Water and its sources in the Holy City of Jerusalem and the Ottoman State's Efforts to Provide it

Summary

This book is an indispensable reference for students of Palestinian history and archaeology. Moreover, the author, Shaykh Muḥammad al-Khalīlī, is one of the prominent scholars of Al-Quds. The first part of the book (a study) provides a clear and vivid account of the social and economic conditions of Al-Quds’ inhabitants in the Ottoman Caliphate phase. The study focused essentially on the city’s water shortage, in describing the inhabitants’ difficulties and privation due to the absence of rain, sometimes, for years; it mentioned all the types of wells, pools, and channels, on which the inhabitants depended. It also presented the most important efforts of the Ottoman State in supplying water. The second part of the book comprises a critical edition of “Risālah fī Taʿmīr ʿAyn Bayt al-Maqdis” by Shaykh Muḥammad al-Khalīlī; this is a monograph on the chronic water crisis in the city of al-Quds, due to the ruin of its water source and destruction of the channel that transported water to the city. The author dedicated this monograph to the venerable Muḥammad Afandī, Justice of al-Quds, who personally supervised the rehabilitation of the water source in 1122 A.H./1710 A.D. Shaykh Muḥammad al-Khalīlī documented the efforts of the State, at the time, in bringing water to al-Quds, as well as documenting the rehabilitation of al-Aqṣa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock, and other sites.