Sunday, February 17, 2019

Why was the Dome of the Rock built on the Temple Mount?


Women on Temple Mount for Prayers (Credit: Muammar Awad)
Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul (Credit: AFP)

Why was the Dome of the Rock built?  Until recently there were two proposals.  First the structure was built by Abd al-Malik from the Umayyad caliphate as a rival to the caliphate in Mecca headed by Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr.  The second suggests the dome was built as a competitor to the nearby Christian Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  A more recent proposal from Milka Levy-Rubin argues that the Dome of the Rock was built to restore Jerusalem’s significance among the holy sites.  The dome was not a rival to Mecca, rather to Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire, and Hagia Sophia.  The Dome of the Rock was a Muslim version of the Temple of Solomon.  Levy-Rubin does not deny the importance of the two above proposals, but provides the political and ideological rivalry with Constantinople as a third incentive for building the Dome of the Rock.    
      

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1 comment:

  1. Lumen OlivarumFebruary 17, 2019 at 2:42 PM

    Levy-Rubin also provides evidence from sources that the purpose of building the new Temple of Solomon (Dome of the Rock) was in part because the Byzantines neglected the temple mount and its sanctity by dumping trash and other defilements on the location. Malik wanted to restore the dignity of the site and Jewish traditions.

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