Dome of the Rock - Religious significance, Construction

A masterpiece of Islamic architecture completed in AD 691 on Mt Moriah, Jerusalem. The shrine, which is built on an octagonal plan and surmounted by a gilded wooden cupola, encloses the holy rock where, according to tradition, Mohammed ascended to heaven and Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac.

Coordinates: 31°46′40″N, 35°14′6″E

The Dome of the Rock (Arabic: مسجد قبة الصخرة, translit.: Masjid Qubbat As-Sakhrah, Hebrew: כיפת הסלע, translit.: Kipat Hasela, Turkish: Kubbetüs Sahra) is a notable Islamic shrine/mosque in what Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary (al-Haram al-Qudsi al-Sharif, Arabic: الحرم القدسي الشريف) — which Jews and Christians call Har ha-Bayit (Hebrew: הר הבית) or the Temple Mount — it remains one of the best known landmarks of Jerusalem.

Religious significance

The rock in the center of the dome it is believed by Muslims to be the spot from which Muhammad ascended through the heavens to God accompanied by the angel Gabriel, where 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 Muhammad took a night journey on Buraq from the "sacred mosque" (al-Masjid al-Haram) (Mecca) to the "farthest mosque" (al-Masjid al-Aqsa) (interpreted in Islam to be in Jerusalem) instantaneously.

Since Jerusalem is not mentioned by name in the Koran, many non-Muslim historians point to the concept that Umar reinterpreted the Koran to exalt his mosque in Jerusalem — which started out as a tiny wooden shrine — to show what he perceived to be Islam's superiority over Judaism.

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.

Construction

In 630, long before the Dome of the Rock was erected, `Umar ibn al-Khattāb 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 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. 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:

When Abd al-Malik intended to construct the Dome of the Rock, he came from Damascus to Jerusalem. He wrote, "Abd al-Malik intends to build a dome (qubba) over the Rock to house the Muslims from cold and heat, and to construct the masjid. With their approval, the deputies wrote back, "May Allah permit the completion of this enterprise, and may He count the building of the dome and the masjid a good deed for Abd al-Malik and his predecessors." He then gathered craftsmen from all his dominions and asked them to provide him with the description and form of the planned dome before he engaged in its construction. He then ordered the building of the treasury (bayt al-mal) to the east of the Rock, which is on the edge of the Rock, and filled it with money. When the two men satisfactorily completed the house, they wrote to Abd al-Malik to inform him that they had completed the construction of the dome and al-Masjid al-Aqsa. Abd al-Malik orders the gold coins to be melted and cast on the Dome's exterior, which at the time had a strong glitter that no eye could look straight at it.

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:

And in like manner is it not evident that Caliph Abd al-Malik, seeing the greatness of the martyrium of the Holy Sepulchre and its magnificence was moved lest it should dazzle the minds of Muslims and hence erected above the Rock the dome which is now seen there. 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 20m by 20cm and its height 20m by 48cm, while the diameter of the dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is 20m by 90cm and its’ height 21m by 5cm.

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 very form of a rotunda, given to the Qubbat as-Sakhra, although it was foreign to Islam, was destined to rival the many Christians domes.

All this shows that rivalry with Christendom, together with the spirit of Islamic mission to the Christians, was at the work at the creation of the famous Dome .

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.

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 12th century.

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.

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

In 1267 the Jewish sage Nahmanides wrote to a letter to his son. It contained the following references to the land and the Temple:

At their place a quorum of worshippers meets on the Sabbath, and we encourage them, and found a ruined house, built on pillars, with a beautiful dome, and made it into a synagogue .

Ottoman period

During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent the exterior of the Dome of the Rock was covered with Iznik tiles.

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

Israel

The Dome of the Rock was badly shaken during an earthquake in Israel 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.

Modern period

In 1955 an extensive programme of renovation was begun by the government of Jordan, with funds supplied by the Arab governments and Turkey. In 1960, as part of this restoration, the dome was covered with a durable aluminium and bronze alloy made in Italy.

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 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." Shlomo Goren also entered the Dome of the Rock with a Torah book and the shofar.

Currently, as territory of Israel, the Israeli government has granted a Muslim Council full administration of the site.

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.

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

Until the mid-nineteenth century, non-Muslims were barred from the area.

As of October 2006, only Muslims are permitted to enter the Dome of the Rock. After Ariel Sharon made his famous visit to the Temple Mount in 2000, non-Muslims have been forbidden to enter either the Dome of the Rock or the Al-Aqsa mosque completely.

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