Temple denial

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Reconstruction of the Second Temple in the Holyland Model of Jerusalem 19 Shrine of the Book 005 (cropped).jpg
Reconstruction of the Second Temple in the Holyland Model of Jerusalem

Temple denial is the claim that the successive Temples in Jerusalem either did not exist or they did exist but were not constructed on the site of the Temple Mount, a claim which has been advanced by Islamic political leaders, religious figures, intellectuals, and authors. [1]

Contents

Dore Gold, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, used the term "Temple denial" in his 2007 book, The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City. Yitzhak Reiter describes the growing tendency of Islamic authorities to deny the existence of the Jewish Temples on the Temple Mount, characterizing it as part of a campaign to increase the status of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount in Islam as a part of the effort to turn Jerusalem into a Muslim city under Arab governance. [1] TheNew York Times writes that "Temple denial, increasingly common among Palestinian leaders, also has a long history: After Israel became a state in 1948, the Waqf removed all references to King Solomon's Temple from its guidebooks. Previously, it said that Solomon's Temple was located on the site, a fact which was 'beyond dispute'." [2] [3] David Hazony has described the phenomenon as "a campaign of intellectual erasure [by Palestinian leaders, writers, and scholars] ... aimed at undermining the Jewish claim to any part of the land", and he compared the phenomenon to Holocaust denial. [4] [5]

Background

The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. [6] [7] [8] According to Jewish tradition and scripture, the First Temple was built by King Solomon, the son of King David, in 957 BCE, and was destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE. The Second Temple was constructed under the auspices of Zerubbabel in 516 BCE, was renovated by King Herod, and was destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 CE. Scholars agree that the two temples existed on the Temple Mount during these time periods. [9] While no scientific excavations have ever been conducted on the Temple Mount, extensive physical evidence for the Second Temple was found in excavations in its vicinity.

Among Muslims, the whole plaza is revered and it is referred to as "the Noble Sanctuary" or the al-Aqsa Mosque, and it ranks as the third holiest site in Islam. Muslims believe that it is the place from which Muhammad began his Night Journey. [10] [11] 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: [12] the 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. It stands where past Jewish temples are commonly believed to have stood. [13]

Early Islam regarded the Foundation Stone as the location of Solomon's Temple, and the construction of the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount sought to glorify Jerusalem by presenting Islam as a continuation of Judaism and Christianity. [14] Muslim interpretations of the Quran agree that the Mount is the site of the Temple originally built by Solomon, considered a prophet in Islam, that was later destroyed. [15] [16] After the construction, Muslims believe, the temple was used for the worship of the one God by many prophets of Islam, including Jesus. [17] [18] [19] Other Muslim scholars have used the Torah (called Tawrat in Arabic) to expand on the details of the temple. [20] The term Bayt al-Maqdis (or Bayt al-Muqaddas), which frequently appears as a name of Jerusalem in early Islamic sources, is a cognate of the Hebrew term bēt ha-miqdāsh (בית המקדש), the Temple in Jerusalem. [21] [22] [23] Mujir al-Din, a 15th century Jerusalemite chronicler, mentions an earlier tradition related by al-Wasti, according which "after David built many cities and the situation of the children of Israel was improved, he wanted to construct Bayt al-Maqdis and build a dome over the rock in the place that Allah sanctified in Aelia." [24]

According to Yitzhak Reiter, "during the twentieth century, against the backdrop of the struggle between the Zionist and the Palestinian-Arab national movements, a new Arab-Muslim trend of denying Jewish attachment to the Temple Mount arose". [24]

Denial efforts

Waqf guidebooks

A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif, a booklet published in 1925 by the "Supreme Muslim Council", a body established by British authorities to administer waqfs and headed by Amin al-Husayni during the British Mandate period, states on page 4: "The site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest (perhaps from pre-historic) times. Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.'(2 Samuel 24:25)" [25]

According to the New York Times , after the establishment of Israel in 1948, the Waqf's guidebooks have been stripped of references to Solomon's Temple, whose location it had previously described as 'beyond dispute.'" [2]

Remarks by Yasser Arafat

According to Dennis Ross, at the 2000 Camp David Summit, then-Palestinian National Authority President Yasser Arafat told then-American President Bill Clinton that "Solomon's Temple was not in Jerusalem, but Nablus." [26] [27] In the recollection of then-Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak, referring to a conversation he had with Clinton, Arafat said to the American President, "there is nothing there" (i.e., no trace of a temple on the Temple Mount). [28]

Ross later wrote about an August 2000 meeting he had with Arafat: "Since we would be discussing the options on the Haram, I anticipated that Arafat might well again declare that the Temple—the most sacred place in Jewish tradition—did not exist in Jerusalem, but was in Nablus. ... I wanted Gamal, a Christian of Coptic origin who was originally from Egypt, to tell Arafat that this was an outrageous attempt to delegitimize the Israeli connection to Jerusalem. ... Finally, after nearly ten minutes of increasing invective, I intervened and said 'Mr. Chairman, regardless of what you think, the President of the United States knows that the Temple existed in Jerusalem. If he hears you denying its existence there, he will never again take you seriously. My advice to you is never again raise this issue in his presence.'" [29]

On September 25, 2003, when a delegation of Arab leaders from northern Israel visited the Muqata'a compound in Ramallah to show solidarity during the Second Intifada, they were surprised when Arafat lectured them for approximately a quarter-hour on al-Aqsa, claiming that the Jewish temple was not in Jerusalem, but in Yemen. He claimed to have visited Yemen and been shown the location of Solomon's Temple. [30]

Remarks by Mahmoud Abbas

On May 15, 2023, during a speech to the United Nations, Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, claimed there is no proof of Jewish ties to the area of the al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem. He stated that "They [Israel] dug under al-Aqsa… they dug everywhere and they could not find anything". [31]

Other occurrences

In an interview with an Israeli newspaper in 1998, Ikrima Sabri, then Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, stated, "I heard that your Temple was in Nablus or perhaps Bethlehem." [30] In an interview to Die Welt on January 17, 2001, Sabri further claimed that: "There is not the slightest sign of the previous existence of the Jewish temple on this site. There is not a single stone in the entire city that refers to Jewish history [...] It is the art of the Jews to deceive the world. They can't fool us with that. There is not a single stone in the Western Wall that has anything to do with Jewish history. The Jews have no legitimate claim to this wall, either religiously or historically." [32]

In 2002, Zaki al-Ghul, titular mayor of East Jerusalem, claimed in the Al-Quds conference in Amman that King Solomon reigned over the Arabian Peninsula and erected his Temple there, rather than in Jerusalem. [30]

In 2015, Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, the current Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, said in an interview with Israel's Channel 2 that there has never been a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount, and the site has been home to a mosque "from the creation of the world". He also claimed that "This is the Al-Aqsa Mosque that Adam, peace be upon him, or during his time, the angels built". [33]

Analysis

In 2005, in a book titled From Jerusalem to Mecca and Back: The Islamic Consolidation of Jerusalem, Yitzhak Reiter describes the growing tendency of Islamic authorities to deny the existence of the Jewish Temples on the Temple Mount, characterizing it as part of a campaign to increase the status of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount in Islam as part of the effort to make Jerusalem a Muslim city under Arab governance. According to Reiter, this narrative "reflects the mainstream in many Islamic communities around the world", and is promoted by "religious figures, politicians, academics and journalists". [1] [34]

Dore Gold, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, used the term "Temple denial" in his 2007 book, The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City.

Reactions

International organizations

In January 2017, newly elected Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres made clear reference to the fact that a temple once stood on the Temple Mount, and positively asserted its destruction during the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE during a speech commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and in subsequent remarks, including an interview on Israel Radio. [35] [36] High-ranking PLO and Palestinian government officials demanded that Guterres recant this claim and submit an apology to the Palestinian people. [37] [36] In response, Guterres instead directly affirmed the existence of a Holy Temple on the Temple Mount, and was condemned by the Palestine National Authority for violating, "all legal, diplomatic and humanitarian customs", and chastised Guterres for overstepping his role as secretary-general. [38]

Governments

Prime Minister Jean Castex of France read a speech on behalf of President Emmanuel Macron to the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) and said "I am concerned about the United Nations resolution on Jerusalem which continues to deliberately and against all evidence remove Jewish terminology from the Temple Mount. You know my attachment to Jerusalem, where I went several times as President or before becoming one. Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people, I have never stopped saying that. This in no way precludes recognizing and respecting the attachment of other religions to this city, and it is in this spirit that I myself walked through the Old City in 2020 and visited each of the Holy Places". [39]

Other Islamic figures

Not all Islamic scholars accept Temple denialism. Imam Abdul Hadi Palazzi, leader of the Italian Muslim Assembly and a co-founder and a co-chairman of the Islam-Israel Fellowship, quotes the Quran to support Judaism's special connection to the Temple Mount. According to Palazzi, "[t]he most authoritative Islamic sources affirm the Temples". He adds that Jerusalem is sacred to Muslims because of its prior holiness to Jews and its standing as home to the biblical prophets and kings David and Solomon, all of whom he says are sacred figures also in Islam. He claims that the Quran "expressly recognizes that Jerusalem plays the same role for Jews that Mecca has for Muslims". [40] Furthermore, both classical Islamic literature and Muslims' scripture recognize the existence of the Temple – albeit as the "Farthest Mosque" rather than Beyt al-Maqdis – and its importance to Judaism. [41] [42] [43] [40]

Journalistic

In October 2015, the New York Times published an article stating that "The question, which many books and scholarly treatises have never definitely answered, is whether the 37-acre [15-hectare] site, home to Islam's sacred Dome of the Rock shrine and al-Aqsa Mosque, was also the location of two ancient Jewish temples, one built on the remains of the other, and both long since gone." [44] Within a few days, the newspaper responded to feedback by changing the text to "The question, which many books and scholarly treatises have never definitively answered, is where on the 37-acre [15-hectare] site, home to Islam’s sacred Dome of the Rock shrine and Al Aqsa Mosque, was the precise location of two ancient Jewish temples, one built on the remains of the other, and both long since gone." [45] [46] A few weeks later, the newspaper further corrected the story, backdating the Islamic waqf that controls the site from 1967 to 1187. [45]

See also

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 Yitzhak Reiter (2005), From Jerusalem to Mecca and Back: The Islamic Consolidation of Jerusalem, Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies.
  2. 1 2 Rudoren, Jodi (November 22, 2014). "Mistrust Threatens Delicate Balance at a Sacred Site in Jerusalem". The New York Times.
  3. ↑ A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif, a booklet published in 1925 (and earlier) by the "Supreme Moslem Council", a body established by the British government to administer waqfs and headed by Hajj Amin al-Husayni during the British Mandate period, states on page 4: "The site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest (perhaps from pre-historic) times. Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.' (2 Samuel 24:25)"
  4. ↑ Hazony, David. "Temple Denial In the Holy City Archived 2008-10-11 at the Wayback Machine ", The New York Sun , March 7, 2007.
  5. ↑ Gold, pp. 10 ff.
  6. ↑ Rivka, Gonen (2003). Contested Holiness: Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Perspectives on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Jersey City, NJ: KTAV Publishing House, Inc. p. 4. ISBN   0-88125-798-2. OCLC   1148595286. To the Jews the Temple Mount is the holiest place on Earth, the place where God manifested himself to King David and where two Jewish temples - Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple - were located.
  7. ↑ Marshall J., Breger; Ahimeir, Ora (2002). Jerusalem: A City and Its Future. Syracuse University Press. p. 296. ISBN   0-8156-2912-5. OCLC   48940385.
  8. ↑ Cohen-Hattab, Kobi; Bar, Doron (2020-06-15). The Western Wall: The Dispute over Israel's Holiest Jewish Site, 1967–2000. BRILL. ISBN   978-90-04-43133-1.
  9. ↑ Joshua Hammer. "What is Beneath the Temple Mount?". Smithsonian Institution . Retrieved December 2, 2015.
  10. ↑ M. Anwarul Islam and Zaid F. Al-hamad (2007). "The Dome of the Rock: Origin of its octagonal plan". Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 139 (2): 109–128. doi:10.1179/003103207x194145. S2CID   162578242.
  11. ↑ Nasser Rabbat (1989). "The meaning of the Umayyad Dome of the Rock". Muqarnas. 6: 12–21. doi:10.2307/1602276. JSTOR   1602276.
  12. ↑ Nicolle, David (1994). Yarmuk AD 636: The Muslim Conquest of Syria. Osprey Publishing.
  13. ↑ Sporty, Lawrence D. (1990). "The Location of the Holy House of Herod's Temple: Evidence from the Pre-Destruction Period". The Biblical Archaeologist. 53 (4): 194–204. doi:10.2307/3210164. ISSN   0006-0895. JSTOR   3210164. S2CID   224797947. The holy house has most commonly assumed to be located on the same spot as the Moslem holy structure known as the Dome of the Rock. This assumption has been held for centuries for the following reasons: The rock out-cropping under the Dome of the Rock is the main natural feature within the Haram enclosure; the Dome of the Rock is centrally located within the esplanade, and, at 2,440 feet above sea level, the Dome of the Rock is one of the highests point within the area.
  14. ↑ Reiter, Yitzhak (2017). Contested Holy places in Israel/Palestine: Sharing and Conflict Resolution. Routledge. pp. 21–23. ISBN   978-1-138-24349-1. OCLC   960842983. The HS is also the third holiest site in Islam. Early Islam identified the location of the Holy Rock (known as the Foundation Stone among Jews) with the Temple of Solomon. The Dome of the Rock, built by the Caliph 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan at the end of the seventh century CE, was aimed to glorify the place with the understanding of Islam as a continuation of Judaism (and Christianity). Muslim writers related to the site with respect to its sacred continuity. For example, the fifteenth-century Arab historian of Jerusalem Mujir al-Din quotes an early tradition narrated by al-Wasti stating, "after David built many cities and the situation of the children of Israel was improved, he wanted to construct Bayt al-Maqdis [Jerusalem] and build a dome over the rock in the place that Allah sanctified in Aelia [the Roman Byzantine name of Jerusalem]". In another place, he writes, "Suleiman (Solomon) built Masjid Bayt al-Maqdis by the order of his father Da'ud (David)."However, during the twentieth century, against the backdrop of the struggle between the Zionist and the Palestinian-Arab national movements, a new Arab-Muslim trend of denying Jewish attachment to the Temple Mount arose. On the Jewish side, meanwhile, some nationalists and academics also belittled the importance to Muslims of the sacred site in particular and of Jerusalem in general, highlighting the fact that Jerusalem's name never appears in the Qur'an and that the city never served as an Arab political center.
  15. ↑ "The Farthest Mosque must refer to the site of the Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem on the hill of Moriah, at or near which stands the Dome of the Rock... it was a sacred place to both Jews and Christians... The chief dates in connection with the Temple in Jerusalem are: It was finished by Solomon about 1004 BCE; destroyed by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar about 586 BCE; rebuilt under Ezra and Nehemiah about 515 BCE; turned into a heathen idol temple by one of Alexander the Great's successors, Antiochus Epiphanes, 167 BCE; restored by Herod, 17 BCE to 29; and completely razed to the ground by the Emperor Titus in 70. These ups and downs are among the greater signs in religious history." (Yusuf Ali, Commentary on the Koran, 2168.)
  16. ↑ Khalek, N. (2011). Jerusalem in Medieval Islamic Tradition. Religion Compass, 5(10), 624–630. doi:10.1111/j.1749-8171.2011.00305.x. "One of the most pressing issues in both medieval and contemporary scholarship related to Jerusalem is whether the city is explicitly referenced in the text of the Qur'an. Sura 17, verse 1, which reads [...] has been variously interpreted as referring to the miraculous Night Journey and Ascension of Muhammad, events recorded in medieval sources and known as the isra and miraj. As we will see, this association is a rather late and even a contested one. [...] The earliest Muslim work on the Religious Merits of Jerusalem was the Fada'il Bayt al-Maqdis by al-Walid ibn Hammad al-Ramli (d. 912 CE), a text which is recoverable from later works. [...] He relates the significance of Jerusalem vis-a-vis the Jewish Temple, conflating 'a collage of biblical narratives' and comments pilgrimage to Jerusalem, a practice which was controversial in later Muslim periods."
  17. ↑ "The city of Jerusalem was chosen at the command of Allah by Prophet David in the tenth century BCE. After him his son, the Prophet Solomon built a mosque in Jerusalem according to the revelation that he received from Allah. For several centuries this mosque was used for the worship of Allah by many Prophets and Messengers of Allah. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in the year 586 BCE., but it was soon rebuilt and was rededicated to the worship of Allah in 516 BCE. It continued afterwards for several centuries until the time of Prophet Jesus. After he departed this world, it was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 CE." (Siddiqi, Dr. Muzammil. Status of Al-Aqsa Mosque Archived 2011-02-11 at the Wayback Machine , IslamOnline, May 21, 2007. Retrieved July 12, 2007.)
  18. ↑ "Early Muslims regarded the building and destruction of the Temple of Solomon as a major historical and religious event, and accounts of the Temple are offered by many of the early Muslim historians and geographers (including Ibn Qutayba, Ibn al-Faqih, Mas'udi, Muhallabi, and Biruni). Fantastic tales of Solomon's construction of the Temple also appear in the Qisas al-anbiya', the medieval compendia of Muslim legends about the pre-Islamic prophets." (Kramer, Martin. The Temples of Jerusalem in Islam, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, September 18, 2000. Retrieved November 21, 2007.)
    • "While there is no scientific evidence that Solomon's Temple existed, all believers in any of the Abrahamic faiths perforce must accept that it did." (Khalidi, Rashid. Transforming the Face of the Holy City: Political Messages in the Built Topography of Jerusalem, Bir Zeit University, November 12, 1998.)
  19. ↑ A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif, a booklet published in 1925 Archived 2009-01-05 at the Wayback Machine (and earlier) by the "Supreme Moslem Council", a body established by the British government to administer waqfs and headed by Hajj Amin al-Husayni during the British Mandate period, states on page 4: "The site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest (perhaps from pre-historic) times. Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.'(2 Samuel 24:25)"
  20. ↑
    • "The Rock was in the time of Solomon the son of David 12 cubits high and there was a dome over it...It is written in the Tawrat [Bible]: 'Be happy Jerusalem,' which is Bayt al-Maqdis and the Rock which is called Haykal." al-Wasati, Fada'il al Bayt al-Muqaddas, ed. Izhak Hasson (Jerusalem, 1979) pp. 72ff.
  21. ↑ Di Cesare, M. (2017). A Lost Inscription from the Dome of the Rock?: the Western Attitude Towards Islamic Epigraphy in 17th-Century Jerusalem. A Lost Inscription from the Dome of the Rock?: the Western Attitude Towards Islamic Epigraphy in 17th-Century Jerusalem, 77-86.
  22. ↑ Jacobson, D. M. The Enigma of the Name Īliyā (= Aelia) for Jerusalem in Early Islam. Dio, 69, 1.
  23. ↑ Carrol, James. "Jerusalem, Jerusalem: How The Ancient City Ignited Our Modern World", 2011. Retrieved on 24 May 2014.
  24. 1 2 Reiter, Yitzhak (2017). Contested Holy places in Israel/Palestine: Sharing and Conflict Resolution. Routledge. pp. 21–23. ISBN   978-1-138-24349-1. OCLC   960842983. The HS is also the third holiest site in Islam. Early Islam identified the location of the Holy Rock (known as the Foundation Stone among Jews) with the Temple of Solomon. The Dome of the Rock, built by the Caliph 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan at the end of the seventh century CE, was aimed to glorify the place with the understanding of Islam as a continuation of Judaism (and Christianity). Muslim writers related to the site with respect to its sacred continuity. For example, the fifteenth-century Arab historian of Jerusalem Mujir al-Din quotes an early tradition narrated by al-Wasti stating, "after David built many cities and the situation of the children of Israel was improved, he wanted to construct Bayt al-Maqdis [Jerusalem] and build a dome over the rock in the place that Allah sanctified in Aelia [the Roman Byzantine name of Jerusalem]". In another place, he writes, "Suleiman (Solomon) built Masjid Bayt al-Maqdis by the order of his father Da'ud (David)."However, during the twentieth century, against the backdrop of the struggle between the Zionist and the Palestinian-Arab national movements, a new Arab-Muslim trend of denying Jewish attachment to the Temple Mount arose. On the Jewish side, meanwhile, some nationalists and academics also belittled the importance to Muslims of the sacred site in particular and of Jerusalem in general, highlighting the fact that Jerusalem's name never appears in the Qur'an and that the city never served as an Arab political center.
  25. ↑ Supreme Moslem Council. A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif (1925) . Jerusalem
  26. ↑ Dennis, Ross. The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 694.
  27. ↑ Brit Hume, Interview Archived 2009-07-22 at the Wayback Machine with Dennis Ross, Fox News Sunday , Fox News, April 21, 2002
  28. ↑ Benny Morris, "Camp David and After: An Exchange (1. An Interview with Ehud Barak)", The New York Review of Books , June 13, 2002
  29. ↑ Dennis Ross (2004), The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace, ISBN   0-374-19973-6, p. 718
  30. 1 2 3 Reiter, Yitzhak (2008), Reiter, Yitzhak (ed.), "Denial of an Authentic Jewish Connection to Jerusalem and Its Holy Places", Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity, New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, pp. 37–62, doi:10.1057/9780230612716_3, ISBN   978-0-230-61271-6 , retrieved 2022-07-18
  31. ↑ "Abbas at UN disavows Jewish ties to Al-Aqsa, compares Israel to Nazis". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 15 May 2023. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
  32. ↑ ""Die Juden sollen dahin zurückgehen, woher sie kamen"" [The Jews should go back where they came from]. Die Welt (in German). 2001-01-17. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  33. ↑ Zion, Ilan Ben. "Jerusalem mufti: Temple Mount never housed Jewish Temple". Times of Israel. Retrieved 2022-07-17.
  34. ↑ Shragai, Nadav (November 27, 2005). "In the beginning was Al-Aqsa". Haaretz.
  35. ↑ "Remarks at Observance of the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust" (Press release). United Nations Secretary-General. 27 January 2017.
  36. 1 2 "Palestinians protest UN chief for affirming Jewish ties to Temple Mount", The Times of Israel, 30 January 2017
  37. ↑ Congress, World Jewish. "World Jewish Congress". Worldjewishcongress.org.
  38. ↑ "New U.N. Secretary General Acknowledges Jewish Ties to Jerusalem. Palestinians Demand Apology". Tablet. 3 February 2017. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  39. ↑ "France's Macron comes out against claims of Israeli apartheid". 28 February 2022 – via Jerusalem Post.
  40. 1 2 Margolis, David (February 23, 2001). "The Muslim Zionist". Los Angeles Jewish Journal.
  41. ↑ Friedmann, Yohanan (1992). The History of Al-Tabari: Volume XII. Albany: State University of New York Press. p. 195.
  42. ↑ Gold, Dore (2007). The fight for Jerusalem: radical Islam, the west, and the future of the holy city. Ashland: Blackstone Audio. p. 17. ISBN   978-0786162833.
  43. ↑ "The Night Journey: Verse 1". quran.com. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  44. ↑ Gladstone, Rick (8 October 2015). "Historical Certainty Proves Elusive at Jerusalem's Holiest Place (original version)". The New York Times.
  45. 1 2 Gladstone, Rick (8 October 2015). "Historical Certainty Proves Elusive at Jerusalem's Holiest Place". Newspaper. The New York Times. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  46. ↑ Ngo, Robin (13 October 2015). "Contested Temple Mount History?". Website. Bible History Daily. Retrieved 14 October 2015.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Excavations at the Temple Mount</span> Archaeology of a Jerusalem holy site

A number of archaeological excavations at the Temple Mount—a celebrated and contentious religious site in the Old City of Jerusalem—have taken place over the last 150 years. Excavations in the area represent one of the more sensitive areas of all archaeological excavations in Jerusalem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerusalem Waqf</span> Islamic religious trust for the Al-Aqsa Mosque

The Jerusalem Waqf and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs Department, also known as the Jerusalem Waqf, the Jordanian Waqf or simply the Waqf, is the Jordanian-appointed organization responsible for controlling and managing the current Islamic edifices on the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, which includes the Dome of the Rock. The Jerusalem Waqf is guided by a council composed of 18 members and headed by a director, all appointed by Jordan. The current director of the Waqf, since 2005, is Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holiest sites in Sunni Islam</span>

Both Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims agree on the three Holiest sites in Islam being, respectively, the Masjid al-Haram, in Mecca; the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, in Medina; and Al-Masjid al-Aqsa, in Jerusalem.

In 2009, clashes between Muslim Palestinians and Israeli police erupted on September 27, 2009, and continued to late October. Violence spread through East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank, and included throwing of Molotov cocktails and stones at Israeli security forces and civilians. Israeli police responded with arrests of rioters and sporadic age-based restriction of access to the Temple Mount. Several dozen rioters, police and Israeli civilians have been injured.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamization of Jerusalem</span> Religious transformation of Jerusalem to adopt Islamic influences since the 7th century

The Islamization of Jerusalem refers to the process through which Jerusalem and its Old City acquired an Islamic character and, eventually, a significant Muslim presence. The foundation for Jerusalem's Islamization was laid by the Muslim conquest of the Levant, and began shortly after the city was besieged and captured in 638 CE by the Rashidun Caliphate under Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Rashidun caliph. The second wave of Islamization occurred after the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Christian state that was established after the First Crusade, at the Battle of Hattin in 1187. The eventual fall of the Crusader states by 1291 led to a period of almost-uninterrupted Muslim rule that lasted for seven centuries, and a dominant Islamic culture was consolidated in the region during the Ayyubid, Mamluk and early Ottoman periods. Beginning in the late Ottoman era, Jerusalem’s demographics turned increasingly multicultural, and regained a Jewish-majority character during the late-19th and early-20th centuries that had not been seen since the Roman period, which largely ended the Jewish presence in the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hashemite custodianship of Jerusalem holy sites</span> Jordanian custodianship of sites in Jerusalem

Hashemite custodianship refers to the Jordanian royal family's role in tending Muslim and Christian holy sites in the city of Jerusalem. The legacy traces back to 1924 when the Supreme Muslim Council, the highest Muslim body in charge of Muslim community affairs in Mandatory Palestine, chose Hussein bin Ali as custodian of Al-Aqsa. The custodianship became a Hashemite legacy administered by consecutive Jordanian kings.

Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Wasiti was the preacher (khatib) of al-Aqsa Mosque in 1019–1020, the year he wrote a treatise entitled Concerning the (religious) status of Jerusalem, better known as Fada'il Bayt al-Muqaddas, also spelled Fada'il al-Bayt al-Maqdis, literally "Merits/Virtues of Jerusalem".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Al-Aqsa clashes</span> Part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

On 15 April 2022, clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli Security Forces on the Al-Aqsa Compound in the Old City of Jerusalem. According to the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, the clashes began when Palestinians threw stones, firecrackers, and other heavy objects at Israeli police officers. The policemen used tear gas shells, stun grenades and police batons against the Palestinians. Some Palestinians afterwards barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque and proceeded to throw stones at the officers. In response, police raided the mosque, arresting those who had barricaded themselves inside. In addition, some damage was done to the mosque's structure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Aqsa</span> Islamic religious complex atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem

Al-Aqsa or al-Masjid al-Aqṣā is the compound of Islamic religious buildings that sit atop the Temple Mount, also known as the Haram al-Sharif, in the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Dome of the Rock, many mosques and prayer halls, madrasas, zawiyas, khalwas and other domes and religious structures, as well as the four encircling minarets. It is considered the third holiest site in Islam. The compound's main congregational mosque or prayer hall is variously known as Al-Aqsa Mosque, Qibli Mosque or al-Jāmiʿ al-Aqṣā, while in some sources it is also known as al-Masjid al-Aqṣā; the wider compound is sometimes known as Al-Aqsa mosque compound in order to avoid confusion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuba inscription</span> Early Islamic text

The Nuba inscription is an early Islamic text that was found in a mosque near Hebron.

References

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