Chapter III : The Holiness of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem

The Dome of the Rock, or Qubbat al-Sakhra in Arabic, was built by Abdul-Malik, the fifth Umayyad Caliph of Damascus, around the year 72 of Hijra (A.D. 691). The Dome of the Rock has also been looked after with tenderness and reverence. It was repaired by Al-Ma’mun, the sixth Abbasid Caliph, in 831 and by Al-Zahir, the Fatimid Caliph, in 1016. After the reconquest of Jerusalem by the Muslims in 1187, the Dome sanctuary was repaired by the Mamluk Sultans Baibars, Al-Nasir, Barquq, and Qaitbai, and by the Ottoman Sultans Suleiman, Mustafa I, Mahmud I, Mahmud II, and his two sons Abdul-Majid and Abdul-Aziz. The additions made by the last two sultans were completed in 1853 and 1874 respectively. The Ottoman Caliph Abdul-Hamid II provided the sanctuary with carpets and rugs of the first quality and had the Qur’anic chapter Yasin  inscribed on the walls in beautiful handwriting.(13) The most famous among these sultans, in so far as Jerusalem is concerned, is Suleiman. It was he who built the present walls of Jerusalem (1542).

During the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, the Dome of the Rock was damaged by Israeli shells. The Iraqi and the Sa’udi governments, together with other Muslim governments, helped in the repairs, which were finally completed in 1965. There was a special ceremony on this occasion, and many leaders in the Muslim world came to Jerusalem to attend it. The Dome is built over the rock which is associated in Jewish and Islamic traditions with Abraham’s intended sacrifice of his son and with Solomon who built the Temple. Abdul-Malik built also about the same time the Dome of the Chain (Qubbat al-Silsilah), so called from the Islamic tradition in commemoration of David who is recognized as a prophet in Islam, was given a chain of silver by the Archangel Gabriel  which he used to suspend there when he wanted to give his judgement. A bell was attached to the chain, and when the litigants pulled the chain, the bell would ring only if the litigant who pulled the chain was innocent; otherwise, the bell would not ring, or, according to another tradition, the chain itself would recede until well beyond the reach of the culprit. Another tradition still has a different version: ‘In order to discriminate between right and wrong, Solomon, Son of David, hung up a chain between heaven and earth, in such a way that he who was in the right could reach up to it, but he who was wrongful could not do so. It happened that a Jew, to whom one hundred dinars had been given, denied having taken them. The matter was put to decision by the chain. Then, the Jew, who had melted down the hundred dinars and secreted them in his walking stick, gave this stick to the rightful owner of the money, at the same time swearing that he had returned the hundred dinars to him. The plaintiff, however, swore that he had not received them. From that day onwards the chain was wont to levitate. It is said that the chain was in place of the said dome [pp. 172-3, “Jerusalem” by Michel Join-Lambert, Elek, London, 1966]. The Dome of the Chain is also called ‘Mahkamat al-Nabi Dawud’ – ‘The Judgement Seat of the Prophet David’. Over the niche is written the Qur’anic verse: ‘O David, verily we have made thee a viceregent, judge then between men with truth.’

The Dome of the Rock is believed to have been built for two other purposes, apart from the religious motive of concretizing the pious sentiments of Muslims regarding the Sacred Rock. One of them, as recorded by some Christian writers, is to distract the attention of Muslims from the magnificent Christian buildings and shrines, and to build for the Muslims something of which they could be proud. The other purpose, sometimes referred to in Arabic history books, is that Abdul-Malik aspired to making Jerusalem a great Muslim religious centre, and a serious rival to Mecca and Medina. Abdullah ibn al-Zubair, a claimant of the Caliphate, was then put in control of those two holy cities, and Abdul-Malik thought that he could divert pilgrimages to Jerusalem, and ‘conceived the idea of making Jerusalm the Qibla for the faithful, and, as he had no access to the Black Stone at Mecca, of inducing them to perambulate around the Sakhra (the sacred rock) instead’ [p. 238, “The City of Jerusalem” by C. R. Conder, John Murray, London, 1909]. He called Jerusalem Al-Quds, the Holy City, and it has since borne this name among the Arabs and Muslims. Among Arab historians, Al-Ya’qubi, writing two centuries later, and Al-Maqdisi, (tenth century), a native of Jerusalem, confirm that the Dome of the Rock was built by Abdul-Malik. Al-Maqdisi, after writing about the building of the Umayyad Mosque by Al-Walid, son of Abdul-Malik, says that : ‘in like manner, it is evident how the Caliph Abdul-Malik, noting the greatness of the Dome of the Holy Sepulcher and its magnificence, was moved lest it should dazzle the minds of the Muslims, and so erected above the Rock the present dome’ [pp. 36-7, “Palestine” by Norman Bentwich, London, 1946].

This may strengthen the belief that Jerusalem for the Muslims could have developed, with political help, into a city equal to Mecca and Medina, and the Rock could have attained a sublime position equal to that of the Black Stone. Al-Maqdisi, a tenth-century citizen of Jerusalem already quoted, says : Verily, Mecca and Medina have claims to superiority on account of the Ka’ba and the Prophet, but in fact, on the Day of Judgement these two cities will come to Jerusalem and the perfection of all three will be united together’. The respective values of the three cities as places of prayer are stated to be as 10 for Jerusalem, 20 for Medina, and 30 for Mecca; but certain commentators, like Anas ibn Malik, put the three of them on an equal footing [pp. 167-8 “Jeruslem” by Michel Joint-Lambert, London, 1966].(14) Rudolph von Suchem, a Christian pilgrim from Germany who visited Palestine in 1336-41, has this to say about the Dome of the Rock: ‘The Saracens pay the greatest reverence to the Lord’s Temple, keeping it exceedingly clean both within and without . . .  They call it “The Holy Rock”, not “The Temple”, and therefore they say to one another, “Let us go to the Holy Rock”. They do not say, “Let us go to the Temple”. They call the Temple the “Holy Rock” because of a little rock which stands in the middle of the Temple area, fenced with an iron railing. I have heard it said by Saracen renegades that no Saracen presumes to touch that rock, and that Saracens journey from distant lands devoutly to visit it. Indeed, God has deigned to show respect to this Rock in diverse ways, and has wrought many miracles thereon, as the Bible bears witness to  both in the Old and the New Testaments’ [p. 249-50, “The Story of Jerusalem” by Col. Sir G.M. Watson, London, 1912]. This pilgrim may be simply reporting what he heard from people, and his description of the Rock at that time is inaccurate. The author, Col. Watson, gives a long extract from this pilgrim about the numerous traditions attached to the Rock, and then remarks : ‘Some of these traditions are, of course, absolutely baseless, as for example, that the Dome of the Rock was built on the same plan as that of the Temple of the Jews, and that the Golden Gate was in existence in the time of our Lord; but the extract is interesting as showing the manner in which traditions gradually accumulated in connection with the Sacred Rock, just as they did around the Holy Sepulchre and the Church of St. Mary on Mount Sion.’