World Explained: Why al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is a regular site of conflict between Israel and Palestine More than 170 have been injured in Israeli-Palestinian clashes around the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem since Friday. There have been several changes to the status quo: Many Palestinians believe the status quo is threatened since right-wing Israelis have been challenging it with more force and frequency, asserting a religious right to pray there. [8] [9] [a] According to Jewish tradition and scripture, [11] the First Temple was built by King Solomon, the son of King David, in 957 BCE, and was destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire, together with Jerusalem, in 587 BCE. The head of manuscripts at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Najeh Bkeirat, has accused Israel of trying to "Judaize" the Temple Mount by building a new Holy Temple. To Muslims, the Temple Mount is called Haram . Most Haredi rabbis are of the opinion that the Mount is off limits to Jews and non-Jews alike. At the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Mohammed led prophets in prayer. The Mamluks also raised the level of Jerusalem's Central or Tyropoean Valley bordering the Temple Mount from the west by constructing huge substructures, on which they then built on a large scale. During the Maccabean times, the temple mount was expanded to the north another 100 ft and the Temple was also moved north. The golden Dome of the Rock is a shrine built over the foundation stone in 691 CE. The Caliph Omar ibn Al-Khattab, founder of the Muslim Empire, fought against the Byzantines and conquered Israel and Jerusalem, and ordered the construction of Al-Aqsa Mosque on the ruins of an entire temple. [312], In July 2007 the Muslim religious trust which administers the Mount began digging a 400-metre-long (1,300ft), 1.5-metre-deep (4.9ft) trench[313] from the northern side of the Temple Mount compound to the Dome of the Rock[314] in order to replace 40-year-old[315] electric cables in the area. Tome 1. pp. [44], The governmental organization which administers the site, the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf (part of the Jordanian government), have stated that the name "The Temple Mount" is a "strange and alien name" and a "newly-created Judaization term". [190] The result was the largest temenos in the ancient world. King Hezekiah built a square Temple Mount (yellow walls) around the site of the Temple, which he also renewed. ), discovered a series of tunnels near the Temple Mount. Jewish codifiers accepted the opinion of Maimonides who ruled that the holiness of the Temple sanctified the site for eternity and consequently the restrictions on entry to the site are still currently in force. [127] It became a desolate local rubbish dump, perhaps outside the city limits,[128] as Christian worship in Jerusalem shifted to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and Jerusalem's centrality was replaced by Rome. [220][bettersourceneeded], In December 2013, the two Chief Rabbis of Israel, David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef, reiterated the ban on Jews entering the Temple Mount. The Fadhail of Jerusalem inspired Muslims, especially during the Umayyad period, to embellish the sanctity of the city beyond its status in the holy texts. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. [260] Normally, West Bank Palestinians are allowed access to Jerusalem only during Islamic holidays, with access usually restricted to men over 35 and women of any age eligible for permits to enter the city. [46] In 2017, it was reported that Waqf officials harassed archeologists such as Gabriel Barkay and tour guides who used the term at the site. [40][41] In the Books of Chronicles, edited at the end of the Persian period, the mountain is already referred to as a distinct entity. [2] The courtyard (sahn)[20] can host more than 400,000 worshippers, making it one of the largest mosques in the world. [299], Over the period 197088, a number of tunnels were excavated in the vicinity, including one that passed to the west of the Mount and became known as the Western Wall Tunnel, which was opened to the public in 1996. [303][305][306][307], In late 2002, a bulge of about 700mm (28in) was reported in the southern retaining wall part of the Temple Mount. Indeed, in a case where there is near certainty that injury may be caused to the public interest if a person's rights of religious worship and freedom of expression would be realized, it is possible to limit the rights of the person in order to uphold the public interest. [170][171] The qibla was relocated to the Kaaba where Muslims have been directed to pray ever since. The Mamluk-period substructures and over-ground buildings are thus covering much of the Herodian western wall of the Temple Mount. The ban on visitors continued until 1948[246], Although the 1949 Armistice Agreement called for "resumption of the normal functioning of the cultural and humanitarian institutions on Mount Scopus and free access thereto; free access to the Holy Places and cultural institutions and use of the cemetery on the Mount of Olives. What To Do. Anyone caught [violating] will be held accountable for his ensuing death." The Eschatological Role of the Jerusalem Temple: An Examination of the Jewish Writings Dating from 586 BCE to 70 CE. : the Western Attitude Towards Islamic Epigraphy in 17th-Century Jerusalem. David Ussishkin (2003). Though some Christians believe that the Temple will be reconstructed before, or concurrent with, the Second Coming of Jesus (also see dispensationalism), pilgrimage to the Temple Mount is not viewed as important in the beliefs and worship of most Christians. Killebrew (eds.). Al Aqsa Mosque ("Al-Masjid al-Aqsa"), which literally means, "The Farthest Mosque," occupies the southern end of Temple Mount and faces the Dome of the Rock. A world of subterranean caves, tunnels, and chambers is hidden in Har Habayit, cloaked in mystery and surrounded by legend. The former UN envoy to Jerusalem, Raymond M. Lemaire, criticised "the construction of a metallic pergola in the middle of the courtyard of one of the Umayyad palaces, which disfigures the site." [100] The Bible narrates how David united the twelve Israelite tribes, conquered Jerusalem and brought the Israelites' central artifact, the Ark of the Covenant, into the city. The sanctity of Jerusalem in Islam. [238][239][240] On 29 September, the Israeli government deployed 2,000 riot police to the mosque. [259] Sometimes such restrictions have coincided with Friday prayers during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The New Testament recounts a story of a Samaritan woman asking Jesus about the appropriate place to worship, Jerusalem (as it was for the Jews) or Mount Gerizim (as it was for the Samaritans), to which Jesus replies: Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. [186][187][188], Around 19 BCE, Herod the Great further expanded the Temple Mount and rebuilt the temple. [198], Hadrian had intended the construction of the new city as a gift to the Jews, but since he had constructed a giant statue of himself in front of the Temple of Jupiter and the Temple of Jupiter had a huge statue of Jupiter inside of it, there were on the Temple Mount now two enormous graven images, which Jews considered idolatrous. Al-Aqsa was used as a base for attacks on visitors and the police from which stones, firebombs and fireworks were thrown. It mirrors the terminology of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca;[70][71][72][73] This term elevated the compound to the status of Haram, which had previously only been reserved for the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi in Medina. [161], Other academics attribute the holiness of Jerusalem to the rise and expansion of a certain type of literary genre, known as al-Fadhail or history of cities. Did Judaism's holiest site become Muslim? [174] The First Temple is believed to have once been a part of a much larger royal complex. Our story of the secret chambers of the Temple Mount begins in the early 1860s. [295][296][297] Aside from visual observation of surface features, most other archaeological knowledge of the site comes from the 19th-century survey carried out by Charles Wilson and Charles Warren and others. The Arabs conquered the city from the Byzantine Empire which had retaken it in 629. The successors to the Ayyubids, the Mamluks, controlled the Temple Mount for 256 years and did no better. Baker,Eric W.. Golden Gate (Bab al-Zahabi); eastern wall (northern third), a double gate: Warren's Gate; western wall, now only visible from the Western Wall Tunnel, Bab an-Nabi (Gate of the Prophet) or Barclay's Gate; western wall, visible from al-Buraq Mosque inside the Haram, and from the Western Wall plaza (women's section) and the adjacent building (the so-called house of Abu Sa'ud), Double Gate (Bab al-Thulathe; possibly one of the Huldah Gates); southern wall, underneath al-Aqsa Mosque, Triple Gate; southern wall, outside Solomon's Stables/Marwani Mosque, Single Gate; southern wall, outside Solomon's Stables/Marwani Mosque, Bab al-Asbat (Gate of the Tribes); north-east corner, Bab al-Hitta/Huttah (Gate of Remission, Pardon, or Absolution); northern wall, Bab al-Atim/'Atm/Attim (Gate of Darkness); northern wall, Bab al-Ghawanima (Gate of Bani Ghanim); north-west corner, Bab al-Majlis / an-Nazir/Nadhir (Council Gate / Inspector's Gate); western wall (northern third), Bab al-Hadid (Iron Gate); western wall (central part), Bab al-Qattanin (Gate of the Cotton Merchants); western wall (central part), Bab al-Matarah/Mathara (Ablution Gate); western wall (central part), Bab as-Salam / al-Sakina (Tranquility Gate / Gate of the Dwelling), the northern one of the two; western wall (central part), Bab as-Silsileh (Gate of the Chain), the southern one of the two; western wall (central part), Bab al-Magharbeh/Maghariba (Moroccans' Gate/Gate of the Moors); western wall (southern third); the only entrance for non-Muslims. ", Kadi Mejir-ed-din, Ebil-yemen Abd-er-Rahman, El-Alemi, "Chapitre vingtime. Sabils were built at crossroads and outside mosques throughout the Ottoman Empire to provide drinking water for travelers and enable ritual purification before prayer. The plaza is dominated by two monumental structures originally built during the Rashidun and early Umayyad caliphates after the city's capture in 661 CE:[5] the main praying hall of al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, near the center of the hill, which was completed in 692 CE, making it one of the oldest extant Islamic structures in the world. [230][231], On October 8, 1990, Israeli forces patrolling the site blocked worshippers from reaching it. God wants the temple gone, not because Judaism is destroyed, but because in Jesus it is fulfilled. [174]Knauf argued that the Temple Mount already served as the cultic and governmental center of Jerusalem as early as in the Late Bronze Age. 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