Al-Aqsa Mosque
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| al-Aqsa Mosque al-Masjid al-Aqsa |
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Eastern view of the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Fakhariyyah Minaret |
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| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Location | Temple Mount, Jerusalem |
| Geographic coordinates | |
| Religious affiliation | Islam |
| District | Old City |
| Ecclesiastical status | Mosque |
| Leadership | Waqf |
| Architectural description | |
| Architectural type | Mosque |
| Architectural style | Early Islamic |
| Direction of facade | north |
| Groundbreaking | 685 CE (First construction) 1033 CE (Second construction) |
| Year completed | 705 CE (First construction) 1035 CE (Second construction) |
| Specifications | |
| Capacity | 5,000 (inside); 400,000 (precincts)[1] |
| Length | 83 meters (272 ft) |
| Width | 56 meters (184 ft) |
| Dome(s) | 1 |
| Minaret(s) | 4 |
| Minaret height | 37 meters (121 ft) (Tallest minaret) |
| Materials | Limestone (external walls, minaret, facade) stalactite (minaret), lead (dome), white marble (interior columns) |
Al-Aqsa Mosque (Arabic:المسجد الاقصى, [IPA /æl'mæsdʒɪd æl'ɑqsˁɑ/, al-Masjid al-Aqsa translit: "the Farthest Mosque"), also known as al-Aqsa, is an Islamic holy place in the Old City of Jerusalem. The mosque itself forms part of the al-Haram ash-Sharif or "Sacred Noble Sanctuary", a site also known as the Temple Mount and considered the holiest site in Judaism, since it is where the Temple in Jerusalem once stood.[2][3] Widely considered, mainly by Sunni Muslims, as the third holiest site in Islam, Muslims believe that prophet Muhammad was transported from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to al-Aqsa during the Night Journey.[4] Post-Koranic Islamic tradition holds that Muhammad led prayers towards this site until the seventeenth month after the emigration, when he turned towards the Ka'aba.[5]
The al-Aqsa Mosque was originally a small prayer house built by the Rashidun caliph Umar, but was rebuilt and expanded by the Ummayad caliph Abd al-Malik and finished by his son al-Walid in 705 CE.[6] After an earthquake in 746, the mosque was completely destroyed and rebuilt by the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur in 754, and again rebuilt by his successor al-Mahdi in 780. Another earthquake destroyed most of al-Aqsa in 1033, but two years later the Fatimid caliph Ali az-Zahir built another mosque which has stood to the present-day. During the periodic renovations undertaken, the various ruling dynasties of the Islamic Caliphate constructed additions to the mosque and its precincts, such as its dome, facade, its minbar, minarets and the interior structure. When the Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099, they used the mosque as a palace and church, but its function as a mosque was restored after its recapture by Saladin. More renovations, repairs and additions were undertaken in the later centuries by the Ayyubids, Mamluks, the Supreme Muslim Council, and Jordan. Today, the Old City is under Israeli sovereignty, but the mosque remains under the administration of the Palestinian-led Islamic waqf.
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[edit] Etymology
Masjid al-Aqsa translates from Arabic into English as "the farthest mosque". Its name refers to a chapter of the Qu'ran called "The Night Journey" in which it is said that prophet Muhammad traveled from Mecca to "the farthest mosque", and then up to Heaven on a flying horse called al-Buraq al-Sharif.[1][7] "Farthest" as used in this content means the "farthest from Mecca."[8]
[edit] History
[edit] Pre-construction
The site upon which al-Aqsa Mosque was constructed originally housed the Temple of Jerusalem. The the site upon which al-Aqsa Mosque was constructed originally housed the Temple of Jerusalem. The
destruction of the First Temple, known as the Temple of Solomon, is attributed to the Babylonians in 587 B.C., and there are few physical remains attesting to its presence or structure.[9] Building of the Second Temple began during the rule of the Persian king Cyrus the Great, but this temple was destroyed by the Roman Emperor (then general) Titus in 70 CE. All that remains of it is the Western Wall, which is a remnant of this second temple's platform.[10] Emperor Justinian built a Christian church on the site in the 530s which was consecrated to the Virgin Mary and named "Church of Our Lady". The church was later destroyed by Khosrau II, the Sassanian empror in the early 7th century and left in ruins.[11]
[edit] Construction
It is unknown exactly when the al-Aqsa Mosque was first constructed and who ordered its construction, but it is certain that it was built in the early Ummayad period of rule in Palestine. Although Islamic tradition holds that Umar built the mosque while surrounded by Muslim faithful, this tradition has been dismissed as legend by several Muslim and Western scholars because the few historical records documenting this were by Arabs or Byzantines and therefore were seen as biased and meant either to glorify Umar's capture of Jerusalem or stir up Byzantine propaganda that God caused Umar's mosque collapse.[12] Contemporary Muslim and Jewish sources record that the site was covered with garbage dumped there by Byzantine Christians, and that the two communities participated in cleaning it up as Umar watched on, until the rock upon which the Temples of Jerusalem were said to have been erected was revealed.[13]
Architectural historian K. A. C. Creswell, referring to a testimony by the Gallic monk, Arculf, of his pilgrimage to Palestine in 679-82, notes that it is possible that Umar erected a primitive quadrangular building for a capacity of 3,000 worshipers somewhere on the Haram ash-Sharif or Temple Mount. Arculf, however, visited Palestine during the reign of Mu'awiyah I, and it is possible that Mu'awiyah ordered the construction, not Umar. This latter claim is explicitly supported by the early Muslim scholar al-Muthannar bin Tahir.[12]
According to several Muslim scholars, including Mujir ad-Din, al-Suyuti, and al-Muqaddasi, the mosque was reconstructed and expanded by the caliph Abd al-Malik in 690 along with the Dome of the Rock.[14][12] Guy le Strange claims that Abd al-Malik used materials from the destroyed Church of Our Lady to build the mosque and points to possible evidence that substructures on the southeast corners of the mosque are remains of the church.[14] In contrast, Creswell, while referring to the Aphrodito Papyri, claims that Abd al-Malik's son, al-Walid I, reconstructed the Aqsa Mosque over a period of six months to a year, using workers from Damascus. Most Muslim and Western scholars agree that the mosque's reconstruction was started by Abd al-Malik, but that al-Walid oversaw its completion. In 713-14, a series of earthquakes ravaged Jerusalem, destroying the eastern section of the mosque, which was subsequently rebuilt during al-Walid's rule. In order to finance its reconstruction, al-Walid had gold from the dome of the Dome of the Rock minted to use as money to purchase the material.[12]
[edit] Later constructions
In 746, the al-Aqsa Mosque was damaged in an earthquake, four years before as-Saffah overthrew the Ummayads and established the Abbasid Caliphate. The second Abbasid caliph Abu Ja'far al-Mansur declared his intent to repair the mosque in 753, and he had the gold and silver plaques that covered the gates of the mosque removed and turned into dinars and dirhams to finance the reconstruction which ended in 771. A second earthquake damaged most of al-Mansur's repairs, excluding those made in the southern portion in 774.[14][15] In 780, the successor caliph Muhammad al-Mahdi had it rebuilt, but curtailed its length and increased its breadth.[14][16] Al-Mahdi's renovation is the first known to have written records describing it.[17] In 985, Jerusalem-born Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi recorded that the renovated mosque had "fifteen naves and fifteen gates".[15]
In 1033, there was another earthquake, severely damaging the mosque. The Fatimid caliph Ali az-Zahir rebuilt and completely renovated the mosque between 1034-36. The number of naves was drastically reduced from fifteen to seven.[15] Az-Zahir built the four arcades of the central hall and aisle, which presently serve as the foundation of the mosque. The central aisle was double the width of the other aisles and had a large gable roof upon which the dome — made of wood — was constructed.[12]
Jerusalem was captured by the Crusaders in 1099, during the First Crusade. Instead of destroying the mosque, the Crusaders used the mosque — which they called "Solomon's Temple" — as a palace. In 1119, it was transformed into the headquarters for the Templar Knights. During this period, the mosque underwent some structural changes, including the expansion of its northern porch, and the addition of an apse and a dividing wall. A new cloister and church were also built at the site, along with various other structures.[18] The Templars constructed vaulted western and eastern annexes to the building, the western currently serving as the women's mosque and the eastern as the Islamic Museum.[15]
| The Haram Area (Noble Sanctuary) lies in the eastern part of the city; and through the bazaar of this (quarter) you enter the Area by a great and beautiful gateway (Dargah)... After passing this gateway, you have on the right two great colonnades (Riwaq), each of which has nine-and-twenty marble pillars, whose capitals and bases are of colored marbles, and the joints are set in lead. Above the pillars rise arches, that are constructed, of masonry, without mortar or cement, and each arch is constructed of no more than five or six blocks of stone. These colonnades lead down to near the Maqsurah. |
| Nasir Khusraw's description of mosque in 1047 C.E.(Safarnama, translated by Guy Le Strange) [19] |
After the Ayyubids under the leadership of Saladin reconquered Jerusalem in 1187, several repairs were undertaken at al-Aqsa Mosque.[20] Saladin's predecessor — the Zengid sultan Nur al-Din — had commissioned the construction of a new minbar or "pulpit" of ivory and wood in 1168-69 but it was completed after his death; Nur ad-Din's minbar was added to the mosque in November, 1187 by Saladin.[21] The Ayyubid sultan of Damascus, al-Mu'azzam, built the northern porch of the mosque with three gates in 1218. In 1345, the Mamluks under al-Kamil Shaban added two naves and two gates to the mosque's eastern side.[15]
After the Ottomans seized power in 1517, they did not undertake any major renovations or repairs to the mosque itself, but they did to the Temple Mount as a whole. This included the building of the Fountain of Qasim Pasha (1527), the restoration of the Pool of Raranj, and the building of the three free-standing domes — the most notable being the Dome of the Prophet built in 1538. All construction was ordered by the Ottoman governors of Jerusalem and not the sultans themselves.[22] The sultans did make additions to existing minarets, however.[22]
[edit] Modern era
The first renovation of the 20th century occurred in 1922, when the Supreme Muslim Council under Amin al-Husayni hired Ahmet Kemalettin Bey — a Turkish architect — to restore al-Aqsa Mosque and the monuments in its precincts. The council also commissioned British architects, Egyptian experts and local officials to contribute to and oversee the repairs and additions which were carried out in 1924-25 under Kemalettin's supervision. The renovations included reinforcing the mosque's ancient Ummayad foundations, rectifying the interior columns, replacing the beams, erecting a scaffolding, conserving the arches and drum of the dome interior, rebuilding the southern wall, and replacing timber in the central nave with a slab of concrete. The renovations also revealed Fatimid-era mosaics and inscriptions on the interior arches that had been covered with plasterwork. The arches were decorated with green-tinted gypsum and gold and their timber tie beams were replaced with brass. A quarter of the stained glass windows also were carefully renewed so as to preserve their original Abbasid and Fatimid designs.[23] Severe damage was caused by the 1927 and 1937 earthquakes, but the mosque was repaired in 1938 and 1942.[15]
On August 21, 1969, there was a fire inside al-Aqsa Mosque that gutted the southeastern wing of the mosque. Among other things the fire destroyed was Saladin's minbar.[21] Initially, Palestinians blamed Israel for the fire, and some Israelis blamed Fatah, alleging they had started the fire so as to blame Israel and provoke hostility. However, the fire was started by neither Fatah nor Israel. The arsonist turned out to be a tourist from Australia named Michael Dennis Rohan. Rohan was a member of an evangelical Christian sect known as the Worldwide Church of God.[24] He hoped that by burning down al-Aqsa Mosque he would hasten the Second Coming of Jesus, making way for the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount. Rohan was hospitalized in a mental institution, found to be insane and was later deported from Israel.[25] This attack of a lone madman on al-Aqsa is cited as one of the catalysts for the formation of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in 1971, which brought together dozens of Islamic countries.[26]
In the 1980s, Ben Shoshan and Yehuda Etzion, both members of the Gush Emunim Underground, plotted to blow up the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Etzion believed that blowing up the two mosques would cause a spiritual awakening in Israel, and would solve all the problems of the Jewish people. They also hoped the Third Temple of Jerusalem would be built on the location of the mosque.[27][28] On January 15, 1988, during the First Intifada, Israeli troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters outside the mosque wounding 40 worshipers.[29][30] On October 8, 1990, 22 Palestinians were killed and over 100 others injured by Israeli Border Police during a protest triggered by an attempt by hundreds of religious Jews to lay the cornerstone for the Second Temple in the northern Temple Mount. Israeli judge, Ezra Kama, ruled that the Israeli police provoked the violence and Israel was condemned by the United Nations for the killings.[31]
[edit] Architecture
The rectangular al-Aqsa Mosque and its precincts are 144,000 square meters (1,550,003.1 sq ft), with a capacity of 400,000 worshipers, although the mosque itself is about 35,000 square meters (376,736.9 sq ft) and could hold up to 5,000 worshipers.[32][33] It is 272 feet (83 m) long, 184 feet (56 m) wide.[32]
[edit] Dome
The dome of the al-Aqsa Mosque, unlike the Dome of the Rock which reflects classical Byzantine architecture, is strictly early Islamic architecture.[3