Mosque Al-Aqsa

A site symbolic system

Mosque Al-Aqsa is located on a place very symbolic system, since it acts, according to the Jewish tradition, of the site of the temple of Solomon, rebuilt by Hérode with the VIe front century J. - C., before being destroyed into 70 by the Romans. The Wailing Wall testifies to this past, and certain elements show that the mosque was built on the ruins of the additional building (the Chanuyos) of the old Temple. During the Christian period, the place was left with the abandonment, to undoubtedly mark the triumph of the chritianism on the old religion. It is only with the arrival of Islam that haram Al-Sharif was again used for religious buildings.

The Moslem tradition associates haram Al-Sharif with the masjid Al-Aqsa mentioned in Coran, that Mahomet would have reached following the " travel noctune" Al Isra, and since which he would have lived Al Mi' raj, the rise to the 7 ciels. Nevertheless, since the 12th century or the 13th century century, one more precisely associates this starting place with the Dôme of the Rock, and not with the mosque Al-Aqsa.

Various phases of construction

As of 680, one finds in the mention sources of a rudimentary wood building, employing again materials of the temple hérodien. It is in particular the Arculf pilgrim who delivers description of it to us, between 679 and 688. But it is undoubtedly on the impulse of the caliph 'Abd Al-Malik (R. 685 - 705), manufacturer of the Dôme of the Rock, or its son Al-Walid Ier (R. 705 - 715) whom is created the first mosque into hard. If one grows the historian Muqaddasi about it, the caliph would have wished this rebuilding to avoid contrast between the mosque and the dome.

According to Myriam Rosen Ayalon, this first phase was extremely different from current construction, since it was about a plan with three naves parallel with the qibla, as to the Grande mosque of Omeyyades of Damas, a few years later. At that time, the mosque was to be directly connected to the palate of the city, dar Al-imarat (overdraft in the years 1970) by a passage arched behind the principal mihrab. A first seism will destroy it almost completely.

It is only under the Abbasside dynasty that the naves of the mosque change orientation. With the Al-Mahdien 780 construction, these are from now on fifteen spans perpendicular to the mihrab which compose the place of prayer, including one magnifiée in the center.

New recoveries, under the crusades, then in 614h/1217 - 1218, more or less give to the building its current aspect: a central nave, overcome of a dome and broadside on both sides of three spans. Remain of the old only wall qibli, always preserved in the centuries, since it employed again already the pre-Islamic wall of the south of the esplanade of the temple.

The carved wood decoration

Exceptional preserved together at the ceiling of the building, wood carved of mosque Al-Aqsa undoubtedly date from the Umayyade period. It thus constitute one of only testimonys of the art of wood at that time, with those of the Khirbat Al-Mafjar. Composed of vegetable reasons treated with naturalism, they point out in particular the mosaics close to the dome of the Rock, and the sculptures of the castle of Mshatta.

Wood carved undoubtedly took part of a decoration much vaster, with mosaics and marble, as one still sees some with the dome of the Rock or Damas. Nevertheless, those were not preserved.

Current tensions

August 21st, 1969, an Australian Christian, Michael Denis Rohan, put fire at the building in order to make place with the Third Temple. The damage was important but could be repaired.

The Wailing Wall, place holy of the Jewish religion, belonging to the enclosing wall of the mosque, this relatively restricted zone of Jerusalem can cause tension between communities. Thus the visit discussed of Ariel Sharon on the Esplanade of the mosques the September 28th 2000 followed many demonstrations of reprobations on behalf of the Palestinians.

If Mosque Al-Aqsa as the remainder of the old city of Jerusalem is under Israeli sovereignty since 1967, its management was left with a Palestinian organization, the waqf. The Palestinians have a single road to reach the Mosque, whose access is interdict with the not-Moslems.

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