There were riots on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem this weekend, when gangs of Arab youths stoned a group of 15 Jews who they suspected might be committing the unspeakable crime of murmuring a prayer there. The Temple Mount in Jerusalem – the place where Solomon’s – and later Herod’s temple - stood is now a Muslim holy place, under the exclusive control of the Muslim religious authority (despite it being in Jerusalem, the capital of a Jewish state). The two main structures on the Mount are the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aksa mosque. How and why were they built there ?
In the year 638 of the common era (CE), Muslims forces captured the Holy Land. Tradition has it – even if some historians disagree – that it was Omar, the 2nd Caliph after the death of the Prophet who himself lead the Muslim forces into Jerusalem. He is said to have visited The Temple Mount abandoned and left in ruins for hundreds of years -and resolved to rehabilitate it. After having the area cleaned up, he decided to build a mosque there; the Mosque of Omar - apparently a large wooden structure - was built in the south of the mount, probably in the place where the al-Aksa stands now.
Late in the 7th century, when the Umayyad dynasty – descendants of a collateral branch of Muhammud’s family - had established it’s rule from Damascus, the then Caliph Abd al-Malik decided to enhance the importance of Jerusalem in the Islamic world. Accordingly, the Dome of the Rock was built here in the year 691. The building that stands here now – although it has been decorated since then and had a couple of new domes over the years – is essentially the same one built by Abd al-Malik. At over 1300 years, it is certainly the oldest Muslim structure in the world. In 705, his son Walid built the first al-Aksa mosque at the southern end of the Temple Mount, probably in the place where Omar’s wooden mosque had stood.
The question is why Jerusalem ? Why did Islam, with its roots and history in Arabia, need to develop its ties to Jerusalem, to such an extent that it is now considered the third most sacred city in the Muslim world after Mecca and Medinah ?
Aside from Islam, at the time there were two major religions in the known world – Judaism and Christianity – for both of whom Jerusalem was central. Christianity in particular was the other world religion against which Islam was competing. During the Byzantine era, Jerusalem had become an important Christian city. Aside from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built by the emperor Constantine, his successors had built many other magnificent churches in and around Jerusalem. It seems that Islam too needed to make Jerusalem a central point, and the best way to do that was to build.
To this end, it appears that the Dome of the Rock was built as a counterpoint – both physical and spiritual – to the main Christian monument in Jerusalem, the Holy Sepulcher:
- At that time, the Holy Sepulcher consisted of a domed rotunda surrounding the tomb where Jesus had been buried and resurrected. The dimensions of the Dome of the Rock – also a round, or octagonal building – are almost identical to those of the rotunda of the Holy Sepulcher.
- Constantine had built a magnificent basilica aligned with, and to the east of the Holy Sepulcher. The al-Akasa mosque too was (and is) in the form of a basilica; it is aligned with, and to the south (the direction of Mecca) of the Dome of the Rock.
- Christians had deliberately shunned the Temple Mount – leaving it in ruins - in order to emphasize how the Temple, and the Temple rites had been superceded by the sacrifice of Jesus. The Dome of the Rock, built at the location of Solomon’s Temple, was intended to reaffirm the continuing importance of that spot, and the central role of Islam as the latest and most authentic revelation of God’s word.
- Inside the Dome of the Rock, there are a number of polemical inscriptions against Christianity in Arabic.
At a later stage, in order to give more substance to Jerusalem’s connection to Islam, the legend about Muhammud’s night journey developed.
In the Quran there is a verse referring very vaguely to a night journey of Muhammud to the “furthest mosque” . This story was later elaborated outside of the Quran; in the elaboration, the angel Gabriel takes Muhammud to the holy rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Muhammud climbed up to heaven from the holy rock. Although some Muslims suggested that this whole voyage was just a dream, the need to reinforce the importance of Jerusalem to Muslims vs Christians, led it to being accepted literally. Nowadays they can even point out the place in the wall where Muhammud’s steed was tethered while he ascended to heaven.
