Jerusalem in 19th Century
Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times during it’s long and violent history.
These earliest pictures of Jerusalem were taken in 1844 by French photographer and draughtsman Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey. And what was the political situation?
Jerusalem was under the Ottoman rule at the time. In the 1840s and 1850s, the international powers began a tug-of-war in Palestine as they sought to extend their protection over the region’s religious minorities, a struggle carried out mainly through consular representatives in Jerusalem. According to the consul, the population in 1845 was 16,410, with 7,120 Jews, 5,000 Muslims, 3,390 Christians, 800 Turkish soldiers and 100 Europeans.
