Yerushalayim Mayor Uri Lupolianski has asked the Turkish government to return a famous 2700-year-old tablet uncovered in an ancient subterranean passage in the city. Known as the Siloam inscription, the tablet was found in a tunnel hewed to channel water from a spring outside Yerushalayim’s walls into the city around 700 B.C. It was discovered in 1880 and taken by the Holy Land’s Ottoman rulers to Istanbul, where it is now in the collection of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.
Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski made the request in a Thursday meeting with Turkey’s ambassador to Israel, Namik Tan, Lupolianski spokesman Gidi Schmerling said Friday. Lupolianski suggested the tablet’s return could be a gesture of goodwill from Turkey, Schmerling said.
An official at Turkey’s embassy in Israel said the request would be passed on to the Turkish government. A transfer of ownership was unlikely, the official said, but Turkey would look into lending the tablet to Israel or creating a replica. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as required by embassy regulations.
In the Bible’s account, the Siloam water tunnel was constructed by Chizkiyah Hamelech to solve one of ancient Yerushalayims most pressing problems – its most important water source, the Siloam spring, was outside the city walls and vulnerable to the kingdom’s Assyrian enemies.
(Taken from the AP)
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This is an AP story.
Editors Note: We forgot to write that information – as we always do. It was just added.
Zionflag: read the posting and study history.
The Ottoman Empire included Eretz Yisrael.
As it is indicated in the article, the Ottoman Turks ruled over Eretz Yisroel until WWI. Thereafter rulership was transferred by the League of Nations to the British. If they ruled the roost, they owned the eggs, no?
zionflag, the story states how Turkey got it. It is a famous incident. British scholars discovered it in 1880 and the Ottoman Empire (which is Turkey’s predecessor, and was the ruler of Palestine) cut it out of the wall anbd brought it to Constantinople (now known as Istanbul.)
Regarding Mayor Uri Lupolianski LOY”T (for those who do not know him):
Yerushalayim Mayor Lupolianski is a Shomer Torah UMitzvos. He is also a leading Baal Chesed, as founder of Yad Sarah, a medical equipment Gmach that operates throughout Eretz Yisrael. As such, he is a very worthy successor to “Malki Tzedek Melech Shalem,” Shem Ben Noach, the first Mayor of Yerushalayim.
And the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn museum will send back to Egypt their whole collections. It’ll never happen
zionflag: The Ottoman Turks once ruled the land of Israel. (It was called Palestine in those days.) During the time they ruled the country, they must have taken artifacts and other things and sent them back home, to Turkey.
If you are interested in a kitzur history of this, read on:
It started with a warrior-ruler named Osman in 1281. He took over an area in Turkey, and his family remained the rulers, and later they expanded and strengthened the rule. Eventually they began calling themselves the Ottoman Dynasty. (“Ottoman” must have been a corruption of “Osman,” I guess.)
The Ottomans were very powerful, and took control over parts of Europe too. At one point they even ruled over parts of Hungary, for example. They pretty much destroyed the vast Byzantian Empire, which had ruled much of the east for centuries.
They took over Constantinople, in Turkey, renamed it Istanbul, and moved their capital there. The Ottomans ruled much of the world from Turkey. This is why they are now called the Ottoman Turks.
Anyway, in 1516, the Ottoman Turks captured the land that was then called Palestine, and they also pushed all the way to Cairo, in Egypt. So they had a lot of control over the area for a long time. They captured and took control over most of the major Arab cities in the world, as well as Syria, parts of Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, etc.
I’m not sure, but I think that they were basically non-fanatical Muslims. They certainly hated and opposed Christianity and Christians.
The Ottoman Turks held Palestine until December 1917, when British General Edmund Allenby and his troops captured Jerusalem from them.
So the Ottoman Turks ruled the country of Israel from 1516 until 1917, which was 401 years.
During that time they must have done a lot of plundering. It is no surprise that they have a stone tablet from Yerushalayim.
Incidentally, you may have heard of Suleiman the Magnificent, who ruled the Ottoman Turkish Empire from 1520 to 1566. I remember seeing on a plaque, when I was in Yerushalayim years ago, that he rebuilt the walls of Yerushalayim. I suspect that the more accurate truth is that he built walls around the city, but not REBUILT them, per se, because they were probably not exactly in the same place as the ancient walls. But I don’t know for sure.
I hope you found this interesting. At any rate, it explains how the Turkish government today has possession of a Judean artifact.
We don’t have a melech right now, so it’s hard to claim that we have someone who is a definite yorush of this tablet, but I’d say that the menshlichdiger thing to do would be for them to give it to Israel. On the other hand, I wouldn’t want non-frum people being in control of it, so maybe they should wait until we DO have a melech, and they can give it directly to him. I imagine many potentates will be following suit when Moshiach comes, bimhaira biyamainu.
shazam: Why the insulting, condescending comment?
Can’t we all try to have more respect for each other? Once again, I appeal to the editor to please filter out offensive comments. Otherwise your site is a tool being used for the propogation of ono’as dvorim, sinas chinom and loshon horo.
Shloime
It pays to get an education. History,math, science etc.,are all needed to understand what led up to todays issues and how to possibly solve them.Whe n MOSHIACH comes,B.B.,the Jews will own Eretz Yisroyel.
Also,let’s not snap at each other,let’s all show some Ahavas Yisroel. Good Shabbos.
chill out Shloime.
what’s so insutlting and offensive about shazam comment?
nice post Reb Motcha!
‘”Ottoman” must have been a corruption of “Osman,” I guess.’
Of course: Osman (or oisman) is Ashkinazish, and Ottman is Sefardi. (:-)
9. Insulting, maybe, but not condescending. (:-)
With a name like “zionflag”, I expected him (or her) to be up on the history of the land.
Chill out, and have a great Shabbos.
there’s also a stone “post” in aramaic that says “till here” “ad kan” that supposedly was in the bait hamikdash (or right outside, so its not so kodesh) that told non jews till where they can approach the bait hamikdash.
this stone post is in a museum in istanbul (or constantinople, or whatever you want to call that city.)
should alse be returned.
2. suleiman built the walls we see now that have no relation to ancient walls or “ir zion” or “ir david” or other boundaries.
3. the ottomans were a dying empire, till they defeated napoleon in har tavor, miliotareily similar to the battle of devorah haneviah (except the yael incident). this emboldened them to last another fifty years, till the dam,ascus blood libel, the arrival of sir moises montefiore (haNadiv HaGadol) who was the first (ashkenazic) jew to buy land in yerushalayim (using the subterfuge of the british consul) and led to the current city of yerushalyim
I have an Ottoman in my living room.
My understanding is that The Land was not called “Palestine” under the Ottomans. The Turkish provinces were divided into sanjeks (I think that’s the word), or taxation districts, and Eretz Israel was split between Damascus and Jerusalem, with no name for the entire territory. It was the British who named it Palestine.
They got the idea from what the Romans called it, Palaestina, who wished to sever the Jewish connection to the land – which the Brits also wished to do. Same idea with calling Judea and Shomron “the west bank” – which, sadly, many Jews also do.
Arabs cannot even pronounce Palestine, since there is no “p” sound, they say “falistin”. Odd considering this is supposed to be their ancestral homeland. Same with “Nablus”, which was a new city (Neopolis) built by the Romans near Sh’chem, and the Arabs could not pronounce that and turned it into Nablus.
Regarding the stone tablet, it will return when the Vatican returns the Menorah.
Shavua Tov.
mimidinat hayom;
Unless you know for sure i doubt that stone post was the demarcation line of forbidden entry to the beis hamikdash.
The gemora says in Yoma, that there was a low wooden picket fence about 11 amos out and that was the limit line.
the turks will ask millions for it.
Baal Boose: You mean the srug, right?
I suppose it is possible that goyim did not know what the srug was for, and the post was necessary to explain it to them.
I seem to recal learning that there WERE some sort of signs for that purpose, but I’m sure I remember clearly or correctly.
davidl; Come to think of it, you’re right. I don’t actually know what Israel was called during the time of the Turks.
So I did some research. As far as I can tell, from maps and history from numerous sources, there was no name for the land at all. It was simply part of the Ottoman Empire.
Even Sir John Mandeville, a famous English (Norman, actually) christian knight who in the year 1322 (limisporom) made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem never mentions the name of the land. In the book that he wrote of his travels, he refers to it as “the Holy Land.”
To illustrate the point, here is a passage from his book, translated by Giles Milton from the ancient form of English. He is talking about Andronicus, emperor in Constantinople, who fought with his family over the empire (I hope the moderator will allow this):
“He used to be Emperor of Romany, of Greece, of Asia Minor, of Syria, of the land of Judea, in which is Jerusalem, of the land of Egypt, of Persia and Arabia; but he has lost all, except Greece.”
My point here is that no one back then seemed to call it Israel OR Palestine. Now maybe by “Judea” he meant the entire land of Israel, or maybe just the Kingdom of Yehudah. I don’t know.
We think you great Reb Motcha we are big fans.
the name palestin (pronounced falestin, as noted, was made up by the roman emporer (i think hadrian, must check) to discourage jews from rebelling (after the bar cochva revolt, and its third beit hamikdash) and after the name judea capita did not work.
the “palestinians” consisted of two (later three, when one split into two) “clans” or families of arabs and the resident jews. the rest of the arabs living in “palestine” “israel” today consists of these two/three clans and the jews, and an overwjhelingly karge number of arabs that mogratred to “palestine” following the economic success of “shivat zion” and the availability of better (than the local arabs outside “palestine”) jobs and economy.
the ottomans perhaps did not have a formal name for the areea, since arabs did not care for it, till the establishment of shivat zion, etc.
MiMedinat HaYam: What you say makes sense.
Thank you, YZCCJR and esg78.
Now I’m going to go sit on galicianer’s Ottoman. 😉