Mosque Name: Al Aqsa Mosque
Country: Israel
City: Jerusalem
Year of construction (AH): 90 AH
Year of construction (AD): 709 AD
GPS: 31°46’32.63”N 35°14’8.27”E
ArchNet: http://archnet.org/sites/2809
Gibson Classification: Petra
Rebuilt facing Mecca: never
For a Link to the Qibla Tool Click Here
Description:
The Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem has undergone multiple stages of construction and renovations over the years. It is generally agreed that ’Abd al- Malik, (685-705) the Umayyad Caliph who was the patron of the Dome of the Rock, started the construction of al-Aqsa Mosque at the end of the 7th century. A major building phase took place during the time of the caliphate of his son, al-Walid (709-715). The building suffered from several major earthquakes and was renovated and reconstructed during the Abbasid period by Caliph al-Mahdi (775-785), and possibly by Caliph al-Mansur (754-775). This mosque in Jerusalem does not face Mecca but rather faces 169.23° which is towards Petra, only 160 miles away.
John Moschus was born in the mid-sixth century. He wrote“Pratum spirituale” or Spiritual Meadow which contained 304 short chapters on the feats and achievements of holy men, plus anecdotes about suffering, temptation, evil and piety, as well as an appendix of thirty additional stories. Story 19 tells of the Muslims who began to build a mosque on a place called the Capital in Jerusalem. If this account is true, then construction of the Temple Mount began soon after its capture around 637 AD. (16 AH) (Hoyland, 1997, pages 63-65)
Caetani, Chron. 200-201 AD, The Arabic accounts of ’Umar’s visit to Jerusalem are discussed by Bussee, “Omar in Jerusalem.” The monk Anastasius of Sinai informs us that after an earthquake he witnessed clearing work being undertaken on the Temple Mount around 660 AD. (Anastasias of Sinai, Narrat., C3. and Blair, What is the date of the Dome of the Rock?)
Above: The Al Aqsa mosque is in dark grey. The yellow line has been drawn from Petra to this mosque to demonstrate that the mosque faces Petra.
The Qibla direction of the Aqsa mosque is clearly marked by the orientation of the entire structure. Today there are mosques and ropes to orient the believers to praying towards a corner, which faces Mecca.
References:
Hamilton, Robert W., 1949. The Structural History of the Aqsa Mosque: A Record of Archaeological Gleanings from the Repairs of 1938–1942, Jerusalem and London: Oxford University Press.
St. Laurent, Beatrice, and Awwad, Isam, 2013. “The Marwani Musalla in Jerusalem: New Findings”, Jerusalem Quarterly 54: 7-30. https://vc.bridgew.edu/art_fac/8/
Antun, Thallein, 2016. The Architectural Form of the Mosque in the Central Arab Lands, from the Hijra to the End of the Umayyad Period, 1⁄622-133⁄750, BAR International Series 2790, Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 20-34.
Wilkinson, John, 1987. Column Capitals in al Haram al Sharif (from 138 A.D. to 1118 A.D.), Jerusalem: The Islamic Museum al-Haram al-Sharif.
Husseini, S.A.S., 1939. “Inscription of the Kalif El-Mustanṣir Billāh 458 A.H. (A.D. 1065)”,
Salameh, Khader, 2009. “A New Saljuq Inscription in the Masjid al-Aqsa, Jerusalem“, Levant 41(1): 107-117.
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