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The Dome of the Rock and the Politics of Restoration

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The Dome of the Rock and the Politics of Restoration Bridgewater Review Volume 17 | Issue 2 Article 8 Dec-1998 The omeD of the Rock and the Politics of Restoration Beatrice St. Laurent Bridgewater State College, [email protected] Recommended Citation St. Laurent, Beatrice (1998). The omeD of the Rock and the Politics of Restoration. Bridgewater Review, 17(2), 14-20. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol17/iss2/8 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. also to be the site of Mount Moriah where Abraham, according to the Hebrew Bible, was to have sacrificed his son Isaac, though the Koran, the holy book of Islam, indicates that it was his son Ishmael. Christians decided to commemorate tl1e site of Golgotha, which was nearby but outside the con­ fines of the ancient Temple sanctuary. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built in the fourth century C. E, includes a chapel at the top of Golgotha and the Anastasis or round tomb of Christ. The site of the ancient temple thus lay abandoned until the arrival of the Muslims in the late seventh century. A temporary congregational mosque, THE DOME OF THE which does not survive, was con­ structed from the ruins of the stoa of Herod on the lower platform of the ROCK AND THE Temple sanctuary built by Herod. Also, according to Muslim tradition, the rock contains the footprint of Muhammad POLITICS OF when he paused to pray in Jerusalem on his way to visit the seven levels of heaven during his Miraj or night vision. RESTORATION Jerusalem was the first qiblah or direction of prayer for Muslims; later, BY BEATRICE ST. LAURENT the Prophet Muhammad changed the direction to Mecca, the birthplace of the revelation. Thus,Abd al-Malik rom 1990 to the spring of 1996, I was Throughout its Islamic history the constructed his monument as a testi­ fortunate in obtaining permission to Dome of the Rock has been politically mony to Islamic rule in Jerusalem and engage in a research project on the and religiously significant; first to its II celebrated Jerusalem's status as the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, the Umayyad patrons, then to its Abbasid, third holiest city in Islam after Mecca oldest surviving Islamic monument. Fatimid, Ayyubid, Mamluk, Ottoman, and Medina. Jerusalem is still the third My project was to determine the extent British, Jordanian and Palestinian pro­ holiest city ofislam, and Muslims con­ to which restorations of the Dome of tectors. Jerusalem's history beginning tinue to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem the Rock, from the sixteenth century to with the advent of Islam is reflected in along with the official hajj to Mecca the present, were politically motivated the 1300 year history of the Dome of and Medina. at key moments in the region's history. the Rock, and the Dome stands as the The Dome of the Rock sits atop the After an initial period of research in symbol of Jerusalem and thus figures second smaller and higher platform in Jerusalem during the summer of 1990, prominently in the current peace nego­ the northern part of the Haram al­ I moved to Jerusalem during the sum­ tiations. Sharif. The Dome's form is that of a mer of 1992 and began the project and Shortly after the establishment of the commemorative structure, a double­ remained in the region until the spring Umayyad dynasty, the Caliph entered ambulatoried octagonal structure cov­ of 1996. My research was sponsored Jerusalem and wanted to pray on the ered by a double shelled wooden dome, by a National Endowment of the site of the ancient Jewish Temple of a form utilized in earlier Christian Humanities Grant, a Van Berchem Solomon and later the second Temple structures in the region of Greater Syria Foundation Grant and two successive of Herod the Great, which had been or Bilad al-Sham, buildings such as the United States Information Agency destroyed in 70 C. E. by the Roman Church of the Ascension on the nearby Grants. Emperor Titus. The Dome of the Rock Mount of Olives, just to the east of the I lived in East Jerusalem, in al-Ram, a is located on the Haram al-Sharif or the platform; or the church commemorat­ viJJage in the West Bank, and in Most Noble Sanctuary, the platform ing the house of St. Peter in Capernaum Amman, Jordan. In order to obtain that is the core of the Old City of on the Sea of Galilee. The dome was archaeological field experience, for two Jerusalem. Completed in 692 C. E. by covered with gold, the most precious seasons I participated in the excavation Caliph Abd al-Malik, the Dome is the of materials, to signal the imperial of Tel Miqne, the ancient Philistine oldest surviving Islamic monument presence ofislam in the city. The Dome town of Ekron, directed by Dr. Trude and marks the religio-political presence of the Rock dominated the cityscape as Dothan of Hebrew University in of the Umayyad dynasty in Jerusalem. It Jerusalem. is constructed around a rock believed BRIDGEW ATER REVIEW 14 the traveler approached from every the Dome was a strong religio-political Crusader period, 'Ali al-Harawi (of direction, surpassing in stature and statement establishing the city as a Herat) states that there were two location the formerly dominant dome center of religious pilgrimage and paintings on the interior of the Dome, of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. proclaiming the sovereignty of Islam one of Solomon opposite the stairs The commemorative form of the in Jerusalem. leading to the cave and also one of building provides one of the possible The late Umayyad and Abbasid Christ covered with jewels. The Aqsa reasons for the Dome's construction. dynasties began a long process of major Mosque was converted into the palace The Dome may have been built by the additions and restorations continuing of the Knights Templar and the area Umayyads in their newly acquired through the fourteenth century under the platform became stables for northern territory as an alternative Mamluk period. In the eighth century, the Crusaders' horses. to the Kaaba in Mecca for pilgrimage. the Umayyads constructed the Aqsa The Ayyubid Kurdish Sultan Salah The commemorative form of the struc­ Mosque, the new congregational al-Din, from northern Syria, recon­ ture suits the ritual requirements of mosque of Jerusalem. The Abbas ids, quered Jerusalem for Sunni Islam circumambulation and thus, Jerusalem, the next major Muslim dynasty ruling in 1187, and re-dedicated the Haram already respected as the first qiblah, the region, added new construction to by purging all structures of Christian became the third holiest city of Islam the sanctuary and effected repairs to the imagery and constructing new build­ and the spiritual capital of the Dome, with four bronze plates origi­ ings and restoring others. An inscrip­ Umayyad Empire. nally placed on the lintels above each tion in the cupola indicates that he Both the exterior and interior of the entrance which included inscriptions regilt the interior dome decoration. He Dome were covered with mosaic deco­ with Ma'mun's name and the date 831. also added a new pulpit or minbar to ration. The exterior mosaics were cov­ The Abbasid Caliph al-Ma'mum laid the Aqsa Mosque, which survived, until ered over with tiles in a later restoration claim over the site by excising the name the 1969 fire in the Aqsa, as a symbol of but the interior mosaics survive in all of the original builder and patron of his reconquest of the city. His victory of their splendor. Mosaics covered the the building and having his name was not merely over the Christian interior of many Byzantine churches inserted into the large Kufic inscription intruders but rather also in the ongoing in the region and logically became a leaving the original date of construc­ struggle for supremacy of Sunni part of the decorative scheme of local tion intact. What better way to indicate orthodoxy over the Shia Fa ti mids. Umayyad structures. The drum of the new imperial sovereignty of the site In the fourteenth and fifteenth dome and the upper area of the arcades and the region? centuries, the Marni uks of Egypt are filled with delicate vinescrolls New construction and the many dominated in what was probably one spilling out of golden vases, conform­ restorations of the Haram demonstrate of the most brilliant periods of ing with the dictum against figural the desire of successive rulers from new construction on the Haram and in the imagery in Muslim religious structures. dynasties to mark their presence. The Old City of Jerusalem, establishing a Parallels for such mosaics appear in the Shia heterodox Fa timid rulers of Egypt, strong regional building tradition and fourth century Church of the Nativity who wrested control from the Sunni style that persists to the present day. in nearby Bethlehem. A long Koranic orthodox Abbasids, effected many Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad in 1318 inscription in gold runs around the changes on the Haram, including the sponsored the re-leading of the exterior base of the arcade of the outer ambula­ modification of the Aqsa Mosque, dome and other buildings on the tory and also provides the date of the making it smaller and aligning it Haram, and the re-gilding of the dome structure's completion in 692 C. E. directly with the Dome of the Rock. interior decoration. Sultan Baybars, in The inclusion of the crowns of the In I022, the Fatimid Caliph al-Zahir the late thirteenth century, restored the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires in rebuilt the dome of the Dome of the mosaics of the Dome of the Rock, the mosaics prominently situated in Rock after an earthquake, redecorating including those of the east portal.
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