Photo Album

The Armenians of Jerusalem

July 23, 2023

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The Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem, Harootiun Vehabedian, dressed in clerical vestment and adorned with crosses and medals, 1900–1910. He served as Patriarch between the years 1885 and 1910.

Credit:

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-ppmsca-13193]

The Patriarch and bishops of the Armenian Church, Armenian Quarter, Old City of Jerusalem. The photograph was taken by the American photographer John F. Jarvis in 1900.

Credit:

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-ds-05204]

People outside the entrance of the Armenian Convent in Jerusalem, Armenian Quarter, Old City of Jerusalem, 1914

Credit:

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-matpc-06551]

Easter ceremony in the Armenian Convent, Armenian Quarter, Old City of Jerusalem. The photograph was taken by the American photographer John F. Jarvis.

Library of Congress; Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-ppmsca-10638]

Four Armenian priests posing for a photograph in church vestment (1900–1920)

Credit:

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-matpc-05245]

In the Armenian Convent in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, a priest sounds a gong with a hammer (1900–1920). Gongs are a musical instrument used in church during mass.

Credit:

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-matpc-05003]

Worshippers at the Armenian Church of St. James perform the rite of foot washing (or washing of the saints’ feet) in celebration of Greek Orthodox Easter, April 17, 1941.

Credit:

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-matpc-21272]

Interior of the Cathedral of St. James. For centuries, the church has been known for its architecture and ornamentation; the ceramic eggs and tiles were transported from the world-famous Armenian ceramic workshops in Kütayha (in today’s Turkey; previously part of the Ottoman Empire).

Credit:

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-matpc-06552]

An example of the Armenian ceramic work that adorns the Cathedral of St. James, photographed sometime between 1934 and 1939

Credit:

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-matpc-10681]

Armenian and Syrian refugees waiting at the Red Cross camp outside Jerusalem to get “disinfected,” 1917–19. During World War I, with its massive dislocation of millions of people across Europe and beyond, the “disinfection” of immigrants and refugees became a common practice, as they were believed to carry germs and illnesses. An influenza pandemic in 2018 claimed 22 million lives worldwide, likely producing strict disinfection protocols. The Red Cross was on the front lines of the battle against the pandemic.

Credit:

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, American National Red Cross photograph collection [LC-A6195- 7247 [P&P]]

Armenian refugees who had fled from distant regions in Anatolia gathered in Jerusalem shortly after Easter in late October 1918. They were fed and clothed by American donations to the Syria and Palestine Relief Fund. During this time, after the armistice of 1918, the city was flooded with thousands of survivors of the genocide and refugees.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, American National Red Cross photograph collection [LC-A6195- 771-Bx [P&P]]

A 1918 group photo of Armenian orphans at the Araradian orphanage, established by the Armenian General Benevolent Union inside the St. James Monastery in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The orphanage housed about a thousand children.

Credit:

American Red Cross, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, photographer H & E, Col. Finley. American Red Cross photograph collection [LC-A6195- 5206 [P&P]]

Dozens of Armenian children performing physical exercise in the Armenian orphanage in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, October 1918

Credit:

Prints and Photographs Division, photographer H & E, Col. Finley. American Red Cross photograph collection [LC-A6195- 5218 [P&P]]

Girls painting pottery vases at the Dome of the Rock tiles workshop on Via Dolorosa in the Old City, sometime between 1920 and 1923. The workshop was run by pioneering Armenian ceramicist David Ohannessian, who established the art of Armenian ceramics in Jerusalem when he was commissioned by the British in 1918 to make tiles to repair the Dome of the Rock. He was brought from Syria, where he had ended up after fleeing from Kütayha in Turkey during the Armenian Genocide. Ohannessian continued to work in Jerusalem until 1948, but other Armenian Jerusalemite families followed suit and the art form survived and flourished in the city. Today there are about six Armenian ceramics workshops in East Jerusalem, most in the Christian and Armenian quarters of the Old City, and their pottery is a distinctive feature of Jerusalem’s cultural landscape.

Credit:

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-matpc-05667]

Ceramic tiles, bowls, and vases made in the Dome of the Rock tiles workshop, Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem, between 1920 and 1923. The Armenian ceramics workshop was established and run by Armenian ceramicist David Ohannessian.

Credit:

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-matpc-03028]

Armenian-made tiles grace the Damascus Gate to the Old City of Jerusalem.

Credit:

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-matpc-03021]

Photographer Garabed Krikorian, 1847–1920. Armenian Patriarch Issay Garabedian introduced photography to Palestine when he opened the first school of photography in the St. James Monastery in 1859. There, he trained many Armenian photographers, including Garabed Krikorian, his brother, and other young Armenians in the craft.

Garabed stood out as one of the best students. He went on to open his own photography studio on Jaffa Road, the first of its kind in the region, where he devoted himself mainly to portraiture, taking pictures of pilgrims, tourists, and prominent local figures. He was the official photographer for German Kaiser Wilhelm II when we came on an official visit to Jerusalem in 1898. He was often hired by the American Colony to photograph important events. Importantly, Krikorian also trained the first Arab photographer, Khalil Raad.

Credit:

Bernard Edelstein, Wikidata

Residents try to extinguish a fire that broke out in the Armenian Quarter in 1936, possibly related to events associated with the Great Palestinian Revolt.

Credit:

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-matpc-18073]

A tattooist known as Nerses the Goldsmith tattooing a pilgrim in his tattoo shop underneath the Armenian Patriarchate, 1900–1911. The tattoo artist is also identified as Jiries Razzouk, one of the generations of Razzouk family members who have been tattooing Jerusalemites for centuries and actually brought the art with them to the city from Egypt five centuries ago.

Inking Christian pilgrims is an ancient tradition in Jerusalem that goes back to the 1300s and is still performed today by the 28th generation of the Razzouk family in the business who runs Razzouk Tattoo.

Credit:

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-matpc-00710]

This photo album explores the history and spiritual life of the Armenian community in Jerusalem between the years 1898 and 1941.

Armenia became the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as the state religion in the early fourth century, and Armenian pilgrims flocked to Jerusalem for its religious significance; some permanently settled there. Jerusalemite Armenians are thought to form the oldest-surviving Armenian community in the diaspora.

By the 13th century, Armenian churches were built, including the St. James Monastery, which was built on the remains of a fifth-century church, on a site that was identified as the burial place of the first bishop of Jerusalem (St. James Minor), and around which an Armenian quarter slowly developed. The monastery served as a refuge for the Armenian poor; a hospice was later attached to the monastery, further solidifying the community’s relationship with their church. A secular Armenian community of merchants and artisans also settled in the city and contributed to its cultural legacy by establishing and leading several crafts such as manuscript production, ceramic arts, and photography. According to an Ottoman census, between 2,000 and 3,000 Armenians lived in Palestine prior to World War I; most of them were in Jerusalem.1 However, their numbers dramatically increased beginning in 1915, as genocide survivors from other parts of the Ottoman Empire sought refuge in Palestine and Jerusalem, mainly in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City. The refugees formed a “second wave” of the community.

The Armenian community has long been an integral part of the historical, social, and cultural fabric of the Old City of Jerusalem.

This photo album offers a glimpse into the lives of Armenian Jerusalemites at the turn of the century, with the Armenian Church of St. James serving as a focal center and refuge from war as a backstory. In this album, we see devout members of the St. James congregation performing religious rituals and celebrating holy occasions; we see Armenian refugees upon their arrival to Jerusalem as well as skilled artisans at work.