Jerusalem Dome of Rock

Dome of the Rock The Temple held immense significance for the Jewish people and the Temple Wall still standing today but known as the Wailing Wall still serves as a symbol of the suffering of the Jewish people throughout time. The First Temple, built by Solomon, had been destroyed by the Babylonians in the 6th century BC. The Second Temple was constructed fifty years later under Cyrus the Great. It stood until 70 AD when the Romans razed it to the ground following the Jewish revolt.

After that it was never rebuilt (Hamblin). However, Jerusalem remained a special place. It became the home of Christians and later of Muslims, who venerated it as the place where Mohammed started his night journey up to heaven (Islam, Al-Hamad). Because Jews and Muslims have two very different religions with different orientations, creeds, forms of worship and perspectives on God, the fact that both have holy places in the same spot has been a source of tension over the years.

Added to this tension is that fact that Israel was founded as a state in 1948 in the Palestinian territory that had been occupied by the British. The British pledged to give the Zionists their own Jewish state with the Balfour Declaration in 1917. Since then, there has been a veritable war between the Jewish community and much of the Muslim community. This paper will describe why the Temple of Jerusalem and Dome of the Rock represent an Impossible Geography for the two religions and their people.

The Dome of the Rock and the Second Temple are related because they both share the same foundation—the Foundation Stone is important to them both. The Second Temple was brought to the ground following the Jewish revolt against Rome in 70 AD.

The foundation was never destroyed and at the end of the 7th century AD, the Dome of the Rock was completed right on top of the Foundation Stone, which has a special significance in Jewish history, as it is tied to the events of the Hebrew history, just as it is tied to Muslim lore. As Joshua Hammer states, “according to Jewish tradition, the stone is the ‘navel of the Earth’—the place where creation began, and the site where Abraham was poised to sacrifice Isaac.

For Muslims, the stone marks the place where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to the Divine Presence.” Thus, the Temple and the Dome of the Rock are intimately connected. Both the Dome of the Rock and the Second Temple are important to the Muslims and the Jews respectively. The Dome of the Rock is significant to Muslims precisely because it is the place where Mohammad is believed to have ascended to heaven. It marks the last point on earth where Mohammad stepped before leaving this world.

Just as medieval Christians in England honored the place where St. Oswald died in battle (Bede), Muslims honored the place where Mohammad left this world for the other by erecting the Dome of the Rock over that place. The Second Temple is significant to the Jews because it marked the return to power for the Jewish people after being in captivity for so many years. When the Cyrus gave permission for the Temple to be rebuilt it was like a revitalization moment in Jewish history.

It meant that the Jews were no longer the most despised people on earth—that they could once more be in union with their God and serve and worship Him the way they had been taught to in the past. Today what is left of the Second Temple—i.e., the Wailing Wall—is a reminder to the Jewish people that they have suffered throughout all ages but that their time is not yet finished and that they will one day rise again.

Already that time appears to be nearer at hand than in centuries past. Now that Israel is a fully functioning state with the power to govern the Jews as it sees fit, the Jewish people are now more politically powerful and influential than at any other time in the history of the world. It may soon come to pass, therefore, that they begin to rebuild the Temple a third time.

However, that would likely spark an international crisis, as the site of the Temple is now shared by Muslims and Jews and both claim it as holy to themselves. Should the Jews move to erect the Temple it would first mean demolishing the Dome of the Rock, one of the most sacred and venerated sites among the Muslim population. The outrage would be more than palpable: it could potentially spark all-out war. Access to these structures has changed over the centuries for each religion in numerous ways.

The Jews were driven out in 70 AD after the rebellion against Rome. The Temple was destroyed and the Jews had no access to it. When Julian the Apostate attempted to rebuild the Temple he was unsuccessful. Between then and today, Jerusalem has changed hands more than 30 times, with various religious groups taking possession of it. The Crusades were largely fought over control of the region between Christians and Muslims. The Muslims controlled it through the end of the Middle Ages to the modern era.

In the 20th century, Zionists were seeking a home for the Jews to call their own. The British were in control of Jerusalem and Palestine at the time and they arranged to give access to the region to the Zionists with the Balfour Declaration. The Jewish state was recognized by the U.S.

in 1948—which gave them access to the structure, but today the site is still governed by a Muslim committee called the Waqf, which does not permit any excavation on the site as Muslims would view such as desecration (Hammer). However, both the Israeli government and the Muslim committee must agree before any construction is done on the site—as was the case when the Waqf sought and obtained permission to construct a new entrance to the site.

When the entrance proved to be much larger than originally suggested, Jews were outraged as they felt the Muslims had desecrated their holy site (Hammer). The major spatial challenge of these two structures in administrating them is that they are so closely bound and connected: they are literally tied at the hip. There is no way the Jews could wholly control their holy site without butting up against the Muslims, and there is no way the Muslims could wholly control the Dome without butting up against the Jews.

The tension is thick in Jerusalem as a result, and now that the U.S. Embassy has been relocated to Jerusalem, acknowledging the shared city as the capital of Israel, the tension is even thicker. Muslims can sense a change coming—but.