Dan Bahat says quotes from the Cairo Geniza brought as evidence by the Jewish side in the Western Wall Trial of the British Mandate showed how far back the Jewish claim to the Western Wall went. However, the evidence did not refer to the modern Western Wall section, but to a site further north along the wall that faced the Holiest of Holies, possibly near the Cotton Gate.
The Jewish presence at these sites was bolstered by housing for Jews that was destroyed in the 1929 riots. One famous occupant was Rabbi Yehosef Schwartz, a noted researcher of the history of the Land of Israel. He reportedly lived near the bathhouse Hammam of Plenty, which was entered through the market at the Cotton Gate. Jews would visit the bathhouse as well as the neighboring Hammam Al Ayin, and used them both regularly. Jews also used to operate several small flour mills on the street of shops leading to the Cotton Gate. One of these was purchased by the Berman family, which gave its name to the Jerusalem bakery, at the end of the 19th century. Nearby was the Shor family's winery.
Some traditions identify the shops in the Cotton Gate market as the "shops" where according to the Talmud, the Sanhedrin, the ancient court of 71 judges that comprised the supreme authority on Jewish law, once sat. But research tends to show that this is an error.
The Cotton Gate was constructed over an earlier gate, now known as the Warren Gate, which lies deep underground in the Western Wall tunnels. Bahat believes that in the early Muslim period, a synagogue known as "The Cave" was active near Warren Gate.
Shabtai Zacharia, a researcher of the history of Jerusalem, frequently referred to the theory that below the Cotton Gate lies the Kiponos Gate, which is mentioned in the Middoth Tractate as the western entry gate to the Temple Mount. However, archaeologist Meir Ben Dov thinks that the Kiponos Gate is actually Barclay's Gate, which has been excavated below the Mughrabi Gate.
A great work
A number of writers have described the experience of the Jews who lived among the Muslims near the Cotton Gate market – the site of yet another attempted attack on a police officer only a few weeks ago.
Writer Yaakov Yehoshua, father of A.B. Yehoshua, wrote that most of the Jewish visitors to the public baths near the Cotton Gate were of Sephardi or eastern descent, while the Ashkenazim preferred to use the baths near the Hurva Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter. Professor Yosef Yoel Rivlin, father of President Reuven Rivlin, wrote that some Jews avoided using Hammam Al Ayin because they believed that it lay within the bounds of the Temple Mount. He said the steam baths were one of the "few pleasures" that a person in Jerusalem, Jew or Arab, could allow himself toward the end of the Ottoman era.
The Cotton Gate was built by Damascus Governor Tanqiz as-Nasiri in 1336-1337 on the ruins of a Crusader-era market. The market, which is about 100 meters (300 feet) long, leads to the Temple Mount from Hagay Street. The gate at the end of the market faces the Temple Mount, and is one of the great architectural feats of that period. It is lower than the other gates in the Western Wall, and steps lead down to it.
The people who planned the market wanted to bring visitors to the Mount via a covered mercantile area, a mall of its time. Some of the market's revenue went toward religious activity in the nearby Al Tanqizia Madrassa, which the emir established. The Cotton Market was given its name because it had become a local center of the cotton industry, which provided a living for the laborers who picked and separated the cotton, the women who spun it, and the merchants who sold it. As the years went by, the place became neglected. Most pilgrims preferred to approach the Temple Mount via other streets. However, according to a travel memoir by Rabbi Moses Bassola, the market was still an impressive sight in 1522.
The "cotton" shops were silent and shuttered for many years. Their ornate doors were bashed in during World War I so the wood could be used for heating, and the shops themselves filled with refuse. After the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel began refurbishing them and gave them to the Waqf, which rented them out to Muslim traders. Now Jews are returning to the area, although only to visit, not to live. To pray and look at the Temple Mount compound through the Cotton Gate once again.
