Nabi Musa (,For Moses as nabi in Islamic holy scripture see Quran 19:51 (glossed by rasul "messenger"). For "nabi" in the Hebrew Scriptures see, for example, Numbers . The word comes from a Semitic root meaning "to gush forth". For a survey of the philological evidence see G. Johannes Botterweck, Helmer Ringgren, Heinz-Josef Fabry, Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing 1998 pp.135ff.140f. also transliterated as Nebi Musa) is primarily a Muslim holy site near Jericho in Palestine, where a local Muslim tradition places the tomb of Moses (called Musa in Islam). The compound is centered on a mosque which contains the tomb of the Prophet. It used to be the site of an eponymous seven-day-long religious festival that was celebrated annually by Palestinian Muslims, beginning on the Friday before Good Friday in the Orthodox calendar used by the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem.Curtiss (2004), pp. 163–164 Considered in the political context of 1920 as "the most important Muslim pilgrimage in Palestine",Gonen (2003), p. 138 the festival was built around a collective pilgrimage from Jerusalem to what was understood to be the Tomb of Moses. A great building with multiple domes marks the mausoleum of Moses.
Nabi Musa is also a Palestinian administrative territorial unit in the Jericho Governorate on the West Bank, with an area of c. 113 km2 and situated south of Jericho, in which 66 Palestinian households were counted in 2007, a population defined in 2012 as "nomads"ARIJ (2012), pp. 4, 6Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2007 Census , p. 115. Retrieved on 2012-07-04Mills (1932), p. 45 (see West Bank Bedouin). By 2017, Nabi Musa district had a population of 343 residents.
Location The shrine of Nabi Musa lies south of Jericho and east of Jerusalem, in the Judaean Desert.Lonely Planet guide 2010 (Thomas et al.), p. 319 A side road to the right of the main Jerusalem-Jericho road, about beyond the sign indicating sea level, leads to the site.
"Tomb of Moses" tradition
Death and burial of Moses in Islam In a hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah (Bukhari: 3407):
"The Angel of Death was sent to Moses when he came to Moses, Moses slapped him on the eye. The angel returned to his Lord and said,
"You have sent me to a servant who does not want to die."
Allah said, "Return to him and tell him to put his hand on the back of an ox and for every hair that will come under it, he will be granted one year of life."
Moses said, "O Lord! What will happen after that?"
Allah replied, "Then death."
Moses said, "Let it come now."
Moses then requested Allah to let him die close to the Sacred Land so much so that he would be at a distance of a stone's throw from it."
Abu Huraira added, "Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, 'If I were there, I would show you his grave below the red sand hill on the side of the road."Ibn Katheer, p. 243
Tradition and scholarly theories In Islam, Moses' burial place is also considered to be unknown. However, local Muslim tradition places the "Tomb of Moses" at the maqam (Muslim shrine) of Nabi Musa ("Prophet Moses"). It is not known when this tradition has first emerged.Vermeulen, p. 364 The Jerusalem-Jericho road was one of the primary routes used by Mediterranean Arabs to make a pilgrimage to Mecca.Murphy-O'Connor (2008), pp. 417–418 The site where the shrine stands since the 13th century is located at what would have marked the end of the first day's march in that direction. Originally, it was simply a point from which pilgrims could rest, look across the Jordan Valley, catch a glimpse of Mount Nebo where (as suggested by the Hebrew Bible) the tomb of Moses used to be, and venerate it from this spot.
It seems that by the time when Mamluk sultan Baibars visited the site in 1269 while returning from his hajj, "there must have been some association", since he set about building an extensive shrine. Murphy-O'Connor considers that gradually, the lookout point for Moses' distant gravesite beyond the Jordan was confused with Moses' tomb itself, laying the ground for the cultic importance Nabi Musa was to acquire in the Sunni reverence of saints (walis). According to Uri M. Kupferschmidt, it appears to have become a fixed point in the local Muslim calendar from the time of Saladin.Kupferschmidt (1987), p. 231 (no online access) In any case, tradition holds that the spot where the shrine now stands was shown to Saladin in a dream, which prompted him to build a mosque at the site, later expanded by Baibars.
The Arab geographer Mujir al-Din from Jerusalem, writing in the 1490s, admits that the tradition has only a weak chance of authenticity, but that Nabi Musa still is the most popular among several sites with similar claims.
The Taiyabi and Dawoodi Bohra Isma'ili sects also believe in this tradition.
Festival date Although being a religious Muslim festival, its date is set in relation to the Greek Orthodox calendar: the main event, which took one week, always started on the Friday preceding Good Friday.Manna (1983), p. 178-180 Starting in the mid-19th century, the participants gathered in Jerusalem already in the week before that, and prayers were held in the city. Then followed the week-long celebrations at the shrine, and after that, the pilgrims returned to Jerusalem on the day the Orthodox Christians celebrated Holy Thursday. The next day, on Friday, which coincided with Orthodox Good Friday, the Muslim crowds went in procession to Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. On that Friday and the following Saturday (Orthodox Easter Eve), the participants left Jerusalem with flags and music.
History Ayyubid beginnings Popular Palestinian tradition holds that the festival was inaugurated in the time after Saladin's recapture of Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187.Sorek (2013), p. 19, footnote 4 The mainstream opinion among historians is that the shrine was built by Baibars some eight decades later, and that the Saladin myth is a 19th-century reaction to Western encroachment; this, however, doesn't preclude some scholars from finding merit in the Saladin narrative. In modern times, the holiday has been popularly associated with Saladin as a symbol for the victorious struggle against the West, embodied by the Crusaders. It is claimed that Saladin, after defeating the Europeans, wanted to ensure that future Crusades wouldn't take advantage of the large annual Easter pilgrimage to Jerusalem in order to again wrestle the Holy City from the Muslims. To this end, the participants in the Nabi Musa mawsim, or celebrations, would ensure the city's protection. This is however not documented.Halabi (2018), p. 1-15
Mamluk period In 1269, the Mamluk sultan Baybars built a small shrine there as part of a general policy he adopted after conquering towns and rural areas from Lebanon to Hebron from the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The shrines were mainly dedicated to prophets and companions of the Prophet, and their maintenance was funded by a waqf, an endowment from properties that formerly belonged to the Latin Church. In the case of Nabi Musa, the waqf fund was secured from ecclesiastical assets expropriated in nearby Jericho.Frenkel (1997), p. 237–248
Baibars' construction inscription is still to be seen. It indicates the year the shrine was built, AH 668 (1269-70 CE), and the fact that he "ordered the building of this noble sacred place over the tomb of Moses" while he was returning from Hajj towards Jerusalem.Amitai (2013), pp. 45-53 Although the sultan's secretary doesn't mention the construction, one of his biographers, Ibn Shaddad al-Halabi, does so, albeit with little detail. The inscription is full of praise for Baibars' military prowess and, other than other similar plaques of its age, is written in easily legible script and placed low enough as to be read by the visitor, letting everyone know about Baibars' might and piety.
Baibars al-Bunduqdari's constructive piety set a precedent for others. Over the late medieval period, hostels for travellers were built adjacent to the shrine, and the hospice in its present form was completed in the decade between 1470 and 1480.
Ottoman period During Ottoman rule, Nabi Musa would be visited by Muslim pilgrims returning from the Hajj in Mecca on their way to Syria. Pilgrims visiting the shrine would have departed from the main body of the caravan east of the Jordan to visit Jerusalem and stopped in Nabi Musa en route to the city. The Nabi Musa site effectively served as a halting station for such pilgrims. Its permanent staff provided pilgrims with food and supplies, as well as religious services and information about the safety conditions of the route to Jerusalem, which was often subject to raids or robberies by the Bedouin present in the area. In the mid-16th century, Muhammad Celebi al-Naqqash, the Ottoman official charged with restoring the walls of Jerusalem, was assigned with rehabilitating the Nabi Musa complex.
Around 1820, the Ottoman authorities had to almost fully rebuild the shrine complex, which had, over the previous centuries, fallen into a grave state of dilapidated disrepair. In addition, they promoted a festive pilgrimage to the shrine that would always coincide with the Orthodox Christian celebration of Easter, creating a counter-balance to the Christian ceremonial activity in the city. This 'invention of tradition', as such imaginative constructs are called,Hobsbawm (1983), pp. 1-14 made the pageantry of the Nabi Musa pilgrimage a potent symbol of both political and religious identity among Muslims from the outset of the modern period.Friedland & Hecht (1996), pages= 89-118
Over the 19th century, thousands of Muslims would assemble in Jerusalem, trek to Nabi Musa, and pass three days in feasting, prayer, games and visits to the nearby tomb of Moses' shepherd, Hasan er-Rai. They were then entertained, as guests of the waqf, before returning on the seventh day triumphantly back to Jerusalem.
James Finn, the British Consul in Jerusalem (1846–1863), described the "Neby Moosa pilgrimage" as follows: The Neby Moosa pilgrimages—to the reputed tomb of the prophet Moses, near the Dead Sea (on the West)—have been instituted so as to coincide with the Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Sepulchre, and the influx of devout Moslems was doubtless intended to counterbalance the effect of so many thousands of sturdy Christians being present in Jerusalem. The Moslems come from every part of the Mohammedan world—from India, Tartary, even to the confines of China, from all the countries of Central Asia, and also from Egypt, Nubia, Morocco, the Eastern shores of Africa, as well as from Arabia proper and the Turkish provinces in Europe and Asia. These pilgrims—for the most part extremely fanatical, and in a high state of religious excitement—are a formidable and dangerous body of men. During the continuance of the Russian war these Moslem pilgrims were wrought up to an extra pitch of fervour and ostentatious demonstration. There was always danger lest, in the crowded streets and bazaars, through which they forced their processions, they might come into collision with some equally fervid pilgrims on the Christian side. In this case a passing fray might, in the twinkling of an eye, be turned into downright fight, and fight could scarcely end otherwise than in massacre. We always breathed more freely when the Moslem pilgrimages were over, and when their noisy drumming and shouting were at an end, and the usual quiet of Jerusalem was restored.Finn (1878), pp. 222-223