Download The Dome of the Rock: Jerulsalem`s Hallmark

The Dome of the Rock: Jerusalem’s Hallmark
The most universally recognized symbol of Jerusalem is not a Jewish or Christian
holy place but a Muslim one: the Dome of the Rock. When people see its golden
dome rising above the open expanse of the Temple Mount, they think of only one
place in the world. It is Jerusalem’s answer to Paris’ Eiffel Tower, Rome’s St.
Peter’s Square, and New York’s Empire State Building. The Dome of the Rock is
Jerusalem.
What is this building? Who built it and why?
Sometimes the building with the golden dome is
called "the mosque of Umar." While Muslims do
pray in the Dome of the Rock, it is not a mosque.
Also, the Caliph Umar was not responsible for its
construction since it was built almost seventy
years after he added Jerusalem to the Muslim
empire. It was Caliph ‘Adb al-Malik who, in A.D.
691, commissioned Christian architects to build a
shrine over the large outcropping of bedrock on
the site where Solomon’s Temple stood. Why al-Malik built the Dome of the Rock
has been the subject of some controversy.
Some historians suggest that al-Malik ordered the shrine to be built in order to
attract Muslim pilgrims to Jerusalem and away from Mecca. He was vying for the
leadership of the Muslim world and his chief rival lived in Mecca. Supposedly alMalik thought erecting an impressive building would make him look like the
most important Islamic leader. While the caliph would not have been the first
person to use religion to support political ambition, it is unlikely that he would
have challenged what was one of Islam’s most fundamental practices. The
pilgrimage to Mecca was a duty of every Muslim. Substituting any city for Mecca
would have been unthinkable less than sixty years after Mohammed’s death.
A second explanation for the building of the Dome of the Rock may be in honor of
the night journey during which Mohammed, escorted by the angel Gabriel, came
to Jerusalem from Mecca to ascend to heaven from the rock over which the Dome
of the Rock now stands.
The Dome of the Rock contains Qur’anic verses, calling Christians to accept Islam
and to recognize the true place of Jesus in the plan of God. Apparently one
original purpose of the Islamic shrine was to emphasize the superiority of Islam
over Christianity. The Dome of the Rock was built to proclaim the central tenets
of Islam: the unity of God and the finality of Mohammed’s role as God’s prophet.
It is a statement, in most tangible form that proclaimed that the Arab conquest of
what had been a Christian city for four hundred years had more than political
consequences. It transformed Jerusalem into an Islamic city that is to proclaim
the message of Mohammed to the world. Because the structure was built on a site
that Jewish tradition associated with Abraham, it also serves to attempt to
persuade Jews to convert to the new faith as well. Many scholars believe, then,
that one original purpose of the Dome of the Rock was to emphasize the
superiority of Islam over both Judaism and Christianity.
The Dome of the Rock symbolized a transformation of Jerusalem. What was once
a Jewish city, and then a Christian city during The Crusades, soon after became a
Muslim city in 1187, when it was captured by Saladin. Jerusalem was ruled by
several Muslim caliphates and the Ottoman Empire, until 1947, when the United
Nations voted in favor of the Partition of Palestine, proposing a Jewish state, an
Arab state, and a U.N.-controlled state.
Jerusalem retained its Islamic character until the beginning of the twentieth
century. Today the city is very diverse culturally and religiously. There are small
Christian populations divided among Orthodox, Catholic, and Armenian
communities. There is a much larger Muslim population concentrated in the Old
City and the neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem adjacent to it. The bulk of the
city’s population is Jewish, and represents the spectrum of Jewish observance
from the Hassidic to the Reform movements.
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By Leslie Hoppe
Professor of Biblical Interpretation and Archeology
Old Testament Professor CTU, Chicago, IL