Dome of the Rock
- LAST REVIEWED: 25 May 2011
- LAST MODIFIED: 25 May 2011
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195390155-0103
- LAST REVIEWED: 25 May 2011
- LAST MODIFIED: 25 May 2011
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195390155-0103
Introduction
The Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhra) is an octagonal structure on an elevated platform in the middle of the Temple Mount area in Jerusalem. It is revered by most Muslims as the spot from which the Prophet Muhammad ascended to Heaven. Since its construction, the Dome has been for Muslims more than a mere structure. It stands as a symbol of the triumph of Islam and, more importantly, is a reminder of humanity’s unique connections to God through the many sacred events that unfolded on that spot since the time of creation. Over the centuries, Muslims have cherished the Dome for its many religious symbolisms, which, alongside the religious symbolisms of other sites on the Temple Mount and the city of Jerusalem, gave rise to a genre of literature called Fadaʾil al-Quds (religious merits of Jerusalem). The Dome, with its location and inscription, also provides some of the earliest dated evidence of the emergence of Islam and how early Muslims shaped their religious identity, internally as well as vis-à-vis their monotheist cousins, the Jews and Christians.
General Overviews
The Dome of the Rock is the oldest standing monument of Islamic architecture, as shown in Elad 1995, Grabar 2005, Grabar 2006, and Grabar and Kedar 2009. Grabar 2006 and Elad 1995 also show that it was built on the site of the ruined Second Jewish Temple by orders of the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwan (r. 685–705 CE). Grabar 1959 discusses the construction, which was completed in 691–692 CE, although Blair 1992 shows that some believe 692 to be the starting point of the construction. The Dome of the Rock along with the Aqsa Mosque (al-Masjid al-Aqsa) constitutes the Haram al-Sharif sanctuary, known in the Judeo-Christian traditions as the Temple Mount that was constructed by Herod the Great in the 1st century before the Common Era.
Blair, Sheila. “What Is the Date of the Dome of the Rock.” In Bayt al-Maqdis: ʿAbd al-Malik’s Jerusalem. Edited by Julian Raby and Jeremy Johns, 59–87. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.
This is an excellent short survey of art and architecture of the Dome of the Rock. Blair also argues for the year 692 CE as the terminus a quo for the construction of the Dome of the Rock.
Elad, Amikam. Medieval Jerusalem and Islamic Worship: Holy Places, Ceremonies, Pilgrimage. Leiden, The Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1995.
A pioneering work. Elad’s use of new sources exposed the weaknesses of many generalizations about the significance of the Dome of the Rock and Jerusalem in pre-Crusader times. He shows that the literature on Jerusalem’s religious merits (fadaʾil) was earnestly disseminated in greater Syria from the 8th century CE onward, and that the existence of several Muslim pilgrimage manuals demonstrate that the pilgrimage to Jerusalem was actively pursued until Ottoman times.
Grabar, Oleg. “The Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.” Ars Orientalis 3 (1959): 33–62.
This article is a classic and for a number of reasons, but some of the arguments have been revised by Grabar in his later works (Grabar 1996, under Religious Symbolism in Early Islam, and Grabar 2006) in light of new research.
Grabar, Oleg. Jerusalem. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2005.
A variorum volume comprising some of Grabar’s most insightful articles on the Dome of the Rock and Jerusalem. However, one needs to read the older articles in light of the revisions that he made in more recent works (Grabar 1996, under Religious Symbolism in Early Islam, and Grabar 2006).
Grabar, Oleg. The Dome of the Rock. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006.
An outstanding survey intended primarily for a general audience and nonspecialists.
Grabar, Oleg, and Benjamin Z. Kedar, eds. Where Heaven and Earth Meet: Jerusalem’s Sacred Esplanade. Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi Press, 2009.
A collection of studies (they vary in import and the degree of mastery) on all aspects of the history of the Temple Mount and the history and architecture of the structures that are or once were on it from biblical times to the 21st century. Published in the United States by the University of Texas Press.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Abbasid Caliphate
- `Abdolkarim Soroush
- 'Abduh, Muhammad
- ʿAbdul Razzāq Kāshānī
- Abraham
- Abu Sayyaf Group
- Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (AKP)
- Adoption
- Afghani, Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-
- Africa, Islam in
- Afterlife, Heaven, Hell
- Ahmad Khan, Sayyid
- Ahmadiyyah Movement, The
- Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar
- `A'isha
- 'A’isha al-Baʿuniyya
- 'Alī Ibn Abī Ṭālib
- al-Ḥallāj, Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr
- Alawis
- Alhambra
- Al-Jāḥiẓ
- Al-Kindi
- Al-Maʿarrī
- Almohads
- al-Sadiq, Ja`far
- Al-Siddiq, Abu Bakr
- Amin, Nusrat
- Ḥanbalīs
- Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM)
- Animals
- Apostasy
- Arab Painting
- Arab Salafism
- Arab Spring
- Arabic Language and Islam
- Arabic Praise Poems
- Archaeology, Islamic
- Architecture
- Art, Islamic
- Ashʿariyya
- Ashura
- Australia, Islam in
- 'Aysha Abd Al-Rahman
- Ayyubids
- Azhar, al-
- Baha'i Faith
- Balkans, Islam in the
- Banna, Hasan al-
- Bektashi Sufi Order
- Berbers
- Body
- Bourgiba, Habib
- Britain, Islam and Muslims in
- Caliph and Caliphate
- Caucasus
- Central Asia, Islam in
- Chechnya: History, Society, Conflict
- Christianity, Islam and
- Cinema, Turkish
- Civil Society
- Clash of Civilizations
- Contemporary Islamic Popular Culture in Southeast Asia
- David Santillana
- Daʿwa
- Death, Dying, and the Afterlife
- Democracy and Islam
- Deoband Madrasa
- Disabilities, Islam and
- Dome of the Rock
- Dreams and Islam
- Dress and Fashion
- Druze
- Education
- Ethics
- Europe, Islam in
- European Imperialism
- Fahad al-Asker
- Fairuz
- Fana and Baqa
- Farangī Maḥall
- Fatima
- Female Islamic Education Movements
- Finance, Islamic
- Fiqh Al-Aqalliyyat
- Five Pillars of Islam, The
- Gender and Sexuality
- Gender-based Violence and Islam
- Ghadir Khumm
- Ghazali, al-
- Gökalp, Mehmet Ziya
- Gülen, Muhammed Fethullah
- Granada, Nasrids of
- Hadith
- Hadith and Gender
- Hadith Commentary
- Hadith: Shiʿi
- Halal Studies
- Hamas
- Hanafi School, The
- Hasan
- Hausa
- Hijaz
- Hijaz Railway
- Hilli, al-
- Hip-Hop and Islam
- Historiography
- History of Astronomy and Space Science in the Islamic Worl...
- Hizb al-Nahdah
- Homosexuality
- Human Rights
- Husayn
- Ibadiyya
- Ibn al-ʿArabī
- Ibn Baṭṭūṭa
- Ibn Bâjjah
- Ibn Khaldun
- Ibn Rushd (Averroës)
- Ibn Sīnā
- Ibn Taymiyya
- Ibn Ṭufayl
- Ijtihad
- 'Ilm al-Khilāf / Legal Controversy
- Indonesia, Islam in
- Inheritance
- Inji Efflatoun
- Internet, Islam and the
- Iqbal, Muhammad
- Iran, Islam in
- Iranian Revolution, The
- Islam, Environments and Landscapes in
- Islam in Ethiopia and Eritrea
- Islam, Nature, and the Environment
- Islamic Aesthetics
- Islamic Calligraphy
- Islamic Exegesis, Christians and Christianity in
- Islamic Law and Gender
- Islamic Print Media
- Islamic Salvation Front (FIS)
- Islamic Studies, Food in
- Islamic Trends and Movements in Contemporary Sub-Saharan A...
- Islamophobia
- Japan, Islam in
- Jesus
- Jewish-Muslim Relations
- Jihad
- Jilani, `Abd al-Qadir al (Gilani)
- Ka`aba
- Karbala in Shiʿi Ritual
- Khaled Al Siddiq
- Kharijites
- Kharijites and Contemporary Scholarship, The
- Khatami, Muhammad
- Khomeini, Ruhollah Mousavi
- Kurds, The
- Law, Islamic Criminal
- Literature and Muslim Women
- Maher Zain
- Malcolm X
- Malikis
- Maḥmūd Gāvān
- Marriage
- Martyrdom (Shahada)
- Mary in Islam
- Mawdudi, Sayyid Abuʾl-Aʾla
- Medina
- Medina, The Constitution of
- Method in the Study of Islam
- Middle East and North Africa, Islam in
- Mihna
- Miskawayh
- Modern and Contemporary Egyptian Art
- Modernism
- Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin
- Moses
- Māturīdī
- Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī
- Muhammad
- Muhammad, Elijah
- Muhammad, Tomb of
- Muharram
- Muslim Brotherhood
- Muslim Nonviolence
- Muslim Pilgrimage Traditions in West Africa
- Muslim Television Preachers
- Mutʿa
- Mu`tazilites
- Nana Asma'u bint Usman ‘dan Fodio
- Nation of Islam
- Nationalism
- Nigeria, Islam in
- Nizar Qabbani
- North America, Islam in
- Nursi, Said
- On the History of the Book in Islamic Studies
- Organization of Islamic Cooperation
- Orientalism and Islam
- Ottoman Empire, Islam in the
- Ottoman Empire, Millet System in the
- Ottoman Women
- Pamuk, Orhan
- Papyrus, Parchment, and Paper in Islamic Studies
- PAS
- People of the Book
- Philippines, Islam in the
- Philosophy, Islamic
- Pilgrimage and Religious Travel
- Political Islam
- Political Theory, Islamic
- Post-Ottoman Syria, Islam in
- Pre-Islamic Arabia/The Jahiliyya
- Principles of Law
- Progressive Muslim Thought, Progressive Islam and
- Prophecy, The Finality of
- Purity
- Qaeda, al-
- Qaradawi, Yusuf al-
- Qur'an
- Qurʾan and Contemporary Analysis
- Qurʾan and Context
- Qutb, Sayyid
- Razi, Fakhr al-Din al-
- Reformist Muslims in Contemporary America
- Russia, Islam in
- Sadra, Mulla
- Safavids
- Sahara, The Kunta of the
- Saiyid Ahmad of Rai Bareli
- Salafism
- Sarekat Islam
- Science and Medicine
- Shafi`is
- Shari`a (Islamic Law)
- Shari'ati, Ali
- Shaṭṭārīya
- Shaykhism
- Shiʿa, Ismaʿili
- Shiʿa, Twelver
- Shi`i Islam
- Shi‘I Shrine Cities
- Shi'i Tafsir, Twelver
- Sicily, Islam in
- Sociology and Anthropology
- South Asia, Islam in
- Southeast Asia, Islam in
- Spain, Muslim
- Sīra
- Sufism
- Sufism in the United States
- Suhrawardī, Shihāb al-Dīn
- Sukarno
- Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III
- Sunna
- Sunni Islam
- Tabari, -al
- Tablighi Jamaʿat
- Tafsir
- Tafsir, Women and
- Taha, Mahmūd Muhammad
- Taliban
- Tanzīh and Tashbīh in Classical Islamic Theological Though...
- Textual Criticism, Qur'an and
- The Babi Movement
- The Barelvī School of Thought
- The Nizari Ismailis of the Persianate World
- Theology
- Turabi, Hassan al-
- Turkey, Islam in
- Turkish Language, Literature, and Islam
- Twelver Shi'ism in Modern India
- Twelver Shi'ism in Pakistan
- Umayyads, The
- Wahhabism
- Women in Islam
- Yemen, Islam in
- Zaydiyya