In its millennia of history, the inhabitants and rulers of the city of Jerusalem have changed countless times, from ancient pagans to Biblical Israelites to Byzantine Christians to Ottoman Muslims.



The Ottoman Turks took control of the city in 1517, absorbing it into their empire, which stretched across swaths of North Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Walls built around the perimeter in 1538 by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent contain what is today called the Old City, which is divided into Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Armenian Quarters.

These photos capture the city in the final years of Ottoman rule, when it was the seat of an administrative district called the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, part of a broader region called Palestine. During this period, successive waves of Jewish immigration tipped the population of the city to firmly Jewish-majority.

In 1917, four centuries after first coming under Ottoman control, the city and surrounding territory was captured by the British, and a mandate was established.

The British administered Mandatory Palestine until rising Arab and Jewish nationalist tensions led to the Civil War and Arab-Israeli War of 1947-1948 and the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948.