Jerusalem's Importance in Early Islam
By 661, Muḥammad's dream of a unified Islamic kingdom was beset with internal schisms. Two branches of Islam were created (Sunni and Shi˓a) and they were at odds with eachother. The last of the four Rightly Guided Caliphs, ˓Ali, whom the Shi˓a believe should have been Muḥammad's first successor, was murdered. A new Caliph, Mu˓awiyya[25] ruled the Umayyad Caliphate in Damascus, a dynasty that would last from 661–750.
In Medina, ˓Ali's son Husayn received word (according to Shi˓a tradition) that he would be next in line to assume the Caliphate. When he arrived in Karbala (near Baghdad) in 680, he discovered that Mu˓awiyya was already dead and he had appointed his son, Yazid as his successor. Husayn was subsequently killed in what has become the most defining moment in Shi˓a history. By 685, there was open revolt. The roots of these disputes exist to today—and those roots began with the death of Muḥammad in 632. It is within this context that the Umayyad Caliph, Abd al-Malik commissioned the building of the Qubbat al-Sakhra in Jerusalem during the late 7th century.
When Caliph ˓Umar entered the Byzantine city of Aelia Capitolina (more enduringly known as Jerusalem) in 638, he found the Temple Mount used as a garbage dump. Apparently, the newly-converted-to-Christianity Byzantine Romans had been fulfilling Jesus' prophecy that, "not a stone would be left standing on another."
Six Caliphs after ˓Umar, Abd al-Malik controlled Jerusalem (685–705). Open revolt plagued the Umayyad dynasty. In Mecca, a new power arose under Abdullah al-Zubayr to challenge the Umayyad's Damascus-based Caliphate. Here, a rivalry was born. According to the Shi˓a historian al-Yaqubi, Abd al-Malik commissioned the building of the Dome of the Rock (completed in 691) on the Temple Mount to divert the Hajj from Mecca to Jerusalem, in order to outdo his rival al-Zubayr.[26] According to Amikan Elad of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Umayyad rulers tried to glorify Greater-Syria at the expense of Mecca and Arabia. During that time, great effort was expended in glorifying Damascus, but even greater was, "the enormous effort to exalt and to glorify" Jerusalem.[27] Historically, perhaps the greatest issue facing the Islamic empire was the lack of unity. The Dome of the Rock and the inscriptions therein were part of Abd al-Malik’s effort to unite a diverse Islamic community under his authority. As Kanan Makiya explains, the depravity of the Umayyad House had become the excuse by which different factions fought for power.[28] In this context, Abd al-Malik became the leader of an Islamic empire whom “no one outside Damascus would acknowledge as their Caliph.”[29] In order to secure his rule and bring security to the empire, he first needed to establish his authority and righteousness in the eyes of his people and establish Damascus as their natural rallying point. What better way to accomplish this then embarking on Islam’s first architectural endeavor on the same ground held holy to the former monotheistic religions?
The inscriptions inside the dome were chosen to address both Muslims and non-Muslim alike and their focus was twofold: 1) the omnipotence of ﷲ who is “able to do all things,” and; 2) the supremacy of Islam over the other religions of the book—especially Christianity. The Qur˒ānic verses inscribed in the Dome recognize the past prophets while attacking the Christian idea of the Trinity. The most important function of the inscriptions were to reassert into the hearts and minds of people the presence and authority of Islam, under one God, with one final Messenger, and with one House―Umayyad. This was important because Abd al-Malik’s power and authority had been tarnished by disputes among the recent Caliph’s and their followers. He sought to regain his authority by building a sturdy monument in which to house the immortal words of ﷲ as delivered to Muḥammad, thereby associating himself with the ultimate source of authority and righteousness recognized in the collective psyche of the empire. To maintain unity and his rule, all eyes needed to be turned to him so he could convince the masses that he was part and parcel of the rule of ﷲ; that he was continuing in Muḥammad’s footsteps; in short, that he was the rightful “Commander of the Faithful” which, after-all, is what the title of Caliph represents.
As Caliph, Abd al-Malik was both the leader of the Islamic faith and ruler of the everexpanding Arab empire. Holding this dual position during a time when both roles were in danger of dissolution provided the motivation and design to build Qubbat al-Sakhra and the selection of scriptures and sayings inscribed within. As ruler of the Islamic community, Abd al-Malik was concerned about Muslims falling away from the word of ﷲ, however, as the ruler of a fractious empire, the Dome’s inscriptions were key to a more selfish purpose. He was not only drawing lost followers to himself and establishing Islamic authority over the largely Christian city of Jerusalem, he was using ﷲ's words and authority as way to gain for himself the ultimate legitimacy to rule what he hoped would become and remain a unified people. The mere building of such a structure was not enough to set Abd al-Malik’s mind at ease. In the political and historical context of the time, it is important to note that like the Ka˓ba in Mecca, Qubbat al-Sakhra is a shrine, not a mosque. Based in large part on al-Yaqubi's research, Ignaz Goldziher put forth the theory that he, "...decreed that the obligatory circumambulation (tawaf)[30] could take place at the sacred place in Jerusalem with the same validity as that around the Ka'ba ordained in Islamic Law. The pious theologian al-Zuhri was given the task of justifying this politically motivated reform of religious life by making up and spreading a saying traced back to the Prophet, according to which there are three mosques to which people may make pilgrimages: those in Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem."[31]
This would agree with Hadiths written after both Qubbat al-Sakhra and al-Aqsa Mosque were built:
Sahih al-Bukhari: Volume 2, Book 21, Number 281: Narrated Quza'a: I heard Abu Said saying four words. He said, "I heard the Prophet (saying the following narrative)." He had participated in twelve holy battles with the Prophet. Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, "Do not set out on a journey except for three Mosques i.e. Al-Masjid-AI-Haram, the Mosque of Allah's Apostle , and the Mosque of Al-Aqsa, (Mosque of Elia)."
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Sahih Muslim: Book 007, Number 3218: Abu Huraira (Allah be pleased with him) reported it directly from Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) that he said: Do not undertake journey but to three mosques: this mosque of mine, the Mosque of al-Haram and the Mosque of Aqsa (Bait al-Maqdis).
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Sahih Muslim: Book 007, Number 3219:
This hadith has been narrated on the authority of Zuhri (but with this change of words) that he (Allah's Apostle) said: "Undertake journey to three mosques."
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Sahih Muslim: Book 007, Number 3220: Abu Haraira (Allah be pleased with him) reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: One should undertake journey to three mosques: the mosque of the Ka'ba, my mosque, and the mosque of Elia (Bait al-Maqdis).
It is interesting to note that from Jerusalem's fall to Umar (638) and both during and after its rule under Caliph Abd al-Malik (685-705), Arab Muslims called Jerusalem, Elia (short for the Byzantine name of the city, Aelia Capitolina), rather than al-Quds al-Haram, or Bayt al-Maqdis, or Bilad al-Sham, or any other name that Qur˒ānic exegeses suggests. As one can see above, prior to the Crusades, Hadith refers to the what became known as Qubbat al-Sakhra or the Dome of the Rock as "The Mosque of Elia." One can glean many things from this fact.
Most importantly, the Rock referred to in the later-given title is the rock that Muḥammad was said to have ascended from on his journey to heaven during the Night Journey and Ascension. Given the above stated reasons for Abd al-Malik’s decision to build the shrine, it is telling that Sura 17:1 or any Qur˒ānic verse describing al-Isra and al-Miraj are not inscribed in the structure― those inscriptions came later, after Salah al-Din (Saladin) recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders in the late 12th century. This glaring omission points to the fact that the very idea of the Night Journey and Ascension taking place in Jerusalem was not yet a tradition created in Islam. Certainly Abd al-Malik would have capitalized on this point if it existed at the time.
Abd al-Malik's son and Caliphate successor, al-Walid, completed a mosque on Haram al- Sharif, in 715. It was later named al-Aqsa Mosque—The Furthest Mosque; however, if the furthest mosque was where Muḥammad ascended to heaven, wouldn’t that make the Dome of the Rock the Furthest Mosque?
[25] Mu˓awiyya I, took over the Caliphate after ˓Ali and ruled from 661-680 CE.
[26] Ahmad b. Abu Ya˓qub Ibn Wadih al-Ya˓qubi (ed. M.T. Houtsma), Tarikh, 1883, Volume II, Leiden, p. 311.
[27] Elad, Amikam. "Why did ˓Abd al-Malik Build the Dome of the Rock?" Bayt al-Maqdis: ˓Abd al-Malik's Jerusalem, ed. Julian Raby and Jeremy Johns, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992, Vol. I, p. 48.
[28] Makiya, Kanan. The Rock: A Tale of Seventh Century Jerusalem, New York: Vintage International, 2001, p. 189.
[29] Ibid. p. 203.
[30] Tawaf is the circling of the Ka˓ba seven times in the beginning and end of the Hajj.
[31] Goldziher, Ignaz, (ed. S.M. Stern), Muslim Studies (Muhammedansche Studien), 1971, Vol. 2, Atherton: New York, pp. 44-45.