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Clock Towers Could Not Save the Empire: Time Marched On, but the Realm Collapsed

The Jaffa Clock Tower—why is it there? It is not merely a beautiful architectural landmark; it was part of an ambitious political project in the modern Middle East. In the late 19th century, Sultan Abdul Hamid II—who ascended to the Ottoman throne in August 1876—sought to project a sense of grandeur and, more importantly, progress to mark the 25th anniversary of his reign. The project to erect 144 clock towers throughout the Ottoman Empire reached its peak in 1900 (his Silver Jubilee). This was his way of synchronizing the East with the rhythm of the West and asserting his sovereignty in every central city square.


This revolution was not just technological; it was cultural. Until then, the Islamic world lived according to "Alla Turca" time—a 24-hour cycle that reset every sunset, requiring daily adjustments of the clocks. Opposing it was "Alla Franga" time (European time), as the Ottomans called it, based on midnight and the precision required by railways and the telegraph. The towers built by the Sultan often displayed both time systems side-by-side, serving as a bridge between religious tradition and industrial modernization. In Jerusalem, for instance, the clock faces facing East and West displayed Western time, while those facing North and South showed traditional time (the Jerusalem clock tower no longer exists).


In the Land of Israel (Palestine), seven such towers were established: Jaffa, Jerusalem, Acre, Haifa, Safed, Nablus, and Nazareth—each receiving its own "beating heart" (scholarly debate exists regarding whether the Nazareth tower belongs to this specific group). The Jaffa tower, so familiar to us today, is an extraordinary story of local cooperation. It was funded by donations from the city's residents—Arabs and Jews alike—at the initiative of businessman Joseph Bey (Beck) Moyal, featuring clocks built by the Jewish watchmaker Moritz Scheinberg. It stands as moving testimony to a moment in history when modernization united communities.


However, not all towers survived. The tower erected above the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem in 1907 fell victim to a different ideological struggle. In 1922, the British Governor Ronald Storrs ordered its demolition, claiming it damaged the historical aesthetics of the city walls. The British wanted to see Jerusalem as an "ancient, Biblical" city; they issued a directive to remove any structure built adjacent to the walls, and so the Sultan’s modern clock tower was removed. Its demolition was not just a matter of taste; some see it as a declaration by a new regime seeking to erase the footprints of its predecessor.


Sultan Abdul Hamid II was a master of "soft power." He used architecture and photography to combat the image of the empire as the "Sick Man of Europe." In the vast collection of photographs he gifted to the Library of Congress in Washington (1893/4) and the British Museum (now the British Library)—collections that are nearly identical—there were 1,819 photographs proudly showcasing hospitals, schools, and factories. The clock towers were the architectural version of this propaganda; they were meant to tell the world: "We are here, we are precise, and we are part of the future."


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Today, when we pass by the towers in Haifa, Acre, or Safed, we see much more than stone and mortar. We see the struggle to define time, a desperate and magnificent attempt to preserve a fading empire through progress, and the foundations of our modern cities. These towers are true "time capsules" that survived the collapse of a 400-year-old empire.


Next time you walk through Clock Square, look up. That clock doesn't just show the time; it tells the story of an era of immense global change.


Image 1: The Jerusalem Clock Tower, adjacent to Jaffa Gate, early 20th century, before it was dismantled by the British.


Image 2: The Jaffa Clock Tower. Photo: Nir Topper.


Image 3: Abdul Hamid II. Image source: Official Portrait of Prince Abdulhamid at Balmoral Castle in 1867, Wikipedia.


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