Al-Aqsa Mosque
The
Al-Aqsa Mosque (
Arabic: المسجد الاقصى, , is part of the complex of religious buildings in
Jerusalem known as either the
Majed Mount or
Al-Haram al-Sharif and the third holy site (the
Noble Sanctuary) to
Muslims and the
Har ha-Bayit (
Temple Mount) to
Jews. It is located in
East Jerusalem, a disputed territory governed as part of
Israel since its annexation during the 1967
Six-Day War, but claimed by
Palestinians as part of a future
State of Palestine. The largest
mosque in Jerusalem, it can accommodate about 5,000 people worshipping in and around it.
The name "Al-Aqsa Mosque" translates to "the farthest mosque" ("the remote mosque" according to some translations, such as that of Muhammad Asad), and is associated with the
Isra and Mi'raj, a journey made around 621 by
Mohammed (c. 570-632). According to Qur'anic verse, Mohammed took the journey in a single night from "the sacred mosque" (in
Mecca) to "the farthest mosque" (al-Masjid al-Aqsa). From a rock there, Mohammed ascended to heaven, accompanied by the Archangel
Gabriel, touring heaven and receiving the commandmentsbefore returning to Earth to communicate them to the faithful. While Mohammed had never been to Jerusalem in person, he was able to describe its features and specific details of the rock, to the amazement of his suspecting audience . The location of the "farthest mosque" was not explicitly stated, but came to be associated with Jerusalem, though the city is never specifically mentioned in the Koran. It's disputed by scholars who believe that the location was chosen specifically because its holy nature to the Jews and that the Islamic claim to the Temple Mount is very recent [
1]
As it was the place at which Mohammed performed the first commanded prayer after Isra and Mi'raj, it became the universal direction that Muslims face during prayer
Qebbla and continued to be so for few years. When Muslims migrated from Mecca to Medina (located south of Jerusalem and north of Mecca), they were confronted with the choice of either facing Al-Aqsa mosque or the Haram Mosque, but not both. As Haram mosque was more senior, Qebbla was eventually turned towards Mecca. Al-Aqsa mosque is also one of only three mosques that Muslims are allowed to perform pilgrimage to. For this reason, Al-Aqsa mosque (the rock and surrounding land, with or without the actual building) is known to Muslims as the "First Qebbla and third holy sancturay".
Omar (c. 581-644), the Muslim caliph who conquered Jerusalem in 637, wanted a place of prayer that does not infringe on nearby Christian and Jewish worship places. That place, to the south of the rock, was developed into a mosque, and was given the name "Al-Aqsa Mosque". Sometime between 687-691, Caliph
Abd al-Malik built a shrine over the sacred rock, and it was named
Qubbat As-Sakhrah, means "The
Dome of the Rock." Some years later, in 709-715,
Umayyad caliph al-Walid, son of Abd al-Malik, built, renovated, and expanded the mosque south of the Dome.
Muslims, generally, distinguish between the man-made building known as Al-Aqsa mosque and the geographics location known also as Al-Aqsa mosque. The later includes the rock, the mosque, other structures, and surrounding lands within the walls of ancient Jerusalem.
Construction of the Mosque began around 674 about 48 years after the traditional date given for Prophet Muhammad's death. Little remains of the original structure, which, owing to the position of the mosque over
Herod's artificial addition to the Temple Mount, was in constant danger of collapse. In
747 it was badly damaged by earthquake, and then rebuilt on a much larger scale.
Damage from earthquakes in
1927 and
1936 necessitated an almost complete rebuilding of the mosque, in the process of which ancient sections of the original mosque were brought to light.
Analysis of wooden beams and panels removed from the building during renovations in the 1930s shows they are made from
Cedar of Lebanon and
Cyprus. Radiocarbon dating indicates a large range of ages, some as old as 9th century BC, showing that some of the wood had previously been used in older buildings.
Around 1119, King
Baldwin II of Jerusalem, who had converted the large mosque into his palace, assigned one wing to the small and yet little known
Order of the Knights Templar. The Crusaders called the Temple Mount "Templum Solomonis" or "Templum Domini" as they believed that it was over the ruins of
Solomon's Temple, and it was from this location that the Order took their name of "Templar", also sometimes referring to themselves as "the Knights of the Temple" or simply "the Temple." The Templars used the mosque as their headquarters for many years, and designed other Templar buildings in Europe in a round shape, after the architecture from the Temple Mount and the nearby
Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Templar seals were also frequently adorned with the shape of a dome.
When
Saladin re-took Jerusalem in
1187, he reconverted Al Aqsa back into a mosque.
Since part of the mosque's extended surrounding wall is the
Western Wall venerated by
Jews, this relatively small spot in Jerusalem is a source of friction. There have been times when Muslims worshipping at the mosque threw rocks downward at the Jews below at the
Western Wall. A group of Jews known as the
Temple Mount Faithful have expressed a desire to rebuild the ancient Jewish
Temple in that area, turning into an attack on the mosque in 1990, resisted by Palestinians.
In the morning of August 21, 1969, a fire at Masjid al-Aqsa, gutted the southeastern wing of the mosque. The fire destroyed a priceless one-thousand-year-old wood and ivory pulpit (minbar) that had been sent from Aleppo by Saladin.
By the following day, the fire was blamed on a non-Jewish tourist from Australia named Dennis Michael Rohan. Rohan was a Protestant follower of an evangelical sect known as the Church of God. By his own admission, Rohan hoped to hasten the coming of the Messiah by burning down the al-Aqsa Mosque. Rohan told the court that he acted as "the Lord's emissary" on divine instructions, in accordance with the Book of Zechariah, and that he had tried to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque in order to rebuild the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount. He was hospitalized in a mental institution, found to be insane and was later deported from Israel.
The
Al-Aqsa Intifada is named after the mosque (due to
Ariel Sharon's controversial visit to the
Temple Mount in September 2000), as are the
Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
Some Muslims have accused
Israel of weakening the walls of the mosque during archaeological excavations that began in 1967 and continue today. In response to concerns about the structure's stability, renovations are being carried out by the Islamic
Waqf Foundation.
The Muslim Waqf is in charge of the Al Aqsa mosque, along with most of the important Muslim shrines in Israel.
*
Timeline of Islamic history*
Islamic architecture*
Islamic art*
List of mosques*
List of churches*
Dispensational Christian end times views regarding Al-Aqsa Mosque*
Knights Templar*
Noble Sanctuary: Al-Aqsa Mosque*
Report of the 1969 conflict*
Al-Aqsa Mosque Architectural Review*
360° view of the inside of the Mosque*
Jerusalem Photos Archive: Al-Aqsa Mosque
*
History of Jerusalem: hWeb
*
muslimphotos.net: Photos of Al-Aqsa Mosque* N. Liphschitz, G. Biger, G. Bonani and W. Wolfli, Comparative Dating Methods: Botanical Identification and
14C Dating of Carved Panels and Beams from the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem,
Journal of Archaeological Science, (1997) 24, 1045â€"1050.
