The Dome of the Rock

Religious significance

The rock in the center of the dome is believed by Muslims to be the spot from which Prophet Muhammad ascended to God in heaven, accompanied by the angel Gabriel. There, he consulted with Moses and was given the (now obligatory) Islamic prayers before returning to Earth. (See Isra and Mi'raj.) A Qur'anic verse says that Prophet Muhammad took an instantaneous night journey on Buraq from al-Masjid al-Haram ("the sacred mosque," interpreted as being in Mecca) to al-Masjid al-Aqsa ("the farthest mosque," interpreted as being in Jerusalem).^[2]

In Judaism the stone is the site where Abraham fulfilled God's test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac. (Muslims believe that this event involved Abraham's other son Ishmael and occurred in the desert of Mina where millions of Muslims offer pilgrimage every year). There is some controversy among secular scholars about equating Mount Moriah (where Isaac's binding occurred according to the Biblical narrative), the Temple Mount, and the location where Jacob saw the ladder to heaven; but for Orthodox and Conservative Jews at least, there is no doubt that all these events occurred on this spot. It is also identified as the rock upon which Jacob dreamt about angels ascending and descending on a ladder and consequently offering a sacrifice upon. Situated inside the Holy of Holies, this was the rock upon which the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the First Temple^[3]. During the Second Temple, the stone was used by High Priest who offered up the incense and sprinkled the blood of the sacrifices on it during the Yom Kippur Service. Rabbinic legend also alleges that the entire world was created from this stone, hence the name ??? ??????, Foundation Stone.

In Christianity, in addition to the use of the Temple by Jesus, it is believed that during the time of the Byzantine Empire, the spot where the Dome was later constructed was where Constantine's mother built a small church, calling it the Church of St. Cyrus and St. John, later on enlarged and called the Church of the Holy Wisdom.^[4]

Construction

In 630, long before the Dome of the Rock was erected, `Umar ibn al-Khatt?b helped by Kaab al-Ahbar and other Muslims recovered the Rock and dug it out of the dust and cleansed the area which had been abandoned for hundreds of years since the Roman destruction. Ibn Asakir ^[5] mentions that Umar never built any Muslim house of worship on that spot but rather chose to erect a mosque in the southern area of the Haram es Sharif with the Rock behind to the north. He did this to make clear that the qibla of prayer was south, towards the Kaabah in Mecca and that Muslims never dispute the correct direction of prayer, resulting in them possibly praying towards the Rock, as the Jews were doing. The Rock area remained uncovered until the time of Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan who started construction in 685, completing it in 691. The Muslim scholar al-Wasiti reports this incidence:

The two engineers Yazid ibn Salam, a Jerusalemite, and Raja' ibn Hayweh, from Baysan, were ordered to spend generously on the construction. In his Book of the Geography, al-Maqdisi reported that seven times the revenue of Egypt was used to build the Dome. During a discussion with his uncle on why the Caliph spent lavishly on building the mosques in Jerusalem and Damascus, al-Maqdisi writes:

Cross section of the edifice

Mr A.C. Cresswell in his book Origin of the plan of the Dome of the Rock writes that those who built the mosque made use of the measurements of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The diameter of the dome of the mosque is 20 m by 20 cm and its height 20 m by 48 cm, while the diameter of the dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is 20 m by 90 cm and its? height 21 m by 5 cm.

In his study The Historication background of the erection of the Dome of the Rock, Prof. Shlomo Dov Goitein of the Hebrew University mentions:

The Dome is in the shape of a Byzantine martyrium, a structure intended for the housing and veneration of saintly relics and is an excellent example of middle Byzantine art. Haj Amin Al-Husseini, appointed Grand Mufti by the British, along with Yacoub Al Ghussein implemented restoration of Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. He had the Dome gold-plated for the first time.

Essentially unchanged for more than thirteen centuries, the octagonally-shaped Dome of the Rock remains one of the world's most enduring architectural treasures. The gold foil covered dome stretches 20 metres across the Noble Rock, rising to an apex more than 35 metres above it. The facade is made of porcelain http://www.glasssteelandstone.com/TextOnlyBuildingDetail.php?BuildingName=Dome%20of%20the%20Rock,%20The&LocationCity=Jerusalem&LocationState=Jerusalem%20District&LocationNation=Israel The Koranic sura, or chapter, "Ya-Seen" is inscribed across the top in the tile work commissioned in the 16^th century by Suleiman the Magnificent. The sura al-Isra (The Night Journey), is inscribed above Ya-Seen.

During his travels in Jerusalem, Mark Twain wrote that parts of the Dome of the Rock used stones excavated from the Temple Mount and which were a part of the Jewish Temple that was destroyed by the Romans in 70CE:

Crusader period

During the Crusades the Dome of the Rock was given to the Augustinians, who made it into a church, while the Al-Aqsa Mosque was turned into a royal palace by Baldwin I in 1104. The Knights Templar, who believed the Dome of the Rock to be near the ruins of the Temple of Solomon, made their headquarters in the Al-Aqsa Mosque adjacent to the Dome for much of the 12^th century. They called it the "Templum Domini", and it was the location from which they took their name "Templar". It appeared in some of the seals of the Order's Grand Masters (such as Evrard de Barres and Regnaud de Vichier), and its architecture was a model for Templar churches across Europe.

Ayyubid and Mamluk period

Jerusalem was re-captured by Salah al-Din on Friday, 2 October, 1187 and the Haram was reconsecrated as a Muslim sanctuary. The cross on top of the Dome of the Rock was replaced by a golden crescent and a wooden screen was placed around the rock below. Salah al-Din's nephew al-Malik al-Mu'azzam Isa (615-24/1218-27) carried out other restorations within the Haram and added the porch to the Aqsa mosque.

The Haram was the focus of extensive royal patronage by the sultans during the Mamluk period, which lasted from 1250 untl 1510.

Later Bran

Ottoman period

Exterior View

Large-scale renovation was undertaken during the reign of Mahmud II in 1817.

British mandate period

The Dome of the Rock was badly shaken during an earthquake in Palestine on Monday, 11 July, 1927 rendering useless many of the repairs that had taken place over previous years.

Moor's Gate

Moors Gate, (Bab El Magharbeh), is one of four entrances to the Dome of the Rock at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and is the only city gate entrance to the Jewish Quarter. The Moors Gate engraved Moors into Judaic religious history due to the fact that the Moors were part and parcel to those ?Holy? territories, Jerusalem and Palestine.

Modern period

2006. View of the Dome with Israeli flag adjacent.

In 1955 an extensive programme of renovation was begun by the government of Jordan, with funds supplied by the Arab governments and Turkey. The work included replacement of large numbers of tiles dating back to the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, which had become dislodged by heavy rain. In 1960, as part of this restoration, the dome was covered with a durable aluminium and bronze alloy made in Italy. The restoration was completed in August 1964.

Under Jordanian rule of Jerusalem, Jews were forbidden from entering the Old City. Israel took control of the Dome of Rock during its victory in the Six Day War in 1967. According to a posthumously-published interview with Haaretz, General Uzi Narkiss reported that on June 7, 1967, a few hours after East Jerusalem fell into Israeli hands, Rabbi Shlomo Goren had told him "Now is the time to put 100 kilograms of explosives into the Mosque of Omar so that we may rid ourselves of it once and for all." His request was denied; according to Goren's aide Menahem Hacohen, he had not suggested blowing up the mosque, but had merely stated that "if, during the course of the war a bomb had fallen on the mosque and it would have - you know - disappeared - that would have been a good thing." Later that year, in a speech to a military convention, he added: "Certainly we should have blown it up. It is a tragedy for generations that we did not do so. ... I myself would have gone up there and wiped it off the ground completely so that there was no trace that there was ever a Mosque of Omar there."^[6] Shlomo Goren also entered the Dome of the Rock with a Torah book and the shofar. ^[7] A few hours after the Israeli flag was hoisted over the Dome of the Rock in 1967, at the conclusion of the Six-Day War, Israelis lowered it on the orders of General Moshe Dayan, and invested the Muslim Waqf (religious trust) with the authority to manage the Temple Mount-Haram al-Sharif in order to "keep the peace". ^[8]

Currently, as territory of Israel, the Israeli government is still allowing the Muslim Council full administration of the site. Jews and Christians are barred from conducting services there.

Groups such as the Temple Mount and Eretz Yisrael Faithful Movement wish to relocate the Dome to Mecca and replace it with a Third Temple. Since Muslims consider the ground under the Dome to be sacred this would be a highly contentious move. The majority of Israelis also do not share the movement's wishes. Most religious Jews feel that the Temple should only be rebuilt in the messianic era, and it is their belief that it would be presumptuous of people to force God's hand. However, some Christians would consider this a prerequisite to Armageddon and the Second Coming.

In 1998 the golden dome covering was refurbished following a donation of $8.2 million by King Hussein of Jordan who sold one of his houses in London to fund the 80 kilograms of gold required.

Restrictions on entrance to the Dome of the Rock

Warning sign at entrance to the Temple Mount.

After Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited the area in 2000, setting off the Al Aqsa intifada, non-Muslims were forbidden to enter the Temple compound. ^[10]

In 2006, the compound was reopened to non-Muslim visitors. Free admission, except on Fridays and Muslim holidays, between 7-10 a.m. and 12:30-1:30 p.m. Entry is through a covered wooden walkway next to the security entrance to the Western Wall known as the Mograbi Bridge or the Maimonides Gate. However, entrance to the Dome itself for non-Muslims is not allowed.

See also

• Al-Aqsa Mosque
• Temple Mount
• Temple in Jerusalem
• Destruction of Jerusalem
• Western Wall
• Well of Souls
• Islamic architecture
• Dispensational Christian end times views regarding the Dome of the Rock
• Knights Templar
• Third holiest site in Islam

Notes

1. ↑ The Gallic bishop Arculf who visited Jerusalem in 670 A.D. describes the new mosque that was founded right after the capture of Jerusalem by Umar as a rectangular wooden structure, built over ruins and capable of accommodating 3000 worshipers
2. ↑ Other locations, however, have been put forward as the intended destination, including a possible reference to Heaven, Medina or Jirana; al-Waqidi, Kitab al-Maghazi (Oxford UP 1966, vol.3, pg.958-59). See Location of the ?farthest mosque? in Al-Aqsa Mosque.
3. ↑ Maimonides, Beis HaBechirah 4:1
4. ↑ Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims Before the Crusades, page 204
5. ↑ Ibn Asakir, Tarikh Madinat Dimashq 1, pg. 176.
6. ↑ The Political Role Of The Israeli Chief Rabbinate In The Temple Mount Question by Yoel Cohen
7. ↑ Photo of Shlomo Goren inside the Dome
8. ↑ Letter from Jerusalem: A Fight Over Sacred Turf by Sandra Scham
9. ↑ Jerusalem's Holy Places and the Peace Process Marshall J. Breger and Thomas A. Idinopulos
10. ↑ Eyewitness: Inside al-Aqsa (BBC) March 20, 2002

References

• Peterson, Andrew (1994). Dictionary of Islamic Architecture. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-06084-2

External links

• Dome of the Rock Sacred Destinations - includes photo tour
• Dome of the Rock AutoCAD release 14, CAD drawing, 1995
• Dome of the Rock Bible places
• Dome of the Rock Interior picture
• Dome of the Rock Sacred sites
• Re-envisioning the Dome of the Rock The Hope
• Dome of the Rock from Jerusalem photos portal
• muslimphotos.net Photos of Dome of the Rock
• 16X zoomable panoramic view of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives
• Site surrounding the controversy over the excavations made by the Waqf

Gallery

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