Haret al-Sa‘diyya

A neighborhood (haret) located within Jerusalem’s Old City walls between Herod’s Gate/Bab al-Zahra and Damascus Gate/Bab al-Amud (see The Gates of the Old City). Haret al-Sa‘diyya (or “Sa‘diyya neighborhood” in English) was named after Bani Sa‘ad (“offspring of Sa‘ad”), i.e., the Sa‘adi family. This family was one of the tribes that came to Jerusalem with the Muslim conqueror Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi in the 12th century. According to a 2018 al-Quds newspaper interview with Abed al-Qader al-Bukhari (b. 1933), a resident of this neighborhood, the largely Kurdish neighborhood also had several other names. It was also called al-Mashariqa (“Orient”) neighborhood after the Eastern Christians who inhabited it during the Crusader era. The neighborhood is also abundant with antiquities, including the Red Minaret Mosque, Sheikh Rehan Mosque, Convent of the Sisters of Zion, Indian corner (zawiya), Salhiya school, Mawlawia corner, the mosque and tomb of Sheikh al-Shuyoukh Ali al-Khilouti, Sheikh Lulu Mosque, and the mosque and tomb of Sheikh Shaky Makki.