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|  | The Alhusseini family has been the keeper of the key for the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for nearly one thousand years. Introduction In 638 an agreement between the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem and Caliph Omar Ibn Al-Khattab put the church key in the hand of Nuseibeh's family who came from Madina. The Nuseibeh remained the sole gatekeeper and key keeper untill the crusader armies from Europe took over Jerusalem and massacred thousands of people in the holy city. The Nuseibeh fled to Nablus and lived there untill the next conquest of Jerusalem was made by the Muslims. Lord (Sayyid) Mohammad Bin-Badir Al Deen Alhusseini left Alheejaz to fight the holy war againts the Crusaders. Which Husseini family lost many men during the battles but in the end recaptured Jerusalem under the leadership of Saladin. The Alhusseini family was granted a royal decree from Saladin and which gave the Alhusseini family Superintendent of the Waqf (religious trust),Key’s Custodian of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre ,Chairman of the Nobles ,Islamic Mufti of Jerusalem. During the Ottoman empire the Nuseibeh family and the Alhusseini family both had came upon an agreement. The Nuseibeh family would be the keeper of the church door and the Alhusseini family would keep the 10-inch iron key of the church. Sequences of the "opening ceremony".   1. From inside the Church the Sextons hand the ladder to the door keeper through a small hole in the door.  2. The door keeper receives the ladder outside the door.  3. The door keeper opens the lower locked latch.  4. The door keeper the upper locked latch.  5. The door keeper opens the right-hand part of the door .  6. From left to right: the Franciscan sexton, the Armenian, the door keeper, the Greek sexton and another Franciscan sexton . |  |
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