Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount)

The Noble Sanctuary, is one of the most important religious sites in the Old City of Jerusalem. It has been used as a religious site for thousands of years. At least four religious traditions are known to have made use of the Temple Mount: Judaism, Christianity, Roman religion, and Islam.

References
Points of Interest

circa 1500-1700 CE

An artist's impression of life in Jerusalem probably during Ottoman era, with Dome of Rock in background. The historic city remained under Ottoman control for about 400 years, from 1500-1900 CE.

circa 690 CE

An ariel view of the Temple Mount, with al-Aqsa to the left, Dome of Rock in the center. Bab al-Rahmah Cemetery can be seen along the eastern wall of the Haram al-Sharif. The present site is a flat plaza surrounded by retaining walls (including the Western Wall) which was built during the reign of Herod the Great for an expansion of the temple. The plaza is dominated by three monumental structures from the early Umayyad period: the al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock and the Dome of the Chain, as well as four minarets.

circa 690 CE

Northeast exposure of al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount, in the Old City of Jerusalem. Located on the southern side of the Haram al-Sharif, it is the 3rd most holiest site in Islam. Originally built in c. 700 CE, it is named after the Muslim's account of the night travel of prophet Muhammad, who according to Islamic tradition was transported from Mecca to Jerusalem.

circa 690 CE

Built in the last decade of the seventh century the Dome of Rock is the most iconic structure on the Haram al-Sharif mount. Dome of the Chain is also partially visible to the right. The large golden dome and an octagon structure, was built by the Umayyad Khalif Abdul-Malik ibn Marwan in 691 CE and named it after Omar.

circa 970-930 BCE

Mausoleum of Suleiman (Solomon) at Temple Mount compound in the old city of Jerusalem. It is located on the eastern flank close to the Golden Gate (Bab al-Rahmah). Currently it is under the use of al-Aqsa waqf as a school of Arabic learning for young children.

circa 100 CE

The Wailing Wall is a section of Western Wall and is the holiest site in Judaism. Wailing Wall and the Western Wall plaza as seen from Moroccans' Gate access tunnel. The wall was originally erected as part of the expansion of the Second Jewish Temple begun by Herod the Great, which resulted in the encasement of the natural, steep hill known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount. For Muslims, it is the site where the Islamic Prophet Muhammad tied his steed, al-Buraq, on his night journey to Jerusalem.

circa 1336 CE

The Cotton Merchant's Gate (باب القطانين) is one of the most beautiful gates of Haram al-Sharif. In total Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) has 20 gates, out of which only 12 are open and functional today, remaining 8 have been either sealed-up or lost. Currently eleven gates are open to the Muslim public. Non-Muslims and tourists are only permitted to enter through the Mughrabi gate.

References

• Nicolle, David (1994). Yarmuk AD 636: The Muslim Conquest of Syria. Osprey Publishing.
• Karen Armstrong (29 April 1997). Jerusalem: one city, three faiths. Ballantine Books. p. 229. Retrieved 25 May 2011.
• "Dictionary of Islamic Architecture". Retrieved from Google Books.
• Rizwi Faizer (1998). "The Shape of the Holy: Early Islamic Jerusalem". Rizwi's Bibliography for Medieval Islam. Archived from the original on 2002-02-10.
• Gilbert, Lela (21 September 2015). "The Temple Mount – Outrageous Lies and Escalating Dangers". Hudson Institute. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
• "A Muslim Iconoclast (Ibn Taymiyyeh) on the 'Merits' of Jerusalem and Palestine", by Charles D. Matthews, Journal of the American Oriental Society, volume 56 (1935), pp. 1–21. [Includes Arabic text of manuscript of Ibn Taymiyya's short work Qa'ida fi Ziyarat Bayt-il-Maqdis قاعدة في زيارة بيت المقدس]
• Andreas Kaplony (2009). "635/638–1099: The Mosque of Jerusalem (Masjid Bayt al-Maqdis)". In Oleg Grabar and Benjamin Z. Kedar (ed.). Where Heaven and Earth Meet: Jerusalem's Sacred Esplanade. Yad Ben-Zvi Press. pp. 100–131.
• Carol Delaney, Abraham on Trial: The Social Legacy of Biblical Myth, Princeton University Press 2000 p.120.
• Babylonian Talmud Yoma 54b.
• A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif, a booklet published in 1925 (and earlier) by the "Supreme Moslem Council", a body established by the British government to administer waqfs and headed by Hajj Amin al-Husayni during the British Mandate period, states on page 4: "The site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest (perhaps from pre-historic) times. Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.'(2 Samuel 24:25)"
• Robert Shick, 'A Christian City with a Major Muslim Shrine: Jerusalem in the Umayyad Period,' in Arietta Papaconstantinou (ed.), Conversion in Late Antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and Beyond: Papers from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, University of Oxford, 2009-2010 pp.299-317 p.300, Routledge 2016 p.300.
• "The Farthest Mosque must refer to the site of the Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem on the hill of Moriah, at or near which stands the Dome of the Rock... it was a sacred place to both Jews and Christians... The chief dates in connection with the Temple in Jerusalem are: It was finished by Solomon about 1004 BCE; destroyed by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar about 586 BCE; rebuilt under Ezra and Nehemiah about 515 BCE; turned into a heathen idol temple by one of Alexander the Great's successors, Antiochus Epiphanes, 167 BCE; restored by Herod, 17 BCE to 29; and completely razed to the ground by the Emperor Titus in 70. These ups and downs are among the greater signs in religious history." (Yusuf Ali, Commentary on the Koran, 2168.)
• Rashid Khalidi, "Transforming the Face of the Holy City: Political Messages in the Built Topography of Jerusalem," paper presented to the conference on "Landscape Perspectives on Palestine," Bir Zeit University, November 12-15, 1998 http://www.jqf-jerusalem.org/journal/1999/jqf3/khalidi.html
• "The city of Jerusalem was chosen at the command of Allah by Prophet David in the tenth century BCE. After him his son Prophet Solomon built a mosque in Jerusalem according to the revelation that he received from Allah. For several centuries this mosque was used for the worship of Allah by many Prophets and Messengers of Allah. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in the year 586 BCE., but it was soon rebuilt and was rededicated to the worship of Allah in 516 BCE. It continued afterwards for several centuries until the time of Prophet Jesus. After he departed this world, it was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 CE." (Siddiqi, Dr. Muzammil. Status of Al-Aqsa Mosque Archived 2011-02-11 at the Wayback Machine, IslamOnline, May 21, 2007. Retrieved July 12, 2007.)
• Sari Nuseibeh, "Islam's Jerusalem," http://www.passia.org/jerusalem/publications/religiousaspectstext.htm
• "Early Muslims regarded the building and destruction of the Temple of Solomon as a major historical and religious event, and accounts of the Temple are offered by many of the early Muslim historians and geographers (including Ibn Qutayba, Ibn al-Faqih, Mas'udi, Muhallabi, and Biruni). Fantastic tales of Solomon's construction of the Temple also appear in the Qisas al-anbiya', the medieval compendia of Muslim legends about the pre-Islamic prophets." (Kramer, Martin. The Temples of Jerusalem in Islam, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, September 18, 2000. Retrieved November 21, 2007.)
• Brian J. Incigneri, The Gospel to the Romans: the setting and rhetoric of Mark's gospel, BRILL 2003 p.192.
• F. E. Peters (1985). Jerusalem. Princeton University Press. p. 143.
• Armstrong, Karen (2011). Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths. Random House Digital, Inc. p. 382. ISBN 0307798593.
• Hagith Sivan (2008). Palestine in Late Antiquity. Oxford University Press. p. 205.
• Gonen, Rivka (2003). Contested Holiness: Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Perspectives on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Jersey City (N. J.): KTAV. pp. 149–155. ISBN 9780881257984.
• Was the Aksa Mosque built over the remains of a Byzantine church?, By Etgar Lefkovits, Jerusalem Post, November 16, 2008
• Dan Bahat (1990). The Illustrated Atlas of Jerusalem. Simon & Schuster. pp. 81–82.
• F. E. Peters (1985). Jerusalem. Princeton University Press. pp. 186–192.
• John Wilkinson (2002). Jerusalem Pilgrims before the Crusades. p. 170.
• The Dome of the Rock as Palimpsest, Necipoglu, Muqarnas 2008
• Oleg Grabar, The Haram ak-Sharif: An essay in interpretation, BRIIFS vol. 2 no 2 (Autumn 2000) Archived 2012-10-04 at the Wayback Machine
• "Hashemite Restorations of the Islamic Holy Places in Jerusalem", Jordanian government website.
• Israeli, Raphael (2002). "Introduction: Everyday Life in Divided Jerusalem". Jerusalem Divided: The Armistice Regime, 1947–1967. Jerusalem: Routledge. p. 23. ISBN 0-7146-5266-0.

Points of Interest