Editing Western Wall (section)

===Ottoman period (1517–1917)===
[[File:Wailing Wall by Gustav Bauernfeind.png|thumb|right|upright|''Wailing Wall, Jerusalem'' by [[Gustav Bauernfeind]] (19th century)]]

In 1517, the Turkish [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]] under [[Selim I]] conquered Jerusalem from the [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluks]] who had held it since 1250. Selim's son, [[Sultan]] [[Suleiman the Magnificent]], ordered the construction of an imposing wall to be built around the entire city, which still stands today. Various folktales relate Suleiman's quest to locate the Temple site and his order to have the area "swept and sprinkled, and the Western Wall washed with rosewater" upon its discovery.<ref name=VilnayP61>{{harvnb|Vilnay|2003|pp=61–62}}</ref> According to a legend cited by [[Moses Hagiz]], Jews received official permission to worship at the site and Ottoman architect [[Mimar Sinan]] built an oratory for them there,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hagiz |first=Moses |author-link=Moses Hagiz |title=פרשת אלה מסעי |url=https://hebrewbooks.org/20699 |access-date=|website=|pages=18ff}}</ref> but, as of [[Purim]] 1625, Jews were banned from praying on the Temple Mount and only sometimes dared to pray at the Western Wall, for which purpose a special liturgy had been arranged.<ref name=":0" /> Gedaliah of [[Siemiatycze]], who lived in Jerusalem from 1700 to 1706, reports that Jews then had access to the wall and would pray there as often as possible.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=of Siemiatycze |first=Gedaliah |title=קונטרס שאלו שלום ירושלים |publisher=Zalman Shazar |year=1963 |location=Jerusalem |pages=18–22}}</ref>

Over the centuries, land close to the Wall became built up. Public access to the Wall was through the [[Moroccan Quarter]], a labyrinth of narrow alleyways. In May 1840 a [[firman (decree)|firman]] issued by [[Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt|Ibrahim Pasha]] forbade the Jews to pave the passageway in front of the Wall. It also cautioned them against "raising their voices and displaying their books there." They were, however, allowed "to pay visits to it as of old."<ref name=report1930 />

{{interlanguage link|Rabbi Joseph Schwarz|he|יהוסף שוורץ}} writing in the mid-19th century records:

<blockquote>This wall is visited by all our brothers on every feast and festival; and the large space at its foot is often so densely filled up, that all cannot perform their devotions here at the same time. It is also visited, though by less numbers, on every Friday afternoon, and by some nearly every day. No one is molested in these visits by the Mahomedans, as we have a very old [[firman (decree)|firman]] from the Sultan of Constantinople that the approach shall not be denied to us, though the Porte obtains for this privilege a special tax, which is, however, quite insignificant.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schwarz |first=Joseph |title=Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine |year=1850 |publisher=A. Hart |location=[[Philadelphia]] |chapter=Moriah, The Temple Mount |chapter-url=http://www.jewish-history.com/Palestine/moriah.html}}</ref></blockquote>

Over time the increased numbers of people gathering at the site resulted in tensions between the Jewish visitors who wanted easier access and more space, and the residents, who complained of the noise.<ref name=report1930 /> This gave rise to Jewish attempts at gaining ownership of the land adjacent to the Wall.
[[File:Koisel 1870.jpg|thumb|upright|The Western Wall in c. 1870, squeezed in by houses of the Moroccan Quarter, a century before they were demolished]]

In the late 1830s a wealthy Jew named Shemarya Luria attempted to purchase houses near the Wall, but was unsuccessful,<ref>{{cite book |last=Rossoff |first=Dovid |title=Where Heaven Touches Earth |year=1998 |publisher=Guardian Press |location=[[Jerusalem]] |isbn=0-87306-879-3 |page=186 |chapter=The Era of Suffering: 1800–1840}}</ref> as was Jewish sage Abdullah of Bombay who tried to purchase the Western Wall in the 1850s.<ref name=ANT>Baruch, Yuval. [http://www.antiquities.org.il/article_Item_eng.asp?sec_id=17&sub_subj_id=468 The Mughrabi Gate Access – the Real Story]. [[Israel Antiquities Authority]]</ref> In 1869 Rabbi Hillel Moshe Gelbstein settled in Jerusalem. He arranged that benches and tables be brought to the Wall on a daily basis for the study groups he organised and the [[minyan]] which he led there for years. He also formulated a plan whereby some of the courtyards facing the Wall would be acquired, with the intention of establishing three synagogues—one each for the [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardim]], the [[Hasidic Judaism|Hasidim]] and the [[Perushim]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Rossoff |first=Dovid |title=Where Heaven Touches Earth |year=1998 |publisher=Guardian Press |location=[[Jerusalem]] |isbn=0-87306-879-3 |page=231 |chapter=Bound Within the Walls: 1840–1870}}</ref> He also endeavoured to re-establish an ancient practice of "guards of honour", which according to the mishnah in [[Middot (Talmud)|Middot]], were positioned around the Temple Mount. He rented a house near the Wall and paid men to stand guard there and at various other gateways around the mount. However, this set-up lasted only for a short time due to lack of funds or because of Arab resentment.<ref name=SLC>{{cite book |last1=Ben Dov |first1=Meir |last2=Naor |first2=Mordechai |last3=Aner |first3=Ze'ev |title=The Western Wall |year=1983 |publisher=Ministry of Defence Publishing House |location=[[Israel]] |isbn=965-05-0055-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/westernwall00bend/page/ 83–97] |chapter=IV: Sanctity, Law and Customs|url=https://archive.org/details/westernwall00bend/page/}}</ref> In 1874, Mordechai Rosanes paid for the repaving of the alleyway adjacent to the wall.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Fred Skolnik|author2=Michael Berenbaum|title=Encyclopaedia Judaica: Ra-Sam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gj8OAQAAMAAJ|year=2007|publisher=Macmillan Reference in association with the Keter Pub. House|isbn=978-0-02-865945-9|page=422|quote=His brother, Mordecai Rosanes, financed the paving of the Western Wall area in Jerusalem in 1874.}}</ref>

In 1887 [[Edmond James de Rothschild|Baron Rothschild]] conceived a plan to purchase and demolish the Moroccan Quarter as "a merit and honor to the Jewish People."<ref name=WHTE>{{cite book |last=Rossoff |first=Dovid |title=Where Heaven Touches Earth |year=1998 |publisher=Guardian Press |location=[[Jerusalem]] |isbn=0-87306-879-3 |pages=330–331 |chapter=Beyond the Walls: 1870–1900}}</ref> The proposed purchase was considered and approved by the Ottoman Governor of Jerusalem, Rauf Pasha, and by the Mufti of Jerusalem, [[Mohammed Tahir Husseini]]. Even after permission was obtained from the highest secular and Muslim religious authority to proceed, the transaction was shelved after the authorities insisted that after demolishing the quarter no construction of any type could take place there, only trees could be planted to beautify the area. Additionally the Jews would not have full control over the area. This meant that they would have no power to stop people from using the plaza for various activities, including the driving of mules, which would cause a disturbance to worshippers.<ref name=WHTE /> Other reports place the scheme's failure on Jewish infighting as to whether the plan would foster a detrimental Arab reaction.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stockman-Shomron |first=Israel |title=Israel, the Middle East and the Great Powers |year=1984 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=965-287-000-5 |page=43 |chapter=Jerusalem in Islam: Faith and Politics}}</ref>
[[File:Jew's Wailing Place, Jerusalem.jpg|thumb|Jews' Wailing Place, Jerusalem, 1891]]

In 1895 Hebrew linguist and publisher Rabbi [[Chaim Hirschensohn]] became entangled in a failed effort to purchase the Western Wall and lost all his assets.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tau.ac.il/humanities/bronfman/kesher29.heb.html|title=The Hirschensohn Family of Publishers in Jerusalem, 1882–1908|last=Lang|first=Yossef |work=Kesher Issue 29}}</ref> The attempts of the [[Israel Land Development Company|Palestine Land Development Company]] to purchase the environs of the Western Wall for the Jews just before the outbreak of World War I also never came to fruition.<ref name=ANT/> In the first two months following the Ottoman Empire's entry into the First World War, the Turkish governor of Jerusalem, Zakey Bey, offered to sell the Moroccan Quarter, which consisted of about 25 houses, to the Jews in order to enlarge the area available to them for prayer. He requested a sum of £20,000 which would be used to both rehouse the Muslim families and to create a public garden in front of the Wall. However, the Jews of the city lacked the necessary funds. A few months later, under Muslim Arab pressure on the Turkish authorities in Jerusalem, Jews became forbidden by official decree to place benches and light candles at the Wall. This sour turn in relations was taken up by the [[Chacham Bashi]] who managed to get the ban overturned.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gilbert |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Gilbert |title=Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century |year=1996 |publisher=[[Chatto & Windus]] |location=London |isbn=0-7011-3070-9 |page=42 |chapter=War, 1914–1917}}</ref> In 1915 it was reported that Djemal Pasha, closed off the wall to visitation as a sanitary measure.<ref name=Adv>{{cite book |title=The Advocate: America's Jewish journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s1ccAQAAMAAJ|access-date=January 3, 2012 |year=1915 |page=638 |quote=According to a report in the Jaffa Hebrew weekly, Hapoel Hazair, the Commander of the Turkish Army, Djemal Pasha, has ordered a barricade to be placed across the approach to the Wailing Wall to prevent this place from being visited by Jews. The order is said to be based on sanitary grounds.}}</ref> Probably meant was the "[[Djemal Pasha|Great]]", rather than the "[[Cemal Mersinli|Small]]" Djemal Pasha.

{{Clear left}}

Decrees (''[[firman]]'')s issued regarding the Wall:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Issued by
! Content
|-
| c. 1560
| style=white-space:nowrap| [[Suleiman the Magnificent]]
| Official recognition of the right of Jews to pray by the Wall<ref name=Armstrong08>{{harvnb|Armstrong|2001}} "In the 16th century, Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent permitted the Jews to make the Western Wall their official holy place and had his court architect Sinan build an oratory for them there."</ref><ref name=Gonen03>{{harvnb|Gonen|2003|pp=135–137}} "It is possible that official recognition of the right of Jews to pray by the Wall was granted already in the second half of the sixteenth century by a ''firman'' (official decree) issued by Suleiman the Magnificent. This firman may have been related to the efforts of the Ottoman ruler to lure Jews to Palestine as a counterbalance to the Arab population, which had rebelled against the new rulers, who were Turkish rather than Arabs."</ref>
|-
| 1840
| style=white-space:nowrap| [[Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt]]
| Forbidding the Jews to pave the passage in front of the Wall. It also cautioned them against "raising their voices and displaying their books there." They were, however, allowed "to pay visits to it as of old."<ref name=report1930 />
|-
| 1841*
| style=white-space:nowrap| [[Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt]]
| "Of the same bearing and likewise to two others of 1893 and 1909"<ref name=report1930 />
|-
| 1889*
| style=white-space:nowrap| [[Abdul Hamid II]]
| That there shall be no interference with the Jews' places of devotional visits and of pilgrimage, that are situated in the localities which are dependent on the Chief Rabbinate, nor with the practice of their ritual.<ref name=report1930 />
|-
| 1893*
| 
| Confirming firman of 1889<ref name=report1930/>
|-
| 1909*
| 
| Confirming firman of 1889<ref name=report1930/>
|-
| 1911
| style=white-space:nowrap| Administrative Council of the [[Liwa (Arabic)|Liwa]]
| Prohibiting the Jews from certain [[appurtenances]] at the Wall<ref name=report1930 />
|}

:* These firmans were cited by the Jewish contingent at the International Commission, 1930, as proof for rights at the Wall. Muslim authorities responded by arguing that historic sanctions of Jewish presence were [[Toleration|acts of tolerance]] shown by Muslims, who, by doing so, did not concede any [[Negative and positive rights|positive rights]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/59a92104ed00dc468525625b00527fea?OpenDocument |title=Report of the Commission appointed by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with the approval of the Council of the League of Nations, to determine the rights and claims of Moslems and Jews in connection with the Western or Wailing Wall at Jerusalem |date=December 1930 |publisher=United Nations |access-date=December 20, 2009}}</ref>