Summary
The arrangements regulating the custodianship rights and privileges of each religious community over the Christian Holy Places, established by the Ottoman Porte and ratified by the treaties of Paris (1856) and Berlin (1878), as set out in the editors’ note to Niqula Khoury’s Memoirs (‘The House of the Priest’: A Palestinian Life (1885-1954), PDF p.134, note 87).
Details
- Because of the continuous disputes between the various Churches for control of the Christian sanctuaries, the Ottoman Porte established the so-called Status Quo; under the Capitulations regime the Great Powers played a major role in its formation as protectors of their co-religionists within the Ottoman state (PDF p.134).
- The editors quote Cust’s definition: “the arrangements existing in 1852 which corresponded to the Status Quo of 1757 as to the rights and privileges of the Christian communities officiating in the Holy Places have to be most meticulously observed” (PDF p.134).
- The maintenance of the Status Quo was a strategic aim of the British Mandate, which assumed responsibility for a special commission for resolving outstanding questions (art. 14); the Jerusalem Orthodox Patriarchate acquired the praedominium, especially due to the support of the Orthodox community of Constantinople and later of Russia (PDF p.134).
- Papastathis earlier reads King Abdullah’s protection of the Greek establishment after East Jerusalem’s incorporation into Jordan as explained by Status Quo foreign-policy priorities (PDF p.66).
Related pages
‘The House of the Priest’: A Palestinian Life (1885-1954), Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Benjamin I, Niqula Khoury