Home > Olives & Thorns > Archives > 2008 > July > 29 > Entry
The case of the missing key
The other day, I found a large iron key hidden in an old armoire in my house. I saved it for my landlord.
“Where did you find it?” he asked. “It’s been missing for many years.” He thanked me and slipped it in his pocket
Turns out the key was one of three known to exist to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, site of the death and resurrection of Jesus, according to the beliefs of most Christian denominations.
My landlord, Wajeeh Nuseibeh, is the doorkeeper to the church. His job is to unlock and lock the front door of the church everyday.
According to family tradition, the Caliph Omar appointed the Nuseibeh family, who are Muslims, doorkeepers to the church in 637. Father has passed the keys down to son ever since.
Wajeeh’s father died 26 years ago. Since then, Wajeeh has held the job.
But nothing in this city is so simple. The local Joudeh family has had custody of the keys since 1192, when Saladin conquered the city from the Crusaders. Since then, every morning, in theory, a Joudeh has delivered the key to a Nuseibeh, who unlocks the door. (In practice, both families have outsourced the job, as the 4:30 a.m. opening time has proven inconvenient.)
So, why was a key to the church hidden in the Nuseibeh’s armoire all these years? Who put it there and how did it come to be “missing”? Perhaps the case of the missing key dates back to a dispute between the families in 1990 over their respective key-holding and key-turning roles at the church.
Wajeeh likes to refer questions about his job to the family Web site. He has commended me on my patience, however (the old, broken refrigerator still sits against the side of the house outside the kitchen door), and I expect the answers will come soon enough.
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