Sheokh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem

Sheikh Jarrah is a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem on the road to Mount Scopus.

Sheikh Jarrah was established on the slopes of Mount Scopus, taking its name from the tomb of Sheikh Jarrah. The tomb, dated to 1201, is the burial place of Husam al-Din al-Jarrahi, an emir and physician to Saladin ("jarrah" means surgeon in Arabic). In the 12th century, he established a zawiya (literally "angle, corner", also meaning a small mosque or school) known as the Zawiya Jarrahiyya ("surgery zawiya"). He was buried on the grounds of the school. 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi, a scholar from Damascus, who travelled to Jerusalem in 1690, was received at the school by a group of dignitaries and spiritual leaders. The tomb is situated inside a mosque built in 1895 on Nablus Road, north of the Old City and the American Colony. Prayer at the shrine is said bring good luck, particularly for those who raise chickens and eggs.

A two-story stone building incorporating a flour mill, Qasr el-Amawi, was built opposite the tomb in the 17th century. Sheikh Jarrah began to grow as a Muslim nucleus between the 1870s and 1890s. Several famous families, among them the Nashashibis, built homes in the upscale northern and eastern parts of the neighborhood . In the western part, houses were smaller and more scattered.