JERUSALEM, BRUNEI: At work I came across mention of the country of Brunei. The full name is Brunei Darussalam. Somewhere I recalled that D and J are phonetically similar and I was curious. According to the person who answered at the Brunei Embassy, Darussalem means "Dwelling of Peace"

One of explanations of the meaning of Jerusalem is Ir Shalem, which would be "City (or dwelling) of Peace". Also, Dar in Hebrew also means dwelling.

All well and good, but I'm still not clear on what Darussalam means in general to Moslems--if it is supposed to refer to Jerusalem or have some other meaning.

What does Jerusalem mean to Moslems, anyway?

Daniel Pipes writes (in "The Muslim Claim to Jerusalem"):

Jerusalem appears in the Jewish Bible 669 times and Zion (which usually means Jerusalem, sometimes the Land of Israel) 154 times, or 823 times in all. The Christian Bible mentions Jerusalem 154 times and Zion 7 times. In contrast, the columnist Moshe Kohn notes, Jerusalem and Zion appear as frequently in the Qur'an "as they do in the Hindu Bhagavad-Gita, the Taoist Tao-Te Ching, the Buddhist Dhamapada and the Zoroastrian Zend Avesta"—which is to say, not once.

Muslim interest in Jerusalem seems to ebb and flow--depending on whether anyone else is interested in it. At one point, a grandson of Saladin gave Jerusalem away:

...the Muslim ruler of Egypt and Palestine, al-Kamil (another of Saladin's grandsons and the brother of al-Mu‘azzam), offered to trade Jerusalem to the Europeans if only the latter would leave Egypt, but he had no takers. Ten years later, in 1229, just such a deal was reached when al-Kamil did cede Jerusalem to Emperor Friedrich II; in return, the German leader promised military aid to al-Kamil against al-Mu‘azzam, now a rival king. Al-Kamil insisted that the Temple Mount remain in Muslim hands and "all the practices of Islam"³⁹ continued to be exercised there, a condition Friedrich complied with. Referring to his deal with Frederick, al-Kamil wrote in a remarkably revealing description of Jerusalem, "I conceded to the Franks only ruined churches and houses."⁴⁰ In other words, the city that had been heroically regained by Saladin in 1187 was voluntarily traded away by his grandson just forty-two years later.

A 42 year attention span as compared to 2000 years.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Jerusalem and Darussalam.