Pre-Islamic background The Dome of the Rock is situated in the center of the Temple Mount, the site of
Solomon's Temple and the
Second Jewish Temple, which had been greatly expanded under
Herod the Great in the 1st century BCE. Herod's Temple was destroyed in 70 CE by the
Romans, and after the
Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE, a Roman temple to was built at the site by Emperor
Hadrian. Jerusalem was ruled by the
Byzantine Empire throughout the 4th to 6th centuries. During this time,
Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem began to develop. The
Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built under
Constantine in the 320s, but the Temple Mount was left undeveloped after a failed project of restoration of the Jewish Temple under Emperor
Julian. In 638 CE, Byzantine Jerusalem was conquered by the Arab armies of
Umar ibn al-Khattab, second
Caliph of the
Rashidun Caliphate. Umar was advised by
Ka'b al-Ahbar, a Jewish rabbi who converted to Islam, that the site is identical with the site of the former Jewish Temples in Jerusalem. Among the first
Muslims, Jerusalem was referred to as ('City of the Temple').
Umayyads Original construction The initial octagonal structure of the Dome of the Rock and its round wooden dome had basically the same shape as it does today. It was built by the order of the
Umayyad caliph
Abd al-Malik (). According to
Sibt ibn al-Jawzi (1185–1256), construction started in 685/6, while
al-Suyuti (1445–1505) holds that its commencement year was 688. A dedicatory inscription in
Kufic script is preserved inside the dome. The date is recorded as
AH 72 (691/2 CE), the year most historians believe the construction of the original Dome was completed. An alternative interpretation of the inscription claims that it indicates the year when construction started. In this inscription, the name of "al-Malik" was removed and replaced by the name of the
Abbasid caliph
al-Ma'mun (). This alteration of the original inscription was first noted by
Melchior de Vogüé in 1864. Some scholars have suggested that the dome was added to an existing building, built either by
Muawiyah I (), or indeed a Byzantine building dating to before the Muslim conquest, built under
Heraclius (). The Dome of the Rock's architecture and mosaics were patterned after nearby Byzantine churches and palaces. Raja was a Muslim theologian and native of
Beisan, and Yazid and Baha were (non-Arab, Muslim converts; clients) of Abd al-Malik from Jerusalem. Abd al-Malik was represented in the supervision of the construction by his son
Sa'id al-Khayr. The Caliph employed expert workers from across his domain, at the time restricted to
Syria and
Egypt, who were presumably Christians. Narratives by the medieval sources about Abd al-Malik's motivations in building the Dome of the Rock vary. At the time of its construction, the Caliph was engaged in war with Christian Byzantium and its
Syrian Christian allies on the one hand and with the rival caliph
Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, who controlled
Mecca, the annual destination of Muslim pilgrimage, on the other hand. Thus, one series of explanations was that Abd al-Malik intended for the Dome of the Rock to be a religious monument of victory over the Christians that would distinguish Islam's uniqueness within the common
Abrahamic religious setting of Jerusalem, home of the two older Abrahamic faiths, Judaism and Christianity. The historian
Shelomo Dov Goitein has argued that the Dome of the Rock was intended to compete with the many fine buildings of worship of other religions: "The very form of a rotunda, given to the , although it was foreign to Islam, was destined to rival the many Christian domes" - and more specifically, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, according to others. The other main explanation holds that Abd al-Malik, in the heat of the war with Ibn al-Zubayr, sought to build the structure to divert the focus of the Muslims in his realm from the Ka'aba in Mecca, where Ibn al-Zubayr would publicly condemn the Umayyads during the annual pilgrimage to the sanctuary. Though most modern historians dismiss the latter account as a product of anti-Umayyad propaganda in the traditional Muslim sources and doubt that Abd al-Malik would attempt to alter the sacred Muslim requirement of fulfilling the pilgrimage to the Ka'aba, other historians concede that this cannot be conclusively dismissed.
Abbasids and Fatimids The building was severely damaged by earthquakes in 808 and again in 846. The dome collapsed in an earthquake in 1015 and was rebuilt in 1022–1023. The mosaics on the drum were repaired in 1027–1028. The
earthquake of 1033 resulted in the introduction of wooden beams to reinforce the dome.
Crusaders Jerusalem was
captured by Crusaders in 1099 at the end of the
First Crusade. The Dome of the Rock was given to the
Augustinians, who turned it into a church, while the nearby Al-Aqsa main prayer hall or
Qibli Mosque first became a royal palace for a while, and then for much of the 12th century the headquarters of the
Knights Templar. The Templars, active from , identified the Dome of the Rock as the site of the
Temple of Solomon. The , as they called the Dome of the Rock, featured on the official
seals of the Order's Grand Masters (such as
Everard des Barres and
Renaud de Vichiers), and soon became the architectural model for
round Templar churches across Europe.
Ayyubids and Mamluks in 586 AH (1191), and the Mamluk
Al-Nasir Muhammad in 717 AH (1317), while the inscriptions in the circles indicate the restorations made by the Ottoman sultans
Mahmud I in 1156 AH (1754) and
Abdulaziz in 1291 AH (1874). Jerusalem was recaptured by
Saladin on 2 October 1187, he requested a complete restoration of Al-Aqsa and ordered the marble cover of the rock which was added by the crusaders to be removed. The Dome of the Rock was reconsecrated as a Muslim shrine. The cross on top of the dome was replaced by a
crescent, and a wooden screen was placed around the rock below. Saladin's nephew
al-Malik al-Mu'azzam Isa carried out other restorations within the building, and added the porch to the Jami'a Al-Aqsa. The Dome of the Rock was the focus of extensive royal patronage by the sultans during the
Mamluk period, which lasted from 1260 until 1516.
Ottomans During the
Ottoman period, the reign of
Suleiman the Magnificent () brought Ottoman dynastic patronage to the city, around the same time that the sultan and his wife,
Haseki Hürrem Sultan (Roxelana), were also commissioning works in the holy cities of
Mecca and
Medina. Suleiman initiated a major renovation of the Dome of the Rock. The most visible legacy of this work was the covering of the exterior with
Ottoman-style tiles, which replaced the old Umayyad mosaics. The
Dome of the Chain, a free-standing structure next to the Dome of the Rock, was also renovated as part of Suleiman's project, in 1561–2. Also nearby, the Ottomans built the
Dome of the Prophet in its current form sometime in the 16th or 17th century. Further restorations to the building are recorded in 1720–1721, 1742,1754, 1780, 1817–1818, and 1853. In another major restoration project undertaken in 1874–1875 during the reign of the Ottoman
Sultan Abdülaziz, all the tiles on the west and southwest walls of the octagonal part of the building were removed and replaced by copies that had been made in Turkey. File:Jérusalem, esplanade du Temple de Salomon, Dôme du Rocher.jpg|The first-ever photograph of the building, 1842–1844 File:Dome of the Rock, from Governor's House, Francis Bedford 1862.jpg|View from the north,
Francis Bedford (1862) File:Dome of the Rock, West Front, Francis Bedford 1862.jpg|West front in 1862. By this date many of the 16th century tiles were missing. File:Inside the Dome of the Rock.jpg|Interior showing rock (1915) File:Gustav Bauernfeind - At the Dome of the Rock and the Fountain of Qayt Bay, Jerusalem (late 19thC) (Sotheby's) n11434-cwtmf-t1-02-a.jpg|The Dome of the Rock and the
Fountain of Qaitbay (late 19th Century) by
Gustav Bauernfeind British Mandate Haj Amin al-Husseini, appointed Grand Mufti by the British in 1917, along with
Yaqub al-Ghusayn, implemented the restoration of the Dome of the Rock and the
Jami Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem. Parts of the Dome of the Rock collapsed during the 11 July
1927 earthquake, and the walls were left badly cracked, damaging many of the repairs that had taken place over previous years.
Jordanian rule visiting the Dome of the Rock in 1948. In 1955, an extensive program of renovation was begun by the government of
Jordan, with funds supplied by Arab governments and Turkey. The work included replacement of large numbers of tiles dating back to the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, which had become dislodged by heavy rain. In 1965, as part of this restoration, the dome was covered with a durable
aluminium bronze alloy made in Italy that replaced the lead exterior. Before 1959, the dome was covered in blackened
lead. In the course of substantial restoration carried out from 1959 to 1962, the lead was replaced by aluminum-bronze plates covered with
gold leaf.
Israeli rule A few hours after the
Israeli flag was hoisted over the Dome of the Rock in 1967 during the
Six-Day War, Israelis lowered it on the orders of
Moshe Dayan and invested
the Muslim (religious trust) with the authority to manage the Temple Mount in order to "keep the peace". In 1993, the golden dome covering was refurbished following a donation of US$8.25million by King
Hussein of Jordan, who sold one of his houses in London to fund the of gold required. ==Accessibility==