Nabi Musa

Nabi Musa (, meaning the "Prophet Moses",For Moses as nabi in Islamic holy scripture see Quran 19:51 (glossed by rasul ‘messenger’). For 'nabi’ in the Hebrew Scriptures see, for example, Numbers 12:6-8. The word comes from a Semitic root meaning 'to gush forth'. For a survey of the philological evidence see G Johannes Botterweck, Helmer Ringgren, Heinz-Josef Fabry, Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing 1998 pp.135ff.140f. also transliterated Nebi Musa) is the name of a site in the Judean desert that popular Palestinian folklore associates with Moses. It is also the name of a seven-day long religious festival that was celebrated annually by Palestinian Muslims, beginning on the Friday before Good Friday in the old Orthodox Greek calendar. Considered "the most important Muslim pilgrimage in Palestine,"Rivka Gonen, Contested Holiness: Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Perspectives on the Temple, KTAV Publishing House 2003 p.138 the festival centered around a collective pilgrimage from Jerusalem to what was understood to be the Tomb of Moses, near Jericho.

History

The Jerusalem-Jericho road was one of the primary routes used by Mediterranean Arabs to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. The great, many-domed building which marks the Mausoleum of Moses was located at what would be have marked the end of...
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