Temple Mount

The Temple Mount (Hebrew: הַר הַבַּיִת, romanized: Har haBayīt, lit. 'Temple Mount'), also known as The Noble Sanctuary (Arabic: الحرم الشريف, 'Haram al-Sharif'), al-Aqsa Mosque compound, or simply al-Aqsa (/æl ˈæksə/; The Furthest Mosque المسجد الأقصى, al-Masjid al-Aqṣā),^[2] and sometimes as Jerusalem's holy esplanade,^[3][4] is a hill in the Old City of Jerusalem that has been venerated as a holy site for thousands of years, including in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.^[5][6]

Temple Mount
Al-Aqsa (Masjid al-Aqsa) Haram al-Sharif Al-Aqsa mosque compound Har haBayit Jerusalem's sacred (or holy) esplanade
Aerial view of Al-Aqsa, atop the Temple Mount
Highest point
Elevation	740 m (2,430 ft)
Coordinates	31°46′41″N 35°14′9″E
Geography
Temple Mount Jerusalem
Parent range	Judean
Geology
Mountain type	Limestone[1]

The present site is a flat plaza surrounded by retaining walls (including the Western Wall), which were originally built by King Herod in the first century BCE for an expansion of the Second Jewish Temple. The plaza is dominated by two monumental structures originally built during the Rashidun and early Umayyad caliphates after the city's capture in 637 CE:^[7] the main praying hall of 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. The Herodian walls and gates, with additions from the late Byzantine, early Muslim, Mamluk, and Ottoman periods, flank the site, which can be reached through eleven gates, ten reserved for Muslims and one for non-Muslims, with guard posts of the Israel Police in the vicinity of each.^[8] The courtyard is surrounded on the north and west by two Mamluk-era porticos (riwaq) and four minarets.

The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism,^[9][10][a] and where two Jewish temples once stood.^[12][13][14] According to Jewish tradition and scripture,^[15] the First Temple was built by King Solomon, the son of King David, in 957 BCE, and was destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire, together with Jerusalem, in 587 BCE. No archaeological evidence has been found to verify the existence of the First Temple, and scientific excavations have been limited due to religious sensitivities.^[16][17][18] The Second Temple, constructed under Zerubbabel in 516 BCE, was later renovated by King Herod and was ultimately destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 CE. Orthodox Jewish tradition maintains it is here that the third and final Temple will be built when the Messiah comes.^[19] The Temple Mount is the place Jews turn towards during prayer. Jewish attitudes towards entering the site vary. Due to its extreme sanctity, many Jews will not walk on the Mount itself, to avoid unintentionally entering the area where the Holy of Holies stood, since, according to rabbinical law, there is still some aspect of the divine presence at the site.^[20][21][22]

The Al-Aqsa mosque compound, atop the site, is the second oldest mosque in Islam,^[23] and one of the three Sacred Mosques, the holiest sites in Islam; it is revered as "the Noble Sanctuary".^[24] Its courtyard (sahn)^[25] can host more than 400,000 worshippers, making it one of the largest mosques in the world.^[23] For Sunni and Shia Muslims alike, it ranks as the third holiest site in Islam. The plaza includes the location regarded as where the Islamic prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven,^[26] and served as the first "qibla", the direction Muslims turn towards when praying. As in Judaism, Muslims also associate the site with Solomon and other prophets who are also venerated in Islam.^[27] The site, and the term "al-Aqsa", in relation to the whole plaza, is also a central identity symbol for Palestinians, including Palestinian Christians.^[28][29][30]

Since the Crusades, the Muslim community of Jerusalem has managed the site through the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf. The site, along with the whole of East Jerusalem (which includes the Old City), was controlled by Jordan from 1948 until 1967 and has been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967. Shortly after capturing the site, Israel handed its administration back to the Waqf under the Jordanian Hashemite custodianship, while maintaining Israeli security control.^[31] The Israeli government enforces a ban on prayer by non-Muslims as part of an arrangement usually referred to as the "status quo".^[32][33][34] The site remains a major focal point of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.^[35]

Terminology

The name of the site is disputed, primarily between Muslims and Jews, in the context of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Some Arab-Muslim commentators and scholars attempt to deny Jewish connection with the Temple Mount, while some Jewish commentators and scholars attempt to belittle the importance of the site in Islam.^[36][37] During a 2016 dispute over the name of the site, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova stated: "Different peoples worship the same places, sometimes under different names. The recognition, use of and respect for these names is paramount."^[38]

Temple Mount

The term Har haBayīt – commonly translated as "Temple Mount" in English – was first used in the books of Micah (4:1) and Jeremiah (26:18), literally as "Mount of the House", a literary variation of the longer phrase "Mountain of the House of the Lord". The abbreviation was not used again in the later books of the Hebrew Bible^[39] or in the New Testament.^[40] The term remained in use throughout the Second Temple period, although the term “Mount Zion”, which today refers to the eastern hill of ancient Jerusalem, was used more frequently. Both terms are in use in the Book of Maccabees.^[41] The term Har haBayīt is used throughout the Mishnah and later Talmudic texts.^[42][43]

The exact moment when the concept of the Mount as a topographical feature separate from the Temple or the city itself first came into existence is a matter of debate among scholars.^[41] According to Eliav, it was during the first century CE, after the destruction of the Second Temple.^[44] Shahar and Shatzman reached different conclusions.^[45][46] In the Books of Chronicles, edited at the end of the Persian period, the mountain is already referred to as a distinct entity. In 2 Chronicles, Solomon's Temple was constructed on Mount Moriah (3:1), and Manasseh's atonement for his sins is associated with the Mountain of the House of the Lord (33:15).^[47][48][41] The conception of the Temple as being located on a holy mountain possessing special qualities is found repeatedly in Psalms, with the surrounding area being considered an integral part of the Temple itself.^[49]

The governmental organization which administers the site, the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf (part of the Jordanian government), have stated that the name "The Temple Mount" is a "strange and alien name" and a "newly-created Judaization term".^[50] In 2014, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) issued a press release urging journalists not to use the term "Temple Mount" when referring to the site.^[51] In 2017, it was reported that Waqf officials harassed archeologists such as Gabriel Barkay and tour guides who used the term at the site.^[52] According to Jan Turek and John Carman, in modern usage, the term Temple Mount can potentially imply support for Israeli control of the site.^[53]

Other Hebrew terms

2 Chronicles 3:1^[47] refers to the Temple Mount in the time before the construction of the temple as Mount Moriah (Hebrew: הַר הַמֹּורִיָּה, har ha-Môriyyāh).

Several passages in the Hebrew Bible indicate that during the time when they were written, the Temple Mount was identified as Mount Zion.^[54] The Mount Zion mentioned in the later parts of the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 60:14),^[55] in the Book of Psalms, and the First Book of Maccabees (c. 2nd century BCE) seems to refer to the top of the hill, generally known as the Temple Mount.^[54] According to the Book of Samuel, Mount Zion was the site of the Jebusite fortress called the "stronghold of Zion", but once the First Temple was erected, according to the Bible, at the top of the Eastern Hill ("Temple Mount"), the name "Mount Zion" migrated there too.^[54] The name later migrated for a last time, this time to Jerusalem's Western Hill.^[54]

Al-Aqsa Mosque

Extract of an 1841 British map showing both "Mesjid el-Aksa" and "Jami el-Aksa"

The English term "al-Aqsa Mosque" is a translation of either al-Masjid al-'Aqṣā (Arabic: ٱلْمَسْجِد ٱلْأَقْصَىٰ) or al-Jâmi' al-Aqṣā (Arabic: ٱلْـجَـامِـع الْأَقْـصّى).^[56][57][58] Al-Masjid al-'Aqṣā – "the farthest mosque" – is derived from the Quran's Surah 17 ("The Night Journey") which writes that Muhammad travelled from Mecca to the mosque, from where he subsequently ascended to Heaven.^[59][60] Arabic and Persian writers such as 10th-century geographer Al-Maqdisi,^[61] 11th-century scholar Nasir Khusraw,^[61] 12th-century geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi^[62] and 15th-century Islamic scholar Mujir al-Din,^[63][64] as well as 19th century American and British Orientalists Edward Robinson,^[56] Guy Le Strange and Edward Henry Palmer explained that the term Masjid al-Aqsa refers to the entire esplanade plaza which is the subject of this article – the entire area including the Dome of the Rock, the fountains, the gates, and the four minarets – because none of these buildings existed at the time the Quran was written.^[57][65][66]

Al-Jâmi' al-Aqṣá refers to the specific site of the silver-domed congregational mosque building,^[56][57][58] also referred to as Qibli Mosque or Qibli Chapel (al-Jami' al-Aqsa or al-Qibli, or Masjid al-Jumah or al-Mughata), in reference to its location on the southern end of the compound as a result of the Islamic qibla being moved from Jerusalem to Mecca.^[67] The two different Arabic terms, translated as "mosque" in English, parallel the two different Greek terms translated as "temple" in the New Testament: Greek: ίερόν, romanized: hieron (equivalent to Masjid) and Greek: ναός, romanized: naos (equivalent to Jami'a),^[56][63][68] and use of the term "mosque" for the whole compound follows the usage of the same term for other early Islamic sites with large courtyards such as the Mosque of Ibn Tulun in Cairo, the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and the Great Mosque of Kairouan.^[69] Other sources and maps have used the term al-Masjid al-'Aqṣā to refer to the congregational mosque itself.^[70][71][72]

Extract of a 1936 British map showing the entire site as "Moriah" or "Haram esh-Sharif"; the Al-Aqsa Mosque shown as "Mesjid el-Aksa"

The term "al-Aqsa" as a symbol and brand-name has become popular and prevalent in the region.^[73] For example, the Al-Aqsa Intifada (the uprising of September 2000), the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (a coalition of Palestinian nationalist militias in the West Bank), al-Aqsa TV (the official Hamas-run television channel), al-Aqsa University (Palestinian university established in 1991 in the Gaza Strip), Jund al-Aqsa (a Salafist jihadist organization that was active during the Syrian Civil War), the Jordanian military periodical published since the early 1970s, and the associations of both the southern and northern branches of the Islamic Movement in Israel are all named Al-Aqsa after this site.^[73]

Haram al-Sharif

During the period of Mamluk^[74] (1260–1517) and Ottoman rule (1517–1917), the wider compound began to also be popularly known as the Haram al-Sharif, or al-Ḥaram ash-Sharīf (Arabic: اَلْـحَـرَم الـشَّـرِيْـف), which translates as the "Noble Sanctuary". It mirrors the terminology of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca;^{[75][76][77][78]} This term elevated the compound to the status of Haram, which had previously been reserved for the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi in Medina. Other Islamic figures disputed the haram status of the site.^[73] Usage of the name Haram al-Sharif by local Palestinians has waned in recent decades, in favor of the traditional name of Al-Aqsa Mosque.^[73]

Jerusalem's sacred esplanade

Some scholars have used the terms Sacred Esplanade or Holy Esplanade as a "strictly neutral term" for the site.^[5][6] A notable example of this usage is the 2009 work Where Heaven and Earth Meet: Jerusalem's Sacred Esplanade, written as a joint undertaking by 21 Jewish, Muslim and Christian scholars.^[79][80]

Jerusalem's Holy Esplanade

In recent years, the term "Holy Esplanade" has been used by the United Nations, by its Secretary-General and by the UN's subsidiary organs.^[81]

Location and dimensions

Topographical map of Jerusalem, showing the Temple Mount on the eastern peak

The Temple Mount forms the northern portion of a narrow spur of hill that slopes sharply downward from north to south. Rising above the Kidron Valley to the east and Tyropoeon Valley to the west,^[82] its peak reaches a height of 740 m (2,428 ft) above sea level.^[83] In around 19 BCE, Herod the Great extended the Mount's natural plateau by enclosing the area with four massive retaining walls and filling the voids. This artificial expansion resulted in a large flat expanse which today forms the eastern section of the Old City of Jerusalem. The trapezium shaped platform measures 488 m (1,601 ft) along the west, 470 m (1,540 ft) along the east, 315 m (1,033 ft) along the north and 280 m (920 ft) along the south, giving a total area of approximately 150,000 m² (37 acres).^[84] The northern wall of the Mount, together with the northern section of the western wall, is hidden behind residential buildings. The southern section of the western flank is revealed and contains what is known as the Western Wall. The retaining walls on these two sides descend many meters below ground level. A northern portion of the western wall may be seen from within the Western Wall Tunnel, which was excavated through buildings adjacent to the platform. On the southern and eastern sides, the walls are visible almost to their full height. The platform itself is separated from the rest of the Old City by the Tyropoeon Valley, though this once deep valley is now largely hidden beneath later deposits and is imperceptible in places. The platform can be reached via Gate of the Chain Street – a street in the Muslim Quarter at the level of the platform, actually sitting on a monumental bridge;^{[85][better source needed]} the bridge is no longer externally visible due to the change in ground level, but it can be seen from beneath via the Western Wall Tunnel.^[86]

Heritage site

In 1980, Jordan proposed that the Old City be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site^[87] and it was added to the List in 1981.^[88] In 1982, it was added to the List of World Heritage in Danger.^[89]

On 26 October 2016, UNESCO passed the Occupied Palestine Resolution that condemned what it described as "escalating Israeli aggressions" and illegal measures against the waqf, called for the restoration of Muslim access and demanded that Israel respect the historical status quo^[90][91][92] and also criticized Israel for its continuous "refusal to let the body's experts access Jerusalem's holy sites to determine their conservation status".^[93][94] While the text acknowledged the "importance of the Old City of Jerusalem and its walls for the three monotheistic religions", it referred to the sacred hilltop compound in Jerusalem's Old City only by its Muslim name Al-Haram al-Sharif.

In response, Israel denounced the UNESCO resolution for its omission of the words "Temple Mount" or "Har HaBayit", stating that it denied Jewish ties to the site.^[92][95] Israel froze all ties with UNESCO.^[96][97] In October 2017, Israel and the United States announced they would withdraw from UNESCO, citing anti-Israel bias.^[98][99]

On 6 April 2022, UNESCO unanimously adopted a resolution reiterating all 21 previous resolutions concerned with Jerusalem.^[100]

Religious significance

See also: Religious significance of Jerusalem

The Temple Mount has historical and religious significance for all three of the major Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It has particular religious significance for Judaism and Islam.

Judaism

See also: Jerusalem in Judaism

The Temple Mount is considered the holiest site in Judaism.^{[101][102][11]} According to Jewish tradition, both Temples stood at the Temple Mount.^[103] Jewish tradition further places the Temple Mount as the location for a number of important events which occurred in the Bible, including the Binding of Isaac, Jacob's dream, and the prayer of Isaac and Rebekah.^[104] According to the Talmud, the Foundation Stone is the place from where the world was created and expanded into its current form.^[105][106] Orthodox Jewish tradition maintains it is here that the third and final Temple will be built when the Messiah comes.^[107]

The Temple Mount is the place Jews turn towards during prayer. Jewish attitudes towards entering the site vary. Due to its extreme sanctity, many Jews will not walk on the Mount itself, to avoid unintentionally entering the area where the Holy of Holies stood, since, according to rabbinical law, there is still some aspect of the divine presence at the site.^{[108][109][110]}

The Temple

See also: Temple in Jerusalem

The Holyland Model of Jerusalem depicts Jerusalem during the late Second Temple period. The Temple Mount and Herod's Temple are shown in the middle. View from the east.

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Temple Mount was originally a threshing-floor owned by Araunah, a Jebusite.^[111] The Bible narrates how David united the twelve Israelite tribes, conquered Jerusalem and brought the Israelites' central artifact, the Ark of the Covenant, into the city.^[112] When a great plague struck Israel, a destroying angel appeared on Araunah's threshing floor. The prophet Gad then suggested the area to David as a fitting place for the erection of an altar to Yawheh.^[113] David bought the property from Araunah, for fifty pieces of silver, and erected the altar. God answered his prayers and stopped the plague. David subsequently chose the site for a future temple to replace the Tabernacle and house the Ark of the Covenant;^[114][115] God forbade him from building it, however, because he had "shed much blood".^[116]

The First Temple was instead constructed under David's son Solomon,^[117] who became an ambitious builder of public works in ancient Israel:^[118]

Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah, where [the LORD] appeared unto David his father; for which provision had been made in the Place of David, in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

— 2 Chronicles 3:1^[119]

Solomon placed the Ark in the Holy of Holies – the windowless innermost sanctuary and most sacred area of the temple in which God's presence rested;^[120] entry into the Holy of Holies was heavily restricted, and only the High Priest of Israel entered the sanctuary once per year on Yom Kippur, carrying the blood of a sacrificial lamb and burning incense.^[120] According to the Bible, the site functioned as the center of all national life – a governmental, judicial and religious center.^[121]

The Genesis Rabba, which was probably written between 300 and 500 CE, states that this site is one of three about which the nations of the world cannot taunt Israel and say, "you have stolen them," since it was purchased "for its full price" by David.^[122]

The First Temple was destroyed in 587/586 BCE by the Neo-Babylonian Empire under the second Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar II, who subsequently exiled the Judeans to Babylon following the fall of the Kingdom of Judah and its annexation as a Babylonian province. The Jews who had been deported in the aftermath of the Babylonian conquest of Judah were eventually allowed to return following a proclamation by the Persian king Cyrus the Great that was issued after the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenid Empire. In 516 BCE, the returned Jewish population in Judah, under Persian provincial governance, rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem under the auspices of Zerubbabel, producing what is known as the Second Temple.

During the Second Temple Period, Jerusalem was the center of religious and national life for Jews, including those in the Diaspora.^[123] The Second Temple is believed to have attracted tens and maybe hundreds of thousands during the Three Pilgrimage Festivals.^[123] The holiday of Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean revolt in the 2nd century BCE. During the first century BCE, the Temple was renovated by Herod. It was destroyed by the Roman Empire at the height of the First Jewish-Roman War in 70 CE. Tisha B'Av, an annual fast day in Judaism, marks the destruction of the First and Second Temples, which according to Jewish tradition, occurred on the same day on the Hebrew calendar.

In prophecy

The Book of Isaiah foretells the international importance of the Temple Mount:

And it shall come to pass in the end of days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established as the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many peoples shall go and say: 'Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

— Isaiah 2:2–3^[124]

Binding of Isaac

In Jewish tradition, the Temple Mount is also believed to be the location of Abraham's binding of Isaac. 2 Chronicles 3:1^[47] refers to the Temple Mount in the time before the construction of the temple as Mount Moriah (Hebrew: הַר הַמֹּורִיָּה, har ha-Môriyyā). The "land of Moriah" (אֶרֶץ הַמֹּרִיָּה, ereṣ ha-Môriyyā) is the name given by Genesis to the location of the binding of Isaac.^[125] Since at least the first century CE, the two sites have been identified with one another in Judaism, this identification being subsequently perpetuated by Jewish and Christian tradition. Modern scholarship tends to regard them as distinct (see Moriah).

Creation of the world

Picture showing what is presumed to be the Foundation Stone, or a large part of it

According to the rabbinic sages whose debates produced the Talmud, the Foundation Stone, which sits below the Dome of the Rock, was the spot from where the world was created and expanded into its current form,^[105][106] and where God gathered the dust used to create the first human, Adam.^[125]

Third Temple

Jewish texts predict that the Mount will be the site of a Third and final Temple, which will be rebuilt with the coming of the Messiah. The rebuilding of the Temple remained a recurring theme among generations, particularly in thrice daily Amidah (Standing prayer), central prayer of the Jewish liturgy, which contains a plea for the building of a Third Temple and the restoration of sacrificial services. A number of vocal Jewish groups now advocate building the Third Temple without delay in order to bring to pass God's "end-time prophetic plans for Israel and the entire world."^[126]

Christianity

See also: Jerusalem in Christianity

The Temple was of central importance in Jewish worship in the Tanakh (Old Testament). In the New Testament, Herod's Temple was the site of several events in the life of Jesus, and Christian loyalty to the site as a focal point remained long after his death.^{[127][128][129]} After the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, which came to be regarded by early Christians, as it was by Josephus and the sages of the Jerusalem Talmud, to be a divine act of punishment for the sins of the Jewish people,^[130][131] the Temple Mount lost its significance for Christian worship with the Christians considering it a fulfillment of Christ's prophecy at, for example, Matthew 23:38^[132] and Matthew 24:2.^[133] It was to this end, proof of a biblical prophecy fulfilled and of Christianity's victory over Judaism with the New Covenant,^[134] that early Christian pilgrims also visited the site.^[135] Byzantine Christians, despite some signs of constructive work on the esplanade,^[136] generally neglected the Temple Mount, especially when a Jewish attempt to rebuild the Temple was destroyed by the earthquake of 363.^[137] It became a desolate local rubbish dump, perhaps outside the city limits,^[138] as Christian worship in Jerusalem shifted to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and Jerusalem's centrality was replaced by Rome.^[139]

During the Byzantine era, Jerusalem was primarily Christian and pilgrims came by the tens of thousands to experience the places where Jesus walked.^{[citation needed]} After the Persian invasion in 614 many churches were razed, and the site was turned into a dump. The Arabs conquered the city from the Byzantine Empire which had retaken it in 629. The Byzantine ban on the Jews was lifted and they were allowed to live inside the city and visit the places of worship. Christian pilgrims were able to come and experience the Temple Mount area.^[140] The war between Seljuqs and Byzantine Empire and increasing Muslim violence against Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem instigated the Crusades. The Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099 and the Dome of the Rock was given to the Augustinians, who turned it into a church, and al-Aqsa Mosque became the royal palace of Baldwin I of Jerusalem in 1104. The Knights Templar, who believed the Dome of the Rock was the site of Solomon's Temple, gave it the name "Templum Domini" and set up their headquarters in al-Aqsa Mosque adjacent to the Dome for much of the 12th century.^{[citation needed]}

In Christian art, the circumcision of Jesus was conventionally depicted as taking place at the Temple, even though European artists until recently had no way of knowing what the Temple looked like and the Gospels do not state that the event took place at the Temple.^[141]

Though some Christians believe that the Temple will be reconstructed before, or concurrent with, the Second Coming of Jesus (also see dispensationalism), pilgrimage to the Temple Mount is not viewed as important in the beliefs and worship of most Christians. The New Testament recounts a story of a Samaritan woman asking Jesus about the appropriate place to worship, Jerusalem (as it was for the Jews) or Mount Gerizim (as it was for the Samaritans), to which Jesus replies:

Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

— John 4:21–24^[142]

This has been construed to mean that Jesus dispensed with physical location for worship, which was a matter rather of spirit and truth.^[143]

Islam

c.300,000 Muslims praying at Ramadan, 1996

Façade of al-Aqsa's main praying hall, the Qibli Mosque, viewed from the north.

Interior decoration of the Dome of the Rock

The Dome of the Rock as an Islamic shrine, as seen from the north

See also: Jerusalem in Islam

Main article: Holiest sites in Islam

See also: Holiest sites in Sunni Islam and Holiest sites in Shia Islam

Among both Sunni and Shia Muslims,^{[citation needed]} the entire plaza, known as the al-Aqsa Mosque, also known as Haram al-Sharif or "the Noble Sanctuary", is considered the third holiest site in Islam.^[24] According to Islamic tradition, the plaza is the location of Muhammad's ascension to heaven from Jerusalem, and served as the first "qibla", the direction Muslims turn towards when praying. As in Judaism, Muslims also associate the site with Abraham, and other prophets who are also venerated in Islam.^[27] Muslims view the site as being one of the earliest and most noteworthy places of worship of God. They preferred to use the esplanade as the heart for the Muslim quarter, since it had been abandoned by Christians, to avoid disturbing the Christian quarters of Jerusalem.^[144] Umayyad Caliphs commissioned the construction of al-Aqsa Mosque on the site, including the shrine known as the "Dome of the Rock".^[145] The Dome was completed in 692 CE, making it one of the oldest extant Islamic structures in the world. The Al-Aqsa Mosque, sometimes known as the Qibli Mosque, rest on the far southern side of the Mount, facing Mecca.

In early Islam

Early Islam regarded the Foundation Stone as the location of Solomon's Temple, and the first architectural initiatives on the Temple Mount sought to glorify Jerusalem by presenting Islam as a continuation of Judaism and Christianity.^[36] Almost immediately after the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in 638 CE, Caliph 'Omar ibn al Khatab, reportedly disgusted by the filth covering the site, had it thoroughly cleaned,^[146] and granted Jews access to the site.^[147] According to early Quranic interpreters and what is generally accepted as Islamic tradition, in 638 CE Umar, upon entering a conquered Jerusalem, consulted with Ka'ab al-Ahbar – a Jewish convert to Islam who came with him from Medina – as to where the best spot would be to build a mosque. Al-Ahbar suggested to him that it should be behind the Rock "... so that all of Jerusalem would be before you." Umar replied, "You correspond to Judaism!" Immediately after this conversation, Umar began to clean up the site – which was filled with trash and debris – with his cloak, and other Muslim followers imitated him until the site was clean. Umar then prayed at the spot where it was believed that Muhammad had prayed before his night journey, reciting the Quranic sura Sad.^[148] Thus, according to this tradition, Umar thereby reconsecrated the site as a mosque.^[149]

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.^[150][151] After the construction, Muslims believe, the temple was used for the worship of the one God by many prophets of Islam, including Jesus.^{[152][153][154]} Other Muslim scholars have used the Torah (called Tawrat in Arabic) to expand on the details of the temple.^[155] 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.^{[156][157][158]} 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."^[36]

Isra and Mi'raj

According to the Qur'an, Muhammad was transported to a site named Al-Aqsa Mosque – "the furthest place of prayer" (al-Masjid al-'Aqṣā) during his Night Journey (Isra and Mi'raj).^[159] The Qur'an describes how Muhammad was taken by the miraculous steed Buraq from the Great Mosque of Mecca to al-Aqsa Mosque where he prayed.^{[160][159][161]} After Muhammad finished his prayers, the angel Jibril (Gabriel) traveled with him to heaven, where he met several other prophets and led them in prayer:^{[162][163][164]}

Glory be to the One Who took His servant ˹Muḥammad˺ by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque whose surroundings We have blessed, so that We may show him some of Our signs. Indeed, He alone is the All-Hearing, All-Seeing.

— Surah Al-Isra 17:1

The Qur'an does not mention the exact location of "the furthest place of prayer", and the city of Jerusalem is not mentioned by any of its names in the Qur'an.^[165][151] According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the phrase was originally understood as a reference to a site in the heavens.^[166] A group of Islamic scholars understood the story of Muhammad's ascension from al-Aqsa Mosque as relating to the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Another group disagreed with this identification and preferred the meaning of the term as referring to heaven.^[167] Al-Bukhari and Al-Tabari, for example, are believed to have rejected the identification with Jerusalem.^[166][168] Eventually, a consensus emerged around the identification of the "furthest place of prayer" with Jerusalem, and by implication the Temple Mount.^[167][169] Later hadiths referred to Jerusalem as the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque:^[170]

Narrated Jabir bin `Abdullah:
That he heard Allah's Messenger saying, "When the people of Quraish did not believe me (i.e. the story of my Night Journey), I stood up in Al-Hijr and Allah displayed Jerusalem in front of me, and I began describing it to them while I was looking at it."

— Sahih al-Bukhari 3886

A depiction of Muhammad's ascent to heaven by Sultan Mohammed

Some scholars point to the political motives of the Umayyad dynasty which led to the sanctification of Jerusalem in Islam. According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the Night Journey was associated with Jerusalem by the Umayyads as a political means to advance the glory of Jerusalem to compete with the glory of the sanctuary in Mecca then controlled by Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr.^[166][171] The construction of the Dome of the Rock was interpreted by Ya'qubi, a 9th-century Abbasid historian, as an Umayyad attempt to redirect the Hajj from Mecca to Jerusalem by creating a rival to the Ka'aba.^[172]

Other academics attribute the holiness of Jerusalem to the rise and expansion of a certain type of literary genre, known as al-Fadhail or history of cities. The Fadhail of Jerusalem inspired Muslims, especially during the Umayyad period, to embellish the sanctity of the city beyond its status in the holy texts.^[173] Based on the writings of the eighth century historians Al-Waqidi^[174] and al-Azraqi, some scholars have suggested that al-Aqsa Mosque mentioned in the Qur'an is not in Jerusalem but in the village of al-Ju'ranah, 18 miles northeast of Mecca.^{[168][175][176]}

Later medieval scripts, as well as modern-day political tracts, tend to classify al-Aqsa Mosque as the third holiest site in Islam.^[177]

First qibla

Al-Aqsa Mosque in 2019

The historical significance of al-Aqsa Mosque in Islam is further emphasized by the fact that Muslims turned towards al-Aqsa when they prayed for a period of 16 or 17 months after migration to Medina in 624; it thus became the qibla ("direction") that Muslims faced for prayer.^[178] Muhammad later prayed towards the Kaaba in Mecca after receiving a revelation during a prayer session^[179][180] in the Masjid al-Qiblatayn.^[181][182] The qibla was relocated to the Kaaba where Muslims have been directed to pray ever since.^[183]

Religious status

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation refers to al-Aqsa Mosque as the third holiest site in Islam (and calls for Arab sovereignty over it).^[184]

History

Main article: Archaeological remnants of the Jerusalem Temple

Pre-Israelite

The hill is believed to have been inhabited since the 4th millennium BCE.^{[citation needed]} An amulet bearing the cartouche of Thutmose III (r. 1479–1425 BCE) was discovered by the Temple Mount Sifting Project at the site in 2012.^[185]

Israelite period

Main article: First Temple

According to archeologists, the Temple Mount served as the center of the religious life of biblical Jerusalem as well as the royal acropolis of the Kingdom of Judah.^[186] The First Temple is believed to have once been a part of a much larger royal complex.^[187] The Bible also mentions several other buildings constructed by Solomon at the site, including the royal palace, the "House of the Lebanon Forest", the "Hall of Pillars", the "Hall of Throne" and the "House of Pharaoh's Daughter".^[41][188] Some scholars believe that, in accordance with biblical accounts, the royal and religious compound on the Temple Mount was built by Solomon during the 10th century BCE as a separate entity, which was later incorporated into the city.^[186] Knauf argued that the Temple Mount already served as the cultic and governmental center of Jerusalem as early as in the Late Bronze Age.^[189] Alternatively, Na'aman suggested that Solomon built the Temple on a much smaller scale than the one described in the Bible, which was enlarged or rebuilt during the 8th century BCE.^[190] In 2014, Finkelstein, Koch and Lipschits proposed that the tell of ancient Jerusalem lies beneath the modern-day compound, rather than the nearby archeological site known as the City of David, as mainstream archaeology believes;^[191] however, this proposal was rejected by other scholars of the subject.^[192]

The Immer Bulla (7th–6th century BCE), written in the Paleo-Hebrew script, was discovered during the Temple Mount Sifting Project. It bears the name Immer, recorded in the Bible as the name of a major office holder in Solomon's Temple.

All scholars agree that the Iron Age Temple Mount was smaller than the Herodian compound still visible today. Some scholars, such as Kenyon and Ritmeyer, argued that the walls of the First Temple compound extended eastward as far as the Eastern Wall.^[186][187] Ritmeyer identifies specific courses of visible ashlars located to the north and south of the Golden Gate as Judean Iron Age in style, dating them to the construction of this wall by Hezekiah. More such stones are supposed to survive underground.^[193][194] Ritmeyer has also suggested that one of the steps leading to the Dome of the Rock is actually the top of a remaining stone course of the western wall of the Iron Age compound.^[195][196]

Remains of a wall in the northwest part of the elevated platform; Ritmeyer suggested that it is the top of a remaining stone course of the western wall of the Iron Age compound.

The First Temple was destroyed in 587/586 BCE by the Neo-Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar II.

Persian, Hellenistic and Hasmonean periods

Main article: Second Temple

Construction of the Second Temple began under Cyrus in around 538 BCE and was completed in 516 BCE. It was built at the original site of Solomon's Temple.^[197][41]

According to Patrich and Edelcopp, the ideal area of the complex, described in Ezekiel as 50x50 cubits, was attained by the Hasmoneans, perhaps under John Hyrcanus; this is the same size later mentioned by the Mishnah.^[41]

Evidence of a Hasmonean expansion of the Temple Mount has been recovered by archaeologist Leen Ritmeyer.

In 67 BCE a quarrel broke out between Aristobulus II and Hyrcanus II on the Hasmonean throne. Roman general Pompey, who had been invited to intervene in the conflict, sided with Hyrcanus; Aristobulus and his followers barricaded themselves inside the Temple Mount and destroyed the bridge linking it to the city. When the Roman Army arrived in Jerusalem, Pompey ordered the moat defending the Temple Mount from the north to be filled in. To accomplish this, Pompey waited for Sabbaths, so the defenders would not disrupt the work. After a three-month siege, the Romans were able to topple one of the guard towers and storm the Temple Mount. Pompey himself entered the Holy of Holies, but did not harm the Temple, and allowed the priests to continue their work as usual.^{[198][199][200]}

Herodian and early Roman periods

Main articles: Second Temple § Herod's Temple, and Archaeological remnants of the Jerusalem Temple

Around 19 BCE, Herod the Great further expanded the Temple Mount and rebuilt the temple. The ambitious project, which involved the employment of 10,000 workers,^[201] more than doubled the size of the Temple Mount to approximately 36 acres (150,000 m²). Herod leveled the area by cutting away rock on the northwest side and raising the sloping ground to the south. He achieved this by constructing huge buttress walls and vaults and filling the necessary sections with earth and rubble.^[202] The result was the largest temenos in the ancient world.^[203]

The main entrances to the Herodian Temple Mount were two sets of gates built into the southern wall, together with four other gates reachable from the western side by stairs and bridges. Grand stoas encircled the platform on three sides, and on its southern side stood a magnificent basilica Josephus referred to as the Royal Stoa.^[203] The Royal Stoa served as a center for the city's commercial and legal transactions, and was provided with separate access to the city below via the Robinson's Arch overpass.^[204] The Temple itself and its courts were located on an elevated platform in the middle of the larger compound. In addition to the restoration of the Temple, its courtyards and porticoes, Herod also built the Antonia Fortress, which dominated the northwestern corner of the Temple Mount, and a rainwater reservoir, Birket Israel, in the northeast. A monumental street, today referred to as the "Stepped Street", took pilgrims from the city's southern gate via the Tyropoeon Valley to the western side of the Temple Mount. It has been proposed in 2019 that Pontius Pilate constructed the road during the 30s.^[205]

During the early phases of the First Jewish-Roman War (66–70 CE), the Temple Mount became a center of fighting for various Jewish factions struggling for control of the city, with different factions holding the area during the conflict. In April 70, the Roman army under Titus reached Jerusalem and began besieging the city. It took the Romans four months to defeat the Temple Mount's defenders and take the site. The Romans completely destroyed the Temple and all the other structures on the platform.^[206] Massive stone collapses from the upper walls were discovered laying over the Herodian street that runs along the southern part of the Western Wall,^[207] with some of the stones burned at temperatures reaching 800 °C (1472 °F).^[208] The Trumpeting Place inscription, a monumental Hebrew inscription which was thrown down by Roman legionnaires, was found in one of these stone piles.^[209]

Stone piles (along the western wall, near the southern end) from the walls of the Temple Mount

The Trumpeting Place inscription, a stone (2.43x1 m) with Hebrew inscription לבית התקיעה להב "To the Trumpeting Place" excavated by Benjamin Mazar at the southern foot of the Temple Mount is believed to be a part of the Second Temple.

Middle Roman period

The city of Aelia Capitolina was built in 130 CE by the Roman emperor Hadrian and occupied by a Roman colony on the site of Jerusalem, which was still in ruins from the First Jewish Revolt in 70 CE. Aelia came from Hadrian's nomen gentile, Aelius, while Capitolina meant that the new city was dedicated to Jupiter Capitolinus, to whom a temple was built overlapping the site of the former second Jewish temple, the Temple Mount.^[210]

Hadrian had intended the construction of the new city as a gift to the Jews, but since he had constructed a giant statue of himself in front of the Temple of Jupiter and the Temple of Jupiter had a huge statue of Jupiter inside it, there were on the Temple Mount now two enormous graven images, which Jews considered idolatrous. It was also customary in Roman rites to sacrifice a pig in land purification ceremonies.^[211] After the Third Jewish Revolt, all Jews were forbidden on pain of death from entering the city or the surrounding territory around the city.^[212]

Late Roman period

Roman centaur relief (135–325 CE) reused as a floor panel in the al-Aqsa Mosque, was found during restoration work in the 1930s.

From the first through the seventh centuries Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, gradually became the predominant religion of Palestine and under the Byzantines Jerusalem itself was almost completely Christian, with most of the population being Jacobite Christians of the Syrian rite.^[134][137]

Emperor Constantine I promoted the Christianization of Roman society, giving it precedence over pagan cults.^[213] One consequence was that Hadrian's Temple to Jupiter on the Temple Mount was demolished immediately following the First Council of Nicea in 325 CE on orders of Constantine.^[214]

The Bordeaux Pilgrim, who visited Jerusalem in 333–334, during the reign of Emperor Constantine I, wrote that "There are two statues of Hadrian, and, not far from them, a pierced stone to which the Jews come every year and anoint. They mourn and rend their garments, and then depart."^[215] The occasion is assumed to have been Tisha b'Av, since decades later Jerome related that that was the only day on which Jews were permitted to enter Jerusalem.^[216]

Constantine's nephew Emperor Julian granted permission in the year 363 for the Jews to rebuild the Temple.^[216][217] In a letter attributed to Julian he wrote to the Jews that "This you ought to do, in order that, when I have successfully concluded the war in Persia, I may rebuild by my own efforts the sacred city of Jerusalem, which for so many years you have longed to see inhabited, and may bring settlers there, and, together with you, may glorify the Most High God therein."^[216] Julian saw the Jewish God as a fitting member of the pantheon of gods he believed in, and he was also a strong opponent of Christianity.^[216][218] Church historians wrote that the Jews began to clear away the structures and rubble on the Temple Mount but were thwarted, first by a great earthquake, and then by miracles that included fire springing from the earth.^[219] However, no contemporary Jewish sources mention this episode directly.^[216]

Byzantine period

During his excavations in the 1930s, Robert Hamilton uncovered portions of a multicolor mosaic floor with geometric patterns inside al-Aqsa mosque, but did not publish them.^[220] The date of the mosaic is disputed: Zachi Dvira considers that they are from the pre-Islamic Byzantine period, while Baruch, Reich and Sandhaus favor a much later Umayyad origin on account of their similarity to a known Umayyad mosaic.^[220]

Sassanid period

See also: Jewish revolt against Heraclius and Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628

In 610, the Sassanid Empire drove the Byzantine Empire out of the Middle East, giving the Jews control of Jerusalem for the first time in centuries. The Jews in Palestine were allowed to set up a vassal state under the Sassanid Empire called the Sassanid Jewish Commonwealth which lasted for five years. Jewish rabbis ordered the restart of animal sacrifice for the first time since the time of Second Temple and started to reconstruct the Jewish Temple. Shortly before the Byzantines took the area back five years later in 615, the Persians gave control to the Christian population, who tore down the partially built Jewish Temple edifice and turned it into a garbage dump,^[221] which is what it was when the Rashidun Caliph Umar took the city in 637.

Early Muslim period

The Southwest qanatir (arches) of the Haram al Sharif; Qubat al-Nahawiyya is also partially visible to the right.

In 637, Arabs besieged and captured the city from the Byzantine Empire, which had defeated the Persian forces and their allies, and reconquered the city. There are no contemporary records, but many traditions, about the origin of the main Islamic buildings on the mount.^[222][223] A popular account from later centuries is that the Rashidun Caliph Umar was led to the place reluctantly by the Christian patriarch Sophronius.^[224] He found it covered with rubbish, but the sacred Rock was found with the help of a converted Jew, Ka'b al-Ahbar.^[224] Al-Ahbar advised Umar to build a mosque to the north of the rock, so that worshippers would face both the rock and Mecca, but instead Umar chose to build it to the south of the rock.^[224] It became known as al-Aqsa Mosque. According to Muslim sources, Jews participated in the construction of the haram, laying the groundwork for both al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock mosques.^[225] The first known eyewitness testimony is that of the pilgrim Arculf who visited about 670. According to Arculf's account as recorded by Adomnán, he saw a rectangular wooden house of prayer built over some ruins, large enough to hold 3,000 people.^[222][226]

In 691, an octagonal Islamic building topped by a dome was built by the Caliph Abd al-Malik around the rock, for a myriad of political, dynastic and religious reasons, built on local and Quranic traditions articulating the site's holiness, a process in which textual and architectural narratives reinforced one another.^[227] The shrine became known as the Dome of the Rock (قبة الصخرة, Qubbat as-Sakhra). (The dome itself was covered in gold in 1920.) In 715, the Umayyads, led by the Caliph al-Walid I, built al-Aqsa Mosque (المسجد الأقصى, al-Masjid al-'Aqṣā, lit. "Furthest Mosque"), corresponding to the Islamic belief of Muhammad's miraculous nocturnal journey as recounted in the Quran and hadith. The term "Noble Sanctuary" or "Haram al-Sharif", as it was called later by the Mamluks and Ottomans, refers to the entirer area that surrounds that Rock.^[228]

Crusader and Ayyubid period

Baldwin II of Jerusalem, assigning the captured Al-Aqsa Mosque to Hugues de Payens and Godfrey

The Crusader period began in 1099 with the First Crusade's capture of Jerusalem. After the city's conquest, the Crusading order known as the Knights Templar was granted use of Al-Aqsa Mosque to use as their headquarters. This was probably by Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Warmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem at the Council of Nablus in January 1120.^[229] The Temple Mount had a mystique because it was above what were believed to be the ruins of the Temple of Solomon.^[230][231] The Crusaders therefore referred to al-Aqsa Mosque as Solomon's Temple, and it was from this location that the new Order took the name of "Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon", or "Templar" knights.

In 1187, once he retook Jerusalem, Saladin removed all traces of Christian worship from the Temple Mount, returning the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque to their Muslim purposes. It remained in Muslim hands thereafter, even during the relatively short periods of Crusader rule following the Sixth Crusade.

Mamluk period

There are several Mamluk buildings on and around the Haram esplanade, such as the late 15th-century al-Ashrafiyya Madrasa and Sabil (fountain) of Qaytbay. The Mamluks also raised the level of Jerusalem's Central or Tyropoean Valley bordering the Temple Mount from the west by constructing huge substructures, on which they then built on a large scale. The Mamluk-period substructures and over-ground buildings are thus covering much of the Herodian western wall of the Temple Mount.

Ottoman period

Following the Ottoman conquest of Palestine in 1516, the Ottoman authorities continued the policy of prohibiting non-Muslims from setting foot on the Temple Mount until the early 19th century, when non-Muslims were again permitted to visit the site.^{[232][better source needed]}

Temple Mount, photographed by Francis Bedford, 1862

In 1867, a team from the Royal Engineers, led by Lieutenant Charles Warren and financed by the Palestine Exploration Fund (P.E.F.), discovered a series of tunnels near the Temple Mount. Warren secretly^{[citation needed]} excavated some tunnels near the Temple Mount walls and was the first one to document their lower courses. Warren also conducted some small-scale excavations inside the Temple Mount, by removing rubble that blocked passages leading from the Double Gate chamber.

British Mandatory period

Main article: 1929 Palestine riots

Between 1922 and 1924, the Dome of the Rock was restored by the Islamic Higher Council.^[233] The Zionist movement at the time was strongly opposed to any notion that the Temple itself might be rebuilt. Indeed, its armed wing, the Haganah militia, assassinated a Jewish man when his plan to blow up the Islamic sites on the Haram came to their attention in 1931.^[234] Renovations were also conducted at the Al-Aqsa Mosque from 1938–1942, following an earthquake in the summer of 1937.^[235]

Jordanian period

King Hussein flying over the Temple Mount while it was under Jordanian control, 1965

Jordan undertook two renovations of the Dome of the Rock, replacing the leaking, wooden inner dome with an aluminum dome in 1952, and, when the new dome leaked, carrying out a second restoration between 1959 and 1964.^[233]

Neither Israeli Arabs nor Israeli Jews could visit their holy places in the Jordanian territories during this period.^[236][237]

Israeli period

Israeli paratroopers entering the Temple Mount through the Lions Gate in 1967

On 7 June 1967, during the Six-Day War, Israeli forces advanced beyond the 1949 Armistice Agreement Line into West Bank territories, taking control of the Old City of Jerusalem, inclusive of the Temple Mount.

The Chief Rabbi of the Israeli Defense Forces, Shlomo Goren, led the soldiers in religious celebrations on the Temple Mount and at the Western Wall. The Israeli Chief Rabbinate also declared a religious holiday on the anniversary, called "Yom Yerushalayim" (Jerusalem Day), which became a national holiday to commemorate the reunification of Jerusalem. Many saw the capture of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount as a miraculous liberation of biblical-messianic proportions.^[238] A few days after the war over 200,000 Jews flocked to the Western Wall in the first mass Jewish pilgrimage near the Mount since the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Islamic authorities did not disturb Goren when he went to pray on the Mount until, on the Ninth Day of Av, he brought 50 followers and introduced both a shofar, and a portable ark to pray, an innovation which alarmed the Waqf authorities and led to a deterioration of relations between the Muslim authorities and the Israeli government.^[239]

In June 1969, an Australian set fire to the Jami'a al-Aqsa. On April 11, 1982, a Jew hid in the Dome of the Rock and sprayed gunfire, killing 2 Palestinians and wounding 44; in 1974, 1977 and 1983 groups led by Yoel Lerner conspired to blow up both the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa. On 26 January 1984 Waqf guards detected members of B'nei Yehuda, a messianic cult of former gangsters turned mystics based in Lifta, trying to infiltrate the area to blow it up.^{[240][241][242]}

On 15 January 1988, during the First Intifada, Israeli troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters outside the mosque, wounding 40 worshipers.^[243][244]

On October 8, 1990, Israeli forces patrolling the site blocked worshippers from reaching it. A tear gas canister was set off among the female worshippers, which caused events to escalate. On 12 October 1990 Palestinian Muslims protested violently the intention of some extremist Jews to lay a cornerstone on the site for a New Temple as a prelude to the destruction of the Muslim mosques. The attempt was blocked by Israeli authorities but demonstrators were widely reported as having stoned Jews at the Western Wall.^[240][245] According to Palestinian historian Rashid Khalidi, investigative journalism has shown this allegation to be false.^[246] Rocks were eventually thrown, while security forces fired rounds that killed 21 people and injuring 150 more.^[240] An Israeli inquiry found Israeli forces at fault, but it also concluded that charges could not be brought against any particular individuals.^[247]

On 8 October 1990, 22 Palestinians were killed and over 100 others injured by Israeli Border Police during protests that were triggered by the announcement of the Temple Mount Faithful, a group of religious Jews, that they were going to lay the cornerstone of the Third Temple.^[248][249] Between 1992 and 1994, the Jordanian government undertook the unprecedented step of gilding the dome of the Dome of the Rock, covering it with 5000 gold plates, and restoring and reinforcing the structure. Saladin's minbar was also reconstructed. The project was paid for by King Hussein personally, at a cost of $8 million.^[233] The Temple Mount remains, under the terms of the 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty, under Jordanian custodianship.^[250] In December 1997, Israeli security services preempted an attempt by Jewish extremists to throw a pig's head wrapped in the pages of the Quran into the area, in order to spark a riot and embarrass the government.^[240]

On 28 September 2000, then-opposition leader of Israel Ariel Sharon and members of the Likud Party, along with 1,000 armed guards, visited the al-Aqsa compound. The visit was seen as a provocative gesture by many Palestinians, who gathered around the site. After Sharon and the Likud Party members left, a demonstration erupted and Palestinians on the grounds of the Haram al-Sharif began throwing stones and other projectiles at Israeli riot police. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowd, injuring 24 people. The visit sparked a five-year uprising by the Palestinians, commonly referred to as the al-Aqsa Intifada, though some commentators, citing subsequent speeches by Palestinian Authority officials, particularly Imad Falouji and Yasar Arafat, claim that the Intifada had been planned months in advance, as early as July upon Arafat's return from Camp David talks in the United States.^{[251][252][253]} On 29 September, the Israeli government deployed 2,000 riot police to the mosque. When a group of Palestinians left the mosque after Friday prayers (Jumu'ah,) they hurled stones at the police. The police then stormed the mosque compound, firing both live ammunition and rubber bullets at the group of Palestinians, killing four and wounding about 200.^[254]

On 3 January 2023, Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, sparking protests by Palestinians and the condemnation of several Arab countries.^[255]

Status quo

Under Muslim control

Jews were not allowed to visit for approximately one thousand years.^[when?][256]

British Mandate

In the first ten years of British rule in Palestine, all were allowed entry to the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif complex. Sometimes violence broke out at the entrance between Jews and Muslims. During the 1929 Palestine riots, Jews were accused of violating the status quo.^[257][258] Following the riots, the Supreme Muslim Council and the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf prohibited Jews from entering the site's gates. During the mandate period, Jewish leaders celebrated ancient religious practices at the Western Wall. The ban on visitors continued until 1948^[259]

Jordanian control

Although the 1949 Armistice Agreement called for "resumption of the normal functioning of the cultural and humanitarian institutions on Mount Scopus and free access thereto; free access to the Holy Places and cultural institutions and use of the cemetery on the Mount of Olives", in practice, wire and concrete barriers were the reality. Cultural and religious sites in both sides of the city were destroyed and neglected and the Jewish community barred from its sacred places.^[260]

Under Israeli control

A few days after the Six-Day War, on June 17, 1967, a meeting was held at the al-Aqsa mosque between Moshe Dayan and Muslim religious authorities of Jerusalem reformulating the status quo.^[261] Jews were given the right to visit the Temple Mount unobstructed and free of charge if they respected Muslims' religious feelings and acted decently, but they were not allowed to pray. The Western Wall was to remain the Jewish place of prayer. 'Religious sovereignty' was to remain with the Muslims while 'overall sovereignty' became Israeli.^[239] The Muslims objected to Dayan's offer, as they completely rejected the Israeli conquest of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Some Jews, led by Shlomo Goren, then the military chief rabbi, had objected as well, claiming the decision handed over the complex to the Muslims, since the Western Wall's holiness is derived from the Mount and symbolizes exile, while praying on the Mount symbolizes freedom and the return of the Jewish people to their homeland.^[261] The President of the High Court of Justice, Aharon Barak, in response to an appeal in 1976 against police interference with an individual's putative right to prayer on the site, expressed the view that, while Jews had a right to prayer there, it was not absolute but subject to the public interest and the rights of other groups. Israel's courts have considered the issue as one beyond their remit, and, given the delicacy of the matter, under political jurisdiction.^[261] Barak wrote:

The basic principle is that every Jew has the right to enter the Temple Mount, to pray there, and to have communion with his maker. This is part of the religious freedom of worship, it is part of the freedom of expression. However, as with every human right, it is not absolute, but a relative right... Indeed, in a case where there is near certainty that injury may be caused to the public interest if a person's rights of religious worship and freedom of expression would be realized, it is possible to limit the rights of the person in order to uphold the public interest.^[239]

Police continued to forbid Jews to pray on the Temple Mount.^[261] Subsequently, several prime ministers also made attempts to change the status quo but failed. In October 1986, an agreement between the Temple Mount Faithful, the Supreme Muslim Council and police, which would allow short visits in small groups, was exercised once and never repeated, after 2,000 Muslims armed with stones and bottles attacked the group and stoned worshipers at the Western Wall. During the 1990s, additional attempts were made for Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, which were stopped by Israeli police.^[261]

Until 2000, non-Muslim visitors could enter the Dome of the Rock, al-Aqsa Mosque and the Islamic Museum by getting a ticket from the Waqf. This procedure ended when the Second Intifada erupted. Fifteen years later, negotiation between Israel and Jordan might result^{[needs update]} in reopening of those sites once again.^[262]

In the 2010s, fear arose among Palestinians that Israel planned to change the status quo and permit Jewish prayers or that al-Aqsa mosque might be damaged or destroyed by Israel. Al-Aqsa was used as a base for attacks on visitors and the police from which stones, firebombs and fireworks were thrown. The Israeli police had never entered al-Aqsa Mosque until November 5, 2014, when dialog with the leaders of the Waqf and the rioters failed. This resulted in imposing strict limitations on entry of visitors to the Temple Mount. Israeli leadership repeatedly stated that the status quo would not change.^[263] According to then Jerusalem police commissioner Yohanan Danino, the place is at the center of a "holy war" and "anyone who wants to change the status quo on the Temple Mount should not be allowed up there", citing an "extreme right-wing agenda to change the status quo on the Temple Mount"; Hamas and Islamic Jihad continued to erroneously assert that the Israeli government planned to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque, resulting in chronic terrorist attacks and rioting.^[264]

There have been several changes to the status quo:

1. Jewish visits are often prevented or considerably restricted.
2. Jews and other non-Islamic visitors can only visit from Sunday to Thursday, for four hours each day.
3. Visits inside the mosques are not allowed.
4. Jews with religious appearance must visit in groups monitored by Waqf guards and policemen.^[263]

Many Palestinians believe the status quo is threatened since right-wing Israelis have been challenging it with more force and frequency, asserting a religious right to pray there. Until Israel banned them, members of Murabitat, a group of women, cried 'Allah Akbar' at groups of Jewish visitors to remind them the Temple Mount was still in Muslim hands.^[265][266] In October 2021, a Jewish man, Aryeh Lippo, who was banned by Israeli police from the Temple Mount for fifteen days after being caught quietly praying, had his ban overturned by an Israeli court on the grounds that his behavior had not violated police instructions.^[267] Hamas called the ruling "a clear declaration of war".^[268] A higher Israel court quickly reversed the lower court's ruling.^[269]

Management and access

See also: Temple Mount entry restrictions

A security gate guarding the entrance to the site

An Islamic Waqf has managed the Temple Mount continuously since the Muslim reconquest of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1187. On June 7, 1967, soon after Israel had taken control of the area during the Six-Day War, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol assured that "no harm whatsoever shall come to the places sacred to all religions". Together with the extension of Israeli jurisdiction and administration over east Jerusalem, the Knesset passed the Preservation of the Holy Places Law,^[270] ensuring protection of the Holy Places against desecration, as well as freedom of access thereto.^[271] The site remains within the area controlled by the State of Israel, with administration of the site remaining in the hands of the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf.

Although freedom of access was enshrined in the law, as a security measure, the Israeli government now enforces a ban on non-Muslim prayer on the site. Non-Muslims who are observed praying on the site are subject to expulsion by the police.^[272] At various times, when there is fear of Arab rioting upon the mount resulting in throwing stones from above towards the Western Wall Plaza, Israel has prevented Muslim men under 45 from praying in the compound, citing these concerns.^[273] Sometimes such restrictions have coincided with Friday prayers during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.^[274] Normally, West Bank Palestinians are allowed access to Jerusalem only during Islamic holidays, with access usually restricted to men over 35 and women of any age eligible for permits to enter the city.^[275] Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, which because of Israel's annexation of Jerusalem, hold Israeli permanent residency cards, and Israeli Arabs, are permitted unrestricted access to the Temple Mount.^{[citation needed]} The Mughrabi Gate is the only entrance to the Temple Mount accessible to non-Muslims.^{[276][277][278]}

Jewish attitudes towards entering the site

Sign in Hebrew and English outside the Temple Mount stating that "According to the Torah, it is forbidden for any person to enter the area of the Temple Mount due to its sacredness"

Due to religious restrictions on entering the most sacred areas of the Temple Mount (see following section), the Western Wall, a retaining wall for the Temple Mount and remnant of the Second Temple structure, is considered by some rabbinical authorities to be the holiest accessible site for Jews to pray. A 2013 Knesset committee hearing considered allowing Jews to pray at the site, amidst heated debate. Arab-Israeli MPs were ejected for disrupting the hearing, after shouting at the chairman, calling her a "pyromaniac". Religious Affairs Minister Eli Ben-Dahan of Jewish Home said his ministry was seeking legal ways to enable Jews to pray at the site.^[279]

Jewish religious law concerning entry to the site

Main article: Temple Warning inscription

During Temple times, entry to the Mount was limited by a complex set of purity laws. Persons suffering from corpse uncleanness were not allowed to enter the inner court.^[280] Non-Jews were also prohibited from entering the inner court of the Temple.^[281] A hewn stone measuring 60 cm × 90 cm (24 in × 35 in) and engraved with Greek uncials was discovered in 1871 near a court on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in which it outlined this prohibition:

ΜΗΟΕΝΑΑΛΛΟΓΕΝΗΕΙΣΠΟ
ΡΕΥΕΣΟΑΙΕΝΤΟΣΤΟΥΠΕ
ΡΙΤΟΙΕΡΟΝΤΡΥΦΑΚΤΟΥΚΑΙ
ΠΕΡΙΒΟΛΟΥΟΣΔΑΝΛΗ
ΦΘΗΕΑΥΤΩΙΑΙΤΙΟΣΕΣ
ΤΑΙΔΙΑΤΟΕΞΑΚΟΛΟΥ
ΘΕΙΝΘΑΝΑΤΟΝ

Translation: "Let no foreigner enter within the parapet and the partition which surrounds the Temple precincts. Anyone caught [violating] will be held accountable for his ensuing death." Today, the stone is preserved in Istanbul's Museum of Antiquities.

Maimonides wrote that it was only permitted to enter the site to fulfill a religious precept. After the destruction of the Temple there was discussion as to whether the site, bereft of the Temple, still maintained its holiness. Jewish codifiers accepted the opinion of Maimonides who ruled that the holiness of the Temple sanctified the site for eternity and consequently the restrictions on entry to the site remain in force.^[232] While secular Jews ascend freely, the question of whether ascending is permitted is a matter of some debate among religious authorities, with a majority holding that it is permitted to ascend to the Temple Mount, but not to step on the site of the inner courtyards of the ancient Temple.^[232] The question then becomes whether the site can be ascertained accurately.^{[232][better source needed]}

There is debate over whether reports that Maimonides himself ascended the Mount are reliable.^[282] One such report^{[citation needed]} claims that he did so on Thursday, October 21, 1165, during the Crusader period. Some early scholars however, claim that entry onto certain areas of the Mount is permitted. It appears that Radbaz also entered the Mount and advised others how to do this. He permits entry from all the gates into the 135 x 135 cubits of the Women's Courtyard in the east, since the biblical prohibition only applies to the 187 x 135 cubits of the Temple in the west.^[283] There are also Christian and Islamic sources which indicate that Jews visited the site,^[284] but these visits may have been made under duress.^[285]

Opinions of contemporary rabbis concerning entry to the site

Haredi Jews visiting the Temple Mount during Passover

A few hours after the Temple Mount came under Israeli control during the Six-Day War, a message from the Chief Rabbis of Israel, Isser Yehuda Unterman and Yitzhak Nissim was broadcast, warning that Jews were not permitted to enter the site.^[286] This warning was reiterated by the Council of the Chief Rabbinate a few days later, which issued an explanation written by Rabbi Bezalel Jolti (Zolti) that "Since the sanctity of the site has never ended, it is forbidden to enter the Temple Mount until the Temple is built."^[286] The signatures of more than 300 prominent rabbis were later obtained.^[287]

A major critic of the decision of the Chief Rabbinate was Rabbi Shlomo Goren, the chief rabbi of the IDF.^[286] According to General Uzi Narkiss, who led the Israeli force that conquered the Temple Mount, Goren proposed to him that the Dome of the Rock be immediately blown up.^[287] After Narkiss refused, Goren unsuccessfully petitioned the government to close off the Mount to Jews and non-Jews alike.^[287] Later he established his office on the Mount and conducted a series of demonstrations on the Mount in support of the right of Jewish men to enter there.^[286] His behavior displeased the government, which restricted his public actions, censored his writings, and in August prevented him from attending the annual Oral Law Conference at which the question of access to the Mount was debated.^[288] Although there was considerable opposition, the conference consensus was to confirm the ban on entry to Jews.^[288] The ruling said "We have been warned, since time immemorial [lit. 'for generations and generations'], against entering the entire area of the Temple Mount and have indeed avoided doing so."^[287][288] According to Ron Hassner, the ruling "brilliantly" solved the government's problem of avoiding ethnic conflict, since those Jews who most respected rabbinical authority were those most likely to clash with Muslims on the Mount.^[288]

Rabbinical consensus in the post-1967 period, held that it is forbidden for Jews to enter any part of the Temple Mount,^[289] and in January 2005, a declaration was signed confirming the 1967 decision.^[290]

Most Haredi rabbis are of the opinion that the Mount is off limits to Jews and non-Jews alike.^[291] Their opinions against entering the Temple Mount are based on the current political climate surrounding the Mount,^[292] along with the potential danger of entering the hallowed area of the Temple courtyard and the impossibility of fulfilling the ritual requirement of cleansing oneself with the ashes of a red heifer.^[293][294] The boundaries of the areas which are completely forbidden, while having large portions in common, are delineated differently by various rabbinic authorities.

However, there is a growing body of Modern Orthodox and national religious rabbis who encourage visits to certain parts of the Mount, which they believe are permitted according to most medieval rabbinical authorities.^{[232][better source needed]} These rabbis include: Shlomo Goren (former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel); Chaim David Halevi (former Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv and Yafo); Dov Lior (Rabbi of Kiryat Arba); Yosef Elboim; Yisrael Ariel; She'ar Yashuv Cohen (Chief Rabbi of Haifa); Yuval Sherlo (rosh yeshiva of the hesder yeshiva of Petah Tikva); Meir Kahane. One of them, Shlomo Goren, held that it is possible that Jews are even allowed to enter the heart of the Dome of the Rock in time of war, according to Jewish Law of Conquest.^[295] These authorities demand an attitude of veneration on the part of Jews ascending the Temple Mount, ablution in a mikveh prior to the ascent, and the wearing of non-leather shoes.^{[232][better source needed]} Some rabbinic authorities are now of the opinion that it is imperative for Jews to ascend in order to halt the ongoing process of Islamization of the Temple Mount. Maimonides, perhaps the greatest codifier of Jewish Law, wrote in Laws of the Chosen House ch 7 Law 15 "One may bring a dead body in to the (lower sanctified areas of the) Temple Mount and there is no need to say that the ritually impure (from the dead) may enter there, because the dead body itself can enter". One who is ritually impure through direct or in-direct contact of the dead cannot walk in the higher sanctified areas. For those who are visibly Jewish, they have no choice, but to follow a peripheral route^[296] as it has become unofficially part of the status quo on the Mount. Many of these recent opinions rely on archaeological evidence.^{[232][better source needed]}

In December 2013, the two Chief Rabbis of Israel, David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef, reiterated the ban on Jews entering the Temple Mount.^[297] They wrote, "In light of [those] neglecting [this ruling], we once again warn that nothing has changed and this strict prohibition remains in effect for the entire area [of the Temple Mount]".^[297] In November 2014, the Sephardic chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef reiterated the point of view held by many rabbinic authorities that Jews should not visit the Mount.^[250]

On the occasion of an upsurge in Palestinian knifing attacks on Israelis, associated with fears that Israel was changing the status quo on the Mount, the Haredi newspaper Mishpacha ran a notification in Arabic asking, 'their cousins', Palestinians, to stop trying to murder members of their congregation, since they were vehemently opposed to ascending the Mount and consider such visits proscribed by Jewish law.^[298]

Features

Courtyard

The large courtyard (sahn)^[25] can host more than 400,000 worshippers, making it one of the largest mosques in the world.^[23]

Upper platform

The upper platform surrounds the Dome of the Rock, beneath which lies the Well of Souls, originally accessible only by a narrow hole in the Sakhrah, the foundation stone on which the Dome of the Rock site and after which it is named, until the Crusaders dug a new entrance to the cave from the south.^[299] The platform is accessible via eight staircases, each of which is topped by a free-standing arcade known in Arabic as the qanatir or mawazin. The arcades were erected in different periods from the 10th to 15th centuries.^[300]

There is also a smaller domed building on the upper platform, to the east of the Dome of the Rock, known as the Dome of the Chain (Qubbat al-Sisila in Arabic).^[301][302] Its exact origin and purpose is uncertain but historical sources indicate it was built under the reign of Abd al-Malik, the same Umayyad caliph who built the Dome of the Rock.^[303] Two other small domes stand to the northwest of the Dome of the Rock. The Dome of the Ascension (Qubbat al-Miraj in Arabic) has an inscription with a date corresponding to 1201 CE.^[300][304] It may have been a former Crusader structure, possibly a baptistery, that was repurposed at this time,^[304] or it may be a structure that was built after Saladin's capture of the city and reused some Crusader-era materials, including its columns.^[305] Per its name, this dome commemorates the spot where, according to some, Muhammad ascended to heaven.^[306] The Dome of the Spirits or Dome of the Winds (Qubbat al-Arwah in Arabic) stands a little further north and is dated to the 16th century.^[307][300]

Southern edge of the upper platform, with view of the Summer Pulpit (left) and the southern qanatir behind it

In the southwest corner of the upper platform is a quadrangular structure which includes a portion topped by another dome. It is known as the Dome of Literature (Qubba Nahwiyya in Arabic) and dated to 1208.^[300] Standing further east, close to one of the southern entrance arcades, is a stone minbar known as the "Summer Pulpit" or Minbar of Burhan al-Din, used for open-air prayers. It appears to be an older ciborium from the Crusader period, as attested by its sculptural decoration, which was then reused under the Ayyubids. Sometime after 1345, a Mamluk judge named Burhan al-Din (d. 1388) restored it and added a stone staircase, giving it its present form.^[308][309]

Lower platform

The al-Kas ablution fountain for Muslim worshippers on the southern portion of the lower platform

The lower platform – which constitutes most of the surface of the Temple Mount – has at its southern end al-Aqsa Mosque, which takes up most of the width of the Mount. Gardens take up the eastern and most of the northern side of the platform; the far north of the platform houses an Islamic school.^[310]

The lower platform also houses an ablution fountain (known as al-Kas), originally supplied with water via a long narrow aqueduct leading from the so-called Solomon's Pools near Bethlehem, but now supplied from Jerusalem's water mains.

There are several cisterns beneath the lower platform, designed to collect rainwater as a water supply. These have various forms and structures, seemingly built in different periods, ranging from vaulted chambers built in the gap between the bedrock and the platform, to chambers cut into the bedrock itself. Of these, the most notable are (numbering traditionally follows Wilson's scheme^[311]):

• Cistern 1 (located under the northern side of the upper platform). There is a speculation that it had a function connected with the altar of the Second Temple (and possibly of the earlier Temple),^[312] or with the bronze sea.
• Cistern 5 (located under the southeastern corner of the upper platform) – a long and narrow chamber, with a strange anti-clockwise curved section at its northwestern corner and containing within it a doorway currently blocked by earth. The cistern's position and design is such that there has been speculation it had a function connected with the altar of the Second Temple (and possibly of the earlier Temple), or with the bronze sea. Charles Warren thought that the altar of burnt offerings was located at the northwestern end.^[313]
• Cistern 8 (located just north of the al-Aqsa Mosque) – known as the Great Sea, a large rock hewn cavern, the roof supported by pillars carved from the rock; the chamber is particularly cave-like and atmospheric,^[314] and its maximum water capacity is several hundred thousand gallons.
• Cistern 9 (located just south of cistern 8, and directly under the al-Aqsa Mosque) – known as the Well of the Leaf due to its leaf-shaped plan, is also rock hewn.
• Cistern 11 (located east of cistern 9) – a set of vaulted rooms forming a plan shaped like the letter E. Probably the largest cistern, it has the potential to house over 700,000 gallons of water.
• Cistern 16/17 (located at the centre of the far northern end of the Temple Mount). Despite the currently narrow entrances, this cistern (17 and 16 are the same cistern) is a large, vaulted chamber, which Warren described as looking like the inside of the cathedral at Cordoba (which was previously a mosque). Warren believed that it was almost certainly built for some other purpose and was only adapted into a cistern at a later date; he suggested that it might have been part of a general vault supporting the northern side of the platform, in which case substantially more of the chamber exists than is used for a cistern.

Gates

Main article: Gates of the Temple Mount

The eastern set of Hulda gates

Robinson's Arch, situated on the southwestern flank, once supported a staircase that led to the Mount.

Sealed gates

The retaining walls of the platform contain several gateways, all now blocked. In the eastern wall is the Golden Gate, through which legend states the Jewish Messiah would enter Jerusalem. On the southern face are the Hulda Gates – the triple gate (which has three arches) and the double gate (which has two arches and is partly obscured by a Crusader building); these were the entrance and exit (respectively) to the Temple Mount from Ophel (the oldest part of Jerusalem), and the main access to the Mount for ordinary Jews. In the western face, near the southern corner, is the Barclay's Gate – only half visible due to a building (the "house of Abu Sa'ud") on the northern side. Also in the western face, hidden by later construction but visible via the recent Western Wall Tunnels, and only rediscovered by Warren, is Warren's Gate; the function of these western gates is obscure, but many Jews view Warren's Gate as particularly holy, due to its location due west of the Dome of the Rock. The current location of the Dome of the Rock is considered one of the possible locations where the Holy of Holies was placed; numerous alternative opinions exist, based on study and calculations, such as those of Tuvia Sagiv.

Warren was able to investigate the inside of these gates. Warren's Gate and the Golden Gate simply head toward the centre of the Mount, giving access to the surface by steps.^[315] Barclay's Gate is similar, but abruptly turns south as it does so; the reason for this is unknown. The double and triple gates (the Huldah Gates) are more substantial; heading into the Mount for some distance they each finally have steps rising to the surface just north of al-Aqsa Mosque.^[316] The passageway for each is vaulted, and has two aisles (in the case of the triple gate, a third aisle exists for a brief distance beyond the gate); the eastern aisle of the double gates and western aisle of the triple gates reach the surface, the other aisles terminating some way before the steps. Warren believed that one aisle of each original passage was extended when al-Aqsa Mosque blocked the original surface exits.

In the process of investigating Cistern 10, Warren discovered tunnels that lay under the Triple Gate passageway.^[317] These passages lead in erratic directions, some leading beyond the southern edge of the Temple Mount (they are at a depth below the base of the walls); their purpose is unknown – as is whether they predate the Temple Mount – a situation not helped by the fact that apart from Warren's expedition no one else is known to have visited them.

Altogether, there are six major sealed gates and a postern, listed here counterclockwise, dating from either the Roman/Herodian, Byzantine, or Early Muslim periods:

• Bab al-Jana'iz/al-Buraq (Gate of the Funerals/of al-Buraq); eastern wall; a hardly noticeable postern, or maybe an improvised gate, a short distance south of the Golden Gate
• Golden Gate (Bab al-Zahabi); eastern wall (northern third), a double gate:

Bab al-Rahma (Door of Mercy) is the southern opening,

Bab al-Tauba (Door of Repentance) is the northern opening

• Warren's Gate; western wall, now only visible from the Western Wall Tunnel
• Bab an-Nabi (Gate of the Prophet) or Barclay's Gate; western wall, visible from al-Buraq Mosque inside the Haram, and from the Western Wall plaza (women's section) and the adjacent building (the so-called house of Abu Sa'ud)
• Double Gate (Bab al-Thulathe; possibly one of the Huldah Gates); southern wall, underneath al-Aqsa Mosque
• Triple Gate; southern wall, outside Solomon's Stables/Marwani Mosque
• Single Gate; southern wall, outside Solomon's Stables/Marwani Mosque

Open gates of the Haram

Main article: Gates of the Temple Mount

There are now eleven open gates offering access to the Muslim Haram al-Sharif.

• Bab al-Asbat (Gate of the Tribes); north-east corner
• Bab al-Hitta/Huttah (Gate of Remission, Pardon, or Absolution); northern wall
• Bab al-Atim/'Atm/Attim (Gate of Darkness); northern wall
• Bab al-Ghawanima (Gate of Bani Ghanim); north-west corner
• Bab al-Majlis / an-Nazir/Nadhir (Council Gate / Inspector's Gate); western wall (northern third)
• Bab al-Hadid (Iron Gate); western wall (central part)
• Bab al-Qattanin (Gate of the Cotton Merchants); western wall (central part)
• Bab al-Matarah/Mathara (Ablution Gate); western wall (central part)

Two twin gates follow south of the Ablution Gate, the Tranquility Gate and the Gate of the Chain:

• Bab as-Salam / al-Sakina (Tranquility Gate / Gate of the Dwelling), the northern one of the two; western wall (central part)
• Bab as-Silsileh (Gate of the Chain), the southern one of the two; western wall (central part)
• Bab al-Magharbeh/Maghariba (Moroccans' Gate/Gate of the Moors); western wall (southern third); the only entrance for non-Muslims

A twelfth gate still open during Ottoman rule is now closed to the public:

• Bab as-Sarai (Gate of the Seraglio); a small gate to the former residence of the Pasha of Jerusalem; western wall, northern part (between the Bani Ghanim and Council gates).

Solomon's Stables/Marwani Mosque

East of and joined to the triple gate passageway is a large vaulted area, supporting the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount platform – which is substantially above the bedrock at this point – the vaulted chambers here are popularly referred to as Solomon's Stables.^[318] They were used as stables by the Crusaders, but were built by Herod the Great – along with the platform they were built to support.

Northern and western porticos

The complex is bordered on the south and east by the outer walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. On the north and west it is bordered by two long porticos (riwaq), built during the Mamluk period.^[319] A number of other structures were also built along these areas, mainly also from the Mamluk period. On the north side, they include the Isardiyya Madrasa, built before 1345, and the Almalikiyya Madrasa, dated to 1340.^[320] On the west side, they include the Ashrafiyya Madrasa, built by Sultan Qaytbay between 1480 and 1482,^[321] and the adjacent Uthmaniyya Madrasa, dated to 1437.^[322] The Sabil of Qaytbay, contemporary with the Ashrafiyya Madrasa, also stands nearby.^[321]

Minarets

Main article: Minarets of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound

The existing four minarets include three along the western perimeter of the esplanade and one along the northern wall. The earliest dated minaret was constructed on the northwest corner of the Temple Mount in 1298, with three other minarets added over the course of the 14th century.^[323][324]

Archaeology, site alterations

Main article: Excavations at the Temple Mount

See also: Temple Denial, Islamization of the Temple Mount, and Judaization of Jerusalem

Due to the extreme political sensitivity of the site, no real archaeological excavations have ever been conducted on the Temple Mount itself. Protests commonly occur whenever archaeologists conduct projects near the Mount. This sensitivity has not, however, protected both Jewish and Muslim works from accusations of destroying archeological evidence on a number of occasions.^{[325][326][327]} Aside from visual observation of surface features, most other archaeological knowledge of the site comes from the 19th-century survey carried out by Charles Wilson and Charles Warren and others. Since the Waqf is granted almost full autonomy on the Islamic holy sites, Israeli archaeologists have been prevented from inspecting the area, and are restricted to conducting excavations around the Temple Mount.

Southern Wall of Temple Mount, southwestern corner

After the Six-Day War of 1967, Israeli archeologists began a series of excavations near the site at the southern wall that uncovered finds from the Second Temple period through Roman, Umayyad and Crusader times.^[328] Israeli archaeological digs at the southwestern corner of Temple Mount discovered traces of four Muslim palaces built under the Umayyad Caliphate, though the remains have not been well preserved but instead had a museum built upon them. The former UN envoy to Jerusalem, Raymond M. Lemaire, criticised "the construction of a metallic pergola in the middle of the courtyard of one of the Umayyad palaces, which disfigures the site." Upon visiting Jerusalem in September 1999, medieval art historian Léon Pressouyre noted that the palaces had lost their archaeological features due to neglect, "for in the guise of highlighting the remains of previous periods [the Israeli authorities] trivialise the Umayyad palaces, major monuments in the area".^[329]

Over the period 1970–1988, a number of tunnels were excavated in the vicinity, including one that passed to the west of the Mount and became known as the Western Wall Tunnel, which was opened to the public in 1996.^[330][331] The same year the Waqf began construction of a new mosque in the structures known since Crusader times as Solomon's Stables. Many Israelis regarded this as a radical change of the status quo, which should not have been undertaken without first consulting the Israeli government. The project was done without attention to the possibility of disturbing historically significant archaeological material, with stone and ancient artifacts treated without regard to their preservation.^[332]

Israeli organizations such as the Committee to Prevent the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount argue that Palestinians are deliberately removing significant amounts of archaeological evidence about the Jewish past of the site and claim to have found significant artifacts in the fill removed by bulldozers and trucks from the Temple Mount.^[333][334] Since the late 1990s, the Temple Mount Sifting Project has been reclaiming earth from similar illegal excavations on the mount that had been dumped in the nearby Kidron Valley that had yielded important finds, including Iron Age figurines, an 8th or 7th centuries BCE clay sealing inscribed in Hebrew, Persian period YHD coins, Herodian opus sectile tiles, Byzantine tesserae, and arrowheads, mostly from the Crusader period.^{[333][335][336][337]}

Gabriel Barkay presents Moshe Ya'alon with the reconstructions of the opus sectile floors of the Herodian period plaza

In late 2002, a bulge of about 700 mm (28 in) was reported in the southern retaining wall part of the Temple Mount. A Jordanian team of engineers recommended replacing or resetting most of the stones in the affected area.^[338] In February 2004, the eastern wall of the Mount was damaged by an earthquake. The damage threatened to topple sections of the wall into the area known as Solomon's Stables.^[339] A few days later, a portion of retaining wall, supporting the earthen ramp that led from the Western Wall plaza to the Gate of the Moors on the Temple Mount, collapsed.^[340] In 2007 the Israel Antiquities Authority started construction of a temporary wooden pedestrian pathway to replace the Mugrabi Gate ramp after a landslide in 2005 made it unsafe and in danger of collapse.^[341] The works sparked condemnation from Arab leaders.^[342]

In July 2007 the Muslim religious trust which administers the Mount began digging a 400-metre-long (1,300 ft), 1.5-metre-deep (4.9 ft) trench^[343] from the northern side of the Temple Mount compound to the Dome of the Rock^[344] in order to replace 40-year-old^[345] electric cables in the area. Israeli archaeologists accused the waqf of a deliberate act of cultural vandalism.^[344] Accusations of vandalism at the site resurfaced in 2018 and again in 2022.^{[333][346][347]}

Noteworthy events

February 2004

Partially collapsed Mughrabi-Bridge: An 800-year-old wall holding back part of the hill jutting out from the Western Wall leading up to the Mughrabi Gate partially collapsed. Authorities believed a recent earthquake may have been responsible.^[348][349]

March 2005

Allah inscription: The word "Allah", in approximately a one-foot-tall (0.30 m) Arabic script, was found newly carved into the ancient stones, an act viewed by Jews as vandalism. The carving was attributed to a team of Jordanian engineers and Palestinian laborers in charge of strengthening that section of the wall. The discovery caused outrage among Israeli archaeologists and many Jews were angered by the inscription at Judaism's holiest site.^[350]

October 2006

Synagogue proposal: Uri Ariel, a member of the Knesset from the National Union party (a right-wing opposition party) ascended to the mount,^[351] and said that he is preparing a plan where a synagogue will be built on the mount. His proposed synagogue would not be built instead of the mosques but in a separate area in accordance with rulings of 'prominent rabbis.' He said he believed that this will be correcting a historical injustice and that it is an opportunity for the Muslim world to prove that it is tolerant to all faiths.^[352]

Minaret proposal: Plans are mooted to build a new minaret on the mount, the first of its kind for 600 years.^[353] King Abdullah II of Jordan announced a competition to design a fifth minaret for the walls of the Temple Mount complex. He said it would "reflect the Islamic significance and sanctity of the mosque". The scheme, estimated to cost $300,000, is for a seven-sided tower – after the seven-pointed Hashemite star – and at 42 metres (138 ft), it would be 3.5 metres (11 ft) taller than the next-largest minaret. The minaret would be constructed on the eastern wall of the Temple Mount near the Golden Gate.

February 2007

Mugrabi Gate ramp reconstruction: Repairs to an earthen ramp leading to the Mugrabi Gate sparked Arab protests.

May 2007

Right-wing Jews ascend the Mount: A group of right-wing Religious Zionist rabbis entered the Temple Mount.^[354] This elicited widespread criticism from other religious Jews and from secular Israelis, accusing the rabbis of provoking the Arabs. An editorial in the newspaper Haaretz accused the rabbis of 'knowingly and irresponsibly bringing a burning torch closer to the most flammable hill in the Middle East,' and noted that rabbinical consensus in both the Haredi and the Religious Zionist worlds forbids Jews from entering the Temple Mount.^[355] On May 16, Rabbi Avraham Shapira, former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel and rosh yeshiva of the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, reiterated his opinion that it is forbidden for Jews to enter the Temple Mount.^[356] The Litvish Haredi newspaper Yated Ne'eman, which is controlled by leading Litvish Haredi rabbis including Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv and Rabbi Nissim Karelitz, accused the rabbis of transgressing a decree punishable by 'death through the hands of heaven.'^[294]

July 2007

Temple Mount cable replacement: The Waqf began digging a ditch from the northern side of the Temple Mount compound to the Dome of the Rock as a prelude to infrastructure work in the area. Although the dig was approved by the police, it generated protests from archaeologists.

October 2009

Clashes: Palestinian protesters gathered at the site after rumours that an extreme Israeli group would harm the site, which the Israeli government denied.^[357] Israeli police assembled at the Temple Mount complex to disperse Palestinian protesters who were throwing stones at them. The police used stun grenades on the protesters, of which 15 were later arrested, including the Palestinian President's adviser on Jerusalem affairs.^[358][359] Eighteen Palestinians and 3 police officers were injured.^[360]

July 2010

A public opinion poll in Israel showed that 49% of Israelis want the Temple to be rebuilt, with 27% saying the government should make active steps towards such reconstruction. The poll was conducted by channel 99, the government-owned Knesset channel, in advance of the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, on which Jews commemorate the destruction of both the first and second Temples, which stood at this site.^[361]

Knesset Member Danny Danon visited the Temple Mount in accordance with rabbinical views of Jewish Law on the ninth of the Hebrew Month of Av. The Knesset member condemned the conditions imposed by Muslims upon religious Jews at the site and vowed to work to improve conditions.^[362]

July 2017

Temple Mount shooting: Three men from the Israeli-Arab city of Umm al-Fahm opened fire on two Israeli Druze policemen at the Lions' Gate.^[363] Gun attacks have been unusual at the Temple Mount in recent decades.^[364]

Following the July 14 attack, the site was shut down, and reopened on July 16 with metal detector-equipped checkpoints, spurring calls for protests by Muslim leaders associated with the site.^[365]

April 2022

Al-Aqsa Mosque clashes: On 15 April 2022, clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli Security Forces on the Temple Mount. The clashes began when Palestinians threw stones, firecrackers, and other heavy objects at Israeli police officers. The policemen responded with various riot control measures.^{[366][367][368]} Some Palestinians then barricaded themselves inside al-Aqsa Mosque and continued throwing stones at the policemen.^[366][369] In response, police raided the mosque, arresting those who had barricaded themselves inside. Some damage was done to the mosque's structure.^{[366][370][371]}

April 2023

Al-Aqsa Mosque clashes

Panorama

Panorama of the Temple Mount, seen from the Mount of Olives

See also

• List of national symbols of Palestine
• Committee for the Prevention of Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount
• HALIBA, Israeli organization supporting Jewish free access and worship rights on the Temple Mount
• Hashemite custodianship of Jerusalem holy sites
• Jerusalem in Judaism
• As-Sirāt, in Islam, the narrow bridge for the souls on the Day of Judgment
• Temple Mount Sifting Project

References

Notes

1. 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.^[11]

Citations

1. "New Jerusalem Finds Point to the Temple Mount". cbn.com.
2. • Where Heaven and Earth Meet, p. 13: "Nowadays, while oral usage of the term Haram persists, Palestinians tend to use in formal texts the name Masjid al-Aqsa, habitually rendered into English as 'the Aqsa Mosque'."
   • Tucker, S.C.; Roberts, P. (2008). The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social, and Military History [4 volumes]: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO History Reference Online. p. 70. ISBN 978-1-85109-842-2. Al-Aqsa Mosque The al-Aqsa Mosque (literally, "farthest mosque") is both a building and a complex of religious buildings in Jerusalem. It is known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) and to Jews and Christians as the Har ha-Bayit or Temple Mount. The whole area of the Noble Sanctuary is considered by Muslims to be the al-Aqsa Mosque, and the entire precinct is inviolable according to Islamic law. It is considered specifically part of the waqf (endowment) land that had included the Western Wall (Wailing Wall), property of an Algerian family, and more generally a waqf of all of Islam. When viewed as a complex of buildings, the al-Aqsa Mosque is dominated and bounded by two major structures: the al-Aqsa Mosque building on the east and the Dome of the Rock (or the Mosque of Omar) on the west. The Dome of the Rock is the oldest holy building in Islam.
   • "Jerusalem holy site clashes fuel fears of return to war". BBC News. 2022-04-22. Whole site also considered by Muslims as Al Aqsa Mosque
   • UNESCO World Heritage Centre (2022-04-04). "39 COM 7A.27 – Decision". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 2022-05-29. …the historic Gates and windows of the Qibli Mosque inside Al-Aqsa Mosque/ Al-Haram Al-Sharif, which is a Muslim holy site of worship and an integral part of a World Heritage Site.
   • PEF Survey of Palestine, 1883, volume III Jerusalem, p. 119: "The Jamia el Aksa, or 'distant mosque' (that is, distant from Mecca), is on the south, reaching to the outer wall. The whole enclosure of the Haram is called by Moslem writers Masjid el Aksa, 'praying-place of the Aksa,' from this mosque."
   • Yitzhak Reiter: "This article deals with the employment of religious symbols for national identities and national narratives by using the sacred compound in Jerusalem (The Temple Mount/al-Aqsa) as a case study. The narrative of The Holy Land involves three concentric circles, each encompassing the other, with each side having its own names for each circle. These are: Palestine/Eretz Israel (i.e., the Land of Israel); Jerusalem/al-Quds and finally The Temple Mount/al-Aqsa compound...Within the struggle over public awareness of Jerusalem's importance, one particular site is at the eye of the storm – the Temple Mount and its Western Wall – the Jewish Kotel – or, in Muslim terminology, the al-Aqsa compound (alternatively: al-Haram al-Sharif) including the al-Buraq Wall... "Al-Aqsa" for the Palestinian-Arab-Muslim side is not merely a mosque mentioned in the Quran within the context of the Prophet Muhammad's miraculous Night Journey to al-Aqsa which, according to tradition, concluded with his ascension to heaven (and prayer with all of the prophets and the Jewish and Christian religious figures who preceded him); rather, it also constitutes a unique symbol of identity, one around which various political objectives may be formulated, plans of action drawn up and masses mobilized for their realization", "Narratives of Jerusalem and its Sacred Compound", Israel Studies 18(2): 115–32 (July 2013).
   • Annika Björkdahl and Susanne Buckley-Zistel: "The site is known in Arabic as Haram al-Sharif – the Noble Sanctuary – and colloquially as the Haram or the al-Aqsa compound; while in Hebrew, it is called Har HaBeit – the Temple Mount." Annika Björkdahl; Susanne Buckley-Zistel (2016). Spatialising Peace and Conflict: Mapping the Production of Places, Sites and Scales of Violence. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 243–. ISBN 978-1-137-55048-4.
   • Mahdi Abdul Hadi:"Al-Aqsa Mosque, also referred to as Al-Haram Ash-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), comprises the entire area within the compound walls (a total area of 144,000 m2) – including all the mosques, prayer rooms, buildings, platforms and open courtyards located above or under the grounds – and exceeds 200 historical monuments pertaining to various Islamic eras. According to Islamic creed and jurisprudence, all these buildings and courtyards enjoy the same degree of sacredness since they are built on Al-Aqsa's holy grounds. This sacredness is not exclusive to the physical structures allocated for prayer, like the Dome of the Rock or Al-Qibly Mosque (the mosque with the large silver dome)" Mahdi Abdul Hadi Archived 2020-02-16 at the Wayback Machine Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs; Tim Marshall: "Many people believe that the mosque depicted is called the Al-Aqsa; however, a visit to one of Palestine's most eminent intellectuals, Mahdi F. Abdul Hadi, clarified the issue. Hadi is chairman of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, based in East Jerusalem. His offices are a treasure trove of old photographs, documents, and symbols. He was kind enough to spend several hours with me. He spread out maps of Jerusalem's Old City on a huge desk and homed in on the Al-Aqsa compound, which sits above the Western Wall. "The mosque in the Al- Aqsa [Brigades] flag is the Dome of the Rock. Everyone takes it for granted that it is the Al-Aqsa mosque, but no, the whole compound is Al-Aqsa, and on it are two mosques, the Qibla mosque and the Dome of the Rock, and on the flags of both Al-Aqsa Brigades and the Qassam Brigades, it is the Dome of the Rock shown," he said. Tim Marshall (2017). A Flag Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of National Symbols. Simon & Schuster. pp. 151–. ISBN 978-1-5011-6833-8.
   • USA Today: "A view of the Al-Aqsa compound (Temple Mount) in Jerusalem's Old City" .
   • Al Jazeera: "Israeli Deputy Minister Tzipi Hotovely referred to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as 'the centre of Israeli sovereignty, the capital of Israel'...In response, Netanyahu's office later that night put out a statement saying that 'non-Muslims visit the Temple Mount [Al-Aqsa compound]' but are not permitted to pray there.'"
3. Kedar, Benjamin (2012). Rival Conceptualizations of a Single Space: Jerusalem's sacred esplanade. Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. The author intends … to deal with a single space – the space which, if we wish to use a strictly neutral term, may be called 'Jerusalem's sacred esplanade'.
4. Weaver, A.E. (2018). Inhabiting the Land: Thinking Theologically about the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. Cascade Companions. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-4982-9431-7. Retrieved 2022-05-21. The conflict about sovereignty over Jerusalem encompasses conflict over control of the Holy Esplanade, called al-Haram ash-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) by Muslims and Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount) by Jews.
5. Kedar, Benjamin (2012). Rival Conceptualizations of a Single Space: Jerusalem's sacred esplanade. Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. The author intends … to deal with a single space – the space which, if we wish to use a strictly neutral term, may be called 'Jerusalem's sacred esplanade'.
6. Weaver, A.E. (2018). Inhabiting the Land: Thinking Theologically about the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. Cascade Companions. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-4982-9431-7. Retrieved 2022-05-21. The conflict about sovereignty over Jerusalem encompasses conflict over control of the Holy Esplanade, called al-Haram ash-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) by Muslims and Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount) by Jews.
7. Nicolle, David (1994). Yarmuk AD 636: The Muslim Conquest of Syria. Osprey Publishing.
8. "Temple Mount/Al Haram Ash Sharif". Lonely Planet. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
9. Marshall J., Breger; Ahimeir, Ora (2002). Jerusalem: A City and Its Future. Syracuse University Press. p. 296. ISBN 978-0-8156-2912-2. OCLC 48940385.
10. Cohen-Hattab, Kobi; Bar, Doron (2020). The Western Wall: The Dispute over Israel's Holiest Jewish Site, 1967–2000. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-43133-1.
11. Gonen 2003, p. 4.
12. 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.
13. "Temple Mount | Definition, Jerusalem, Bible, & History | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 2024-05-07. Retrieved 2024-05-27. Temple Mount, site of the Temple of Jerusalem, which was destroyed by the Romans on the 9th/10th of Av in 70 CE (see Tisha be-Av). It consists of a raised platform that, since the 7th century, has been home to the Islamic holy sites of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque. The lower section of the compound's Western Wall, which dates to the 2nd century BCE, is the only remnant of the retaining wall that surrounded the Temple. It has served as a site of pilgrimage for Jews since the Temple's destruction.
14. "Old City of Jerusalem | Map, Quarters, Gates, History, Pictures, & Importance | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 2024-04-23. Retrieved 2024-05-27. The Old City is dominated by the raised platform of the Temple Mount – known in Hebrew as Har Ha-Bayit, the site of the First and Second Temples, and known to Islam as Al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf ("The Noble Sanctuary"), a Muslim holy place containing the Dome of the Rock, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and other structures.
15. 2 Chron. 3:1–2.
16. Reich, Ronny; Baruch, Yuval (2016). "The Meaning of the Inscribed Stones at the Corners of the Herodian Temple Mount". Revue Biblique (1946–). 123 (1): 118–24. ISSN 0035-0907. JSTOR 44092415. The Temple Mount has never been the focus of a modern archaeological excavation
17. Wendy Pullan; Maximilian Sternberg; Lefkos Kyriacou; Craig Larkin; Michael Dumper (2013). The Struggle for Jerusalem's Holy Places. Routledge. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-317-97556-4. The sources for the first temple are solely biblical, and no substantial archaeological remains have been verified.
18. Yitzhak Reiter (2017). "Post-1967 Struggle over Al-Haram Al-Sharif/Temple Mount". Contested Holy Places in Israel–Palestine. London: Routledge. pp. 20–50. doi:10.4324/9781315277271-3. ISBN 978-1-315-27727-1. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
19. Baker, Eric W.. The Eschatological Role of the Jerusalem Temple: An Examination of the Jewish Writings Dating from 586 BCE to 70 CE. Germany: Anchor Academic Publishing, 2015, pp. 361–62
20. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Avoda, Beit haBechira, 6:14.
21. Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi, Bernard Avishai, 'Jews Don’t Have a ‘Holiest’ Site,' Haaretz 13 May :’The point is, this kind of recklessness not only offended secular democrats, it vulgarized what “holy” has meant for most observant Jews, too. Not coincidentally, more than 85 percent of Israel’s Haredi Jews oppose prayer on the Mount, for reasons having to do with purity and impurity that cannot be resolved in “our time.” Advocates of such prayer and sacrifice tend to be, like Goren, Orthodox-nationalist zealots educated in local yeshivas and identified with the neo-Zionist settlement project. They are, like Islamists, fanatics warped by violence and nationalist fantasy – “Jewists,” not Jews.‘
22. Sam Sokol, Should Jews Be Allowed to Pray on the Temple Mount? Many Israelis Think So, Poll Shows,' Haaretz 3 May 2022: '86.5 percent of ultra-Orthodox Jews opposed prayer for reasons of halakha, while national religious (51 percent), traditional religious (54.5 percent) and traditional non-religious respondents (49 percent) supported worship on the mount for nationalist reasons. Many rabbis, and almost all ultra-Orthodox ones, prohibit their followers from ascending the Temple Mount due to concerns over ritual purity.'
23. National Geographic Society (U.S.); de Blij, H.J.; Downs, R.; John Wiley & Sons (2007). Wiley/National Geographic College Atlas of the World. Wiley. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-471-74117-6. Retrieved 2022-06-15. Al 'Aqsa is the second oldest mosque in Islam after the Kaaba in Mecca and is third in holiness after the mosques in Mecca and Medina. It holds up to 400,000 worshippers at one time.
24. • Kasolowsky, Raissa; Blair, Edmund (2023-04-06). "Factbox: Where is Al Aqsa mosque and why is it so important in Islam?". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-07-23. Where and What Is the al-Aqua Mosque? The Al-Aqsa lies at the heart of Jerusalem's Old City on a hill known to Jews as Har ha-Bayit, or Temple Mount, and to Muslims internationally as al-Haram al-Sharif, or The Noble Sanctuary. Muslims regard the site as the third holiest in Islam, after Mecca and Medina. Al-Aqsa is the name given to the whole compound and is home to two Muslim holy places: the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, also known as the Qibli Mosque, which was built in the 8th century AD.
    • Where Heaven and Earth Meet, p. 13: "Nowadays, while oral usage of the term Haram persists, Palestinians tend to use in formal texts the name Masjid al-Aqsa, habitually rendered into English as 'the Aqsa Mosque'".
    • Tucker, S.C.; Roberts, P. (2008). The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social, and Military History [4 volumes]: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO history reference online. p. 70. ISBN 978-1-85109-842-2. Al-Aqsa Mosque The al-Aqsa Mosque (literally, "farthest mosque") is both a building and a complex of religious buildings in Jerusalem. It is known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) and to Jews and Christians as the Har ha-Bayit or Temple Mount. The whole area of the Noble Sanctuary is considered by Muslims to be the al-Aqsa Mosque, and the entire precinct is inviolable according to Islamic law. It is considered specifically part of the waqf (endowment) land that had included the Western Wall (Wailing Wall), property of an Algerian family, and more generally a waqf of all of Islam. When viewed as a complex of buildings, the al-Aqsa Mosque is dominated and bounded by two major structures: the al-Aqsa Mosque building on the east and the Dome of the Rock (or the Mosque of Omar) on the west. The Dome of the Rock is the oldest holy building in Islam.
    • "Jerusalem holy site clashes fuel fears of return to war". BBC News. 2022-04-22. Whole site also considered by Muslims as Al Aqsa Mosque.
    • UNESCO World Heritage Centre (2022-04-04). "39 COM 7A.27 – Decision". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 2022-05-29. …the historic Gates and windows of the Qibli Mosque inside Al-Aqsa Mosque/ Al-Haram Al-Sharif, which is a Muslim holy site of worship and an integral part of a World Heritage Site.
    • PEF Survey of Palestine, 1883, volume III Jerusalem, p. 119: "The Jamia el Aksa, or 'distant mosque' (that is, distant from Mecca), is on the south, reaching to the outer wall. The whole enclosure of the Haram is called by Moslem writers Masjid el Aksa, 'praying-place of the Aksa,' from this mosque."
    • Yitzhak Reiter: "This article deals with the employment of religious symbols for national identities and national narratives by using the sacred compound in Jerusalem (The Temple Mount/al-Aqsa) as a case study. The narrative of The Holy Land involves three concentric circles, each encompassing the other, with each side having its own names for each circle. These are: Palestine/Eretz Israel (i.e., the Land of Israel); Jerusalem/al-Quds and finally The Temple Mount/al-Aqsa compound...Within the struggle over public awareness of Jerusalem's importance, one particular site is at the eye of the storm – the Temple Mount and its Western Wall – the Jewish Kotel – or, in Muslim terminology, the al-Aqsa compound (alternatively: al-Haram al-Sharif) including the al-Buraq Wall... "Al-Aqsa" for the Palestinian-Arab-Muslim side is not merely a mosque mentioned in the Quran within the context of the Prophet Muhammad's miraculous Night Journey to al-Aqsa which, according to tradition, concluded with his ascension to heaven (and prayer with all of the prophets and the Jewish and Christian religious figures who preceded him); rather, it also constitutes a unique symbol of identity, one around which various political objectives may be formulated, plans of action drawn up and masses mobilized for their realization", "Narratives of Jerusalem and its Sacred Compound", Israel Studies 18(2): 115–32 (July 2013).
    • Annika Björkdahl and Susanne Buckley-Zistel: "The site is known in Arabic as Haram al-Sharif – the Noble Sanctuary – and colloquially as the Haram or the al-Aqsa compound; while in Hebrew, it is called Har HaBeit – the Temple Mount." Annika Björkdahl; Susanne Buckley-Zistel (2016). Spatialising Peace and Conflict: Mapping the Production of Places, Sites and Scales of Violence. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 243–. ISBN 978-1-137-55048-4.
    • Mahdi Abdul Hadi: "Al-Aqsa Mosque, also referred to as Al-Haram Ash-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), comprises the entire area within the compound walls (a total area of 144,000 m2) – including all the mosques, prayer rooms, buildings, platforms and open courtyards located above or under the grounds – and exceeds 200 historical monuments pertaining to various Islamic eras. According to Islamic creed and jurisprudence, all these buildings and courtyards enjoy the same degree of sacredness since they are built on Al-Aqsa's holy grounds. This sacredness is not exclusive to the physical structures allocated for prayer, like the Dome of the Rock or Al-Qibly Mosque (the mosque with the large silver dome)"Mahdi Abdul Hadi Archived 2020-02-16 at the Wayback Machine Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs; Tim Marshall: "Many people believe that the mosque depicted is called the Al-Aqsa; however, a visit to one of Palestine's most eminent intellectuals, Mahdi F. Abdul Hadi, clarified the issue. Hadi is chairman of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, based in East Jerusalem. His offices are a treasure trove of old photographs, documents, and symbols. He was kind enough to spend several hours with me. He spread out maps of Jerusalem's Old City on a huge desk and homed in on the Al-Aqsa compound, which sits above the Western Wall. "The mosque in the Al-Aqsa [Brigades] flag is the Dome of the Rock. Everyone takes it for granted that it is the Al-Aqsa mosque, but no, the whole compound is Al-Aqsa, and on it are two mosques, the Qibla mosque and the Dome of the Rock, and on the flags of both Al-Aqsa Brigades and the Qassam Brigades, it is the Dome of the Rock shown," he said. Tim Marshall (2017). A Flag Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of National Symbols. Simon & Schuster. pp. 151–. ISBN 978-1-5011-6833-8.
    • USA Today: "A view of the Al-Aqsa compound (Temple Mount) in Jerusalem's Old City" .
    • Al Jazeera: "Israeli Deputy Minister Tzipi Hotovely referred to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as 'the centre of Israeli sovereignty, the capital of Israel'... In response, Netanyahu's office later that night put out a statement saying that 'non-Muslims visit the Temple Mount [Al-Aqsa compound]' but are not permitted to pray there.'"
25. Prawer, P.M.H.J.; Prawer, J.; Ben-Shammai, H.; Ben-Tsevi, Yad Yitshak; Universiṭah ha-ʻIvrit bi-Yerushalayim (1996). The History of Jerusalem: The Early Muslim Period (638–1099). New York University Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-8147-6639-2. Retrieved 2022-05-31. ... The Temple Mount, al-Haram al-Sharif, is a large esplanade (sahn in Arabic) ...
26. Colby, Frederick S. (2008). Narrating Muhammad's Night Journey: Tracing the Development of the Ibn 'Abbas Ascension Discourse. SUNY Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-7914-7788-5. Archived from the original on 15 July 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
27. Quran 2:4, 34:13–14.
28. Cohen, Hillel (2017). "The Temple Mount/al-Aqsa in Zionist and Palestinian National Consciousness: A Comparative View". Israel Studies Review. 32 (1). Berghahn Books: 1, 8–9, 17. doi:10.3167/isr.2017.320102. eISSN 2159-0389. ISSN 2159-0370. JSTOR 45238302. The holy site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif or al-Aqsa is central to both the Jewish and Palestinian Arab national movements… Al-Aqsa can thus be seen as the central symbol of Palestinian nationalism... One should bear in mind that since the emergence of nationalism in the Arab world, important schools have insisted on separation of religion and state. In addition, a degree of tension exists between al-Aqsa's two aspects, as a national symbol uniting Palestinian Muslims and Christians, and al-Aqsa as an exclusively Muslim symbol. In other words, the intentions of Palestinians united under the banner of al-Aqsa are not all the same… For the Palestinians, al-Aqsa is a singular focal point of self-respect and religious destiny. This heightens their commitment to the site, without connection to their religious affiliation (Muslim or Christian) or level of religious belief and observance.
29. Reiter, Yitzhak (2013). "Narratives of Jerusalem and its Sacred Compound". Israel Studies. 18 (2). Indiana University Press: 115–32. doi:10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.115. ISSN 1084-9513. S2CID 143739581. This article deals with the employment of religious symbols for national identities and national narratives by using the sacred compound in Jerusalem (The Temple Mount/al-Aqsa) as a case study. The narrative of The Holy Land involves three concentric circles, each encompassing the other, with each side having its own names for each circle. These are: Palestine/Eretz Israel (i.e., the Land of Israel); Jerusalem/al-Quds and finally The Temple Mount/al-Aqsa compound...Within the struggle over public awareness of Jerusalem's importance, one particular site is at the eye of the storm – the Temple Mount and its Western Wall – the Jewish Kotel – or, in Muslim terminology, the al-Aqsa compound (alternatively: al-Haram al-Sharif) including the al-Buraq Wall... "Al-Aqsa" for the Palestinian-Arab-Muslim side is not merely a mosque mentioned in the Quran within the context of the Prophet Muhammad's miraculous Night Journey to al-Aqsa which, according to tradition, concluded with his ascension to heaven (and prayer with all of the prophets and the Jewish and Christian religious figures who preceded him); rather, it also constitutes a unique symbol of identity, one around which various political objectives may be formulated, plans of action drawn up and masses mobilized for their realization.
30. Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs; Tim Marshall: "Many people believe that the mosque depicted is called the Al-Aqsa; however, a visit to one of Palestine's most eminent intellectuals, Mahdi F. Abdul Hadi, clarified the issue. Hadi is chairman of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, based in East Jerusalem. His offices are a treasure trove of old photographs, documents, and symbols. He was kind enough to spend several hours with me. He spread out maps of Jerusalem's Old City on a huge desk and homed in on the Al-Aqsa compound, which sits above the Western Wall. "The mosque in the Al-Aqsa [Brigades] flag is the Dome of the Rock. Everyone takes it for granted that it is the Al-Aqsa mosque, but no, the whole compound is Al-Aqsa, and on it are two mosques, the Qibla mosque and the Dome of the Rock, and on the flags of both Al-Aqsa Brigades and the Qassam Brigades, it is the Dome of the Rock shown," he said. Tim Marshall (2017). A Flag Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of National Symbols. Simon & Schuster. pp. 151–. ISBN 978-1-5011-6833-8.; Mahdi Abdul Hadi, Mahdi Abdul Hadi Archived 2020-02-16 at the Wayback Machine: "Al-Aqsa Mosque, also referred to as Al-Haram Ash-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), comprises the entire area within the compound walls (a total area of 144,000 m2) – including all the mosques, prayer rooms, buildings, platforms and open courtyards located above or under the grounds – and exceeds 200 historical monuments pertaining to various Islamic eras. According to Islamic creed and jurisprudence, all these buildings and courtyards enjoy the same degree of sacredness since they are built on Al-Aqsa's holy grounds. This sacredness is not exclusive to the physical structures allocated for prayer, like the Dome of the Rock or Al-Qibly Mosque (the mosque with the large silver dome)."
31. Lieber, Dov (July 20, 2017). "Amid Temple Mount tumult, the who, what and why of its Waqf rulers". Times of Israel. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
32. "What Are the Temple Movements and Why Should We Be Worried?". Ir Amim.
33. Gilbert, Lela (21 September 2015). "The Temple Mount – Outrageous Lies and Escalating Dangers". Hudson Institute. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
34. Yashar, Ari (28 October 2015). "Watch: Waqf bans 'Religious Christians' from Temple Mount". Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
35. "Israeli Police Storm Disputed Jerusalem Holy Site". Archived from the original on October 31, 2009.
36. 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.
37. Omar, Abdallah Marouf (2017). "Al-Aqsa Mosque's Incident in July 2017: Affirming the Policy of Deterrence". Insight Turkey. 19 (3): 69–82. doi:10.25253/99.2017193.05. ISSN 1302-177X. JSTOR 26300531. As shown before, Israel tried first to play with the definition of al-Aqsa as being only the Qibli Mosque building. This would give Israel an excuse to request a share in administrating the whole compound, claiming that not all of it is al-Aqsa Mosque.
38. "Israel freezes Unesco ties for 'denying Jewish holy sites'". BBC News. 2016-10-14. Retrieved 2022-07-17.
39. Eliav 2008, p. 50-51: "The pair of words Temple Mount also debuted in the works of the prophets. The copyright for this name is reserved to the prophet Micah, who incorporated it into his famous admonitory prophecy: Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest (Micah 3:12). It is quite doubtful, however, that the book of Micah preserved a concrete name that was actually used in the day-to-day lexicon of the prophet's generation. A close-reading of this passage shows that the phrase Mountain of the House is a literary variation of a longer term, the mountain of the House of the Lord (three words in Hebrew), which appears in verse 4:1. The author places the complete term in the middle and plays with its constituent parts (both pieces come out to two words in Hebrew) in the previous and subsequent verses (3:12; 4:2). In verse 4:1 the name Lord is deleted, leaving the term Mount of the House, or Temple Mount. This, then, is not a case of terms taken from the vocabulary of daily life but rather variations characteristic of the common literary diction used by the prophets. Furthermore, nearly one thousand years will pass from the alleged time of Micah until the specific term Temple Mount reappears in the Mishnah. In the interim, the term Temple Mount is not used in even one of the numerous existing sources, except in works quoting and using the entire phrase from Micah. This is conclusive evidence that the name Temple Mount was not used in earlier periods, even though the image of a mountain as a place for a temple was both known and probably, at least to some degree, widespread."
40. Eliav 2008, p. 56: "Various passages of the New Testament use the images of the Temple and Jerusalem, whether to express the Heavenly Jerusalem or, on occasion, as a label for the actual community. And what of the Temple Mount? The word combination Temple and Mount is never to be found throughout the entire corpus of the New Testament."
41. Patrich, Joseph; Edelcopp, Marcos (2013). "Four stages in the evolution of the Temple Mount". Revue Biblique (1946–). 120 (3): 321–61. ISSN 0035-0907. JSTOR 44092217.
42. Eliav, Yaron Z. (2003). "The Temple Mount, the Rabbis, and the Poetics of Memory". Hebrew Union College Annual. 74. Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion: 49–113. ISSN 0360-9049. JSTOR 23509245. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
43. Eliav 2008, p. 59b.
44. Eliav 2008, p. 64: "Surprisingly, it was only in the aftermath of the Second Temple's destruction, when Jerusalem lost its own role as a political and religious center, that the Temple Mount gained prominence."
45. Shahar, Y. (2008) "The concept of the Temple Mount in the Second Tem period," New Studies on Jerusalem, pp. 14, 203–10 (Hebrew with an English abstract on p. 4).
46. Shatzman, I. (2009). Appendix H, in: Yosef Ben Matityahu ([Titus] Flavius Josephus), History of the Jewish War Against the Romans (tr. L. Ulman), Jerusalem, pp. 646–59 (Heb).
47. 2 Chronicles 3:1.
48. 2 Chronicles 33:15.
49. Eliav 2008, p. 54: "The name Temple Mount appears but once throughout the multitude of available sources (in 1 Maccabees, which will be discussed below). Even there, it operates only as a literary construction, inspired by the biblical verse in Micah. This is a decisive finding, which proves that the term Temple Mount was not an integral part of the Second Temple period's lexicon...The most important question, however, is: how was this surrounding territory perceived by those living at the time, and how did it rank, if at all, in their world-view? It seems to me that throughout most of the period, the area did not possess any independent identity and was considered an integral part of the Temple itself. From a semantic standpoint, the various names given to the compound – hatser (courtyard) in Hebrew, or the Greek peribolos and temenos – describe a space that surrounds another architectural element. The Temple, then, was perceived as an architectural complex containing different components. Just as the altar was part of the Temple structure, so were the surrounding elements – courtyards and galleries. This is not to say that all these parts shared an equal status or degree of holiness. There was a definite, hierarchical system: the outer enclosure was not on a par with the inner court, and the inner court was not equivalent to the Holy of Holies. They were all grasped, however, as parts of a whole, which together formed the Temple. The sacredness of these territories is almost self-evident and is certainly no surprise. The expression "my holy courts" appears already in early, First Temple texts (for example, Isaiah 62:9), and it is only natural that the areas that form part of the Temple should possess some of its holiness. For example, the codes of purity were strictly enforced in these courts, in order to prevent the penetration of defilement into the inner sanctuary. The compounds surrounding the Temple, then, did not possess an independent character, and constituted an integral part of the Temple. People didn't refer to these areas as the "Temple Mount," and they were not even perceived in their consciousness as a mountain.
50. Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, The Administration Department of Awgaf and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs, Jerusalem: Al-Aqsa Mosque: "They all reassure their rejection of the attempts to Judaize al-Aqsa Mosque or any of its components by the Israeli Occupation Authorities, its various organs and the Jewish organizations, which interfering with its extreme Jewish organizations, which attempt interfering with its administration, hampering its reconstruction, and forcing strange and alien names [such as "The Temple Mount"] among other newly-created Judaization terms."
51. Ynetnews (2014-11-06). "PLO urge journalists: Don't use term 'Temple Mount'". Ynetnews. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
52. Zion, Ilan Ben (2022-03-07). "Islamic guards try to boot guide for saying 'Temple Mount' on Temple Mount". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
53. Carman, John; Turek, Jan (2016). "Looking Back and Forward". Archaeologies. 12 (3). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 231–39. doi:10.1007/s11759-017-9304-z. ISSN 1555-8622. S2CID 157370997. In part, the issue is one of the technical interpretations of WAC Statutes which require WAC to adhere to UN and UNESCO principles of Human Rights and official languages: whether the latter extends to adoption of UNESCO names for things and places is less clear. But it goes further than this: the names applied to places are also indications of claims of ownership and stakeholder status. Since WAC is also bound to defy the forcible occupation of territory and the oppression of peoples, to recognise 'Temple Mount' as a legitimate title is potentially to recognise Israeli claims and therefore implicitly offer support for Israeli occupation of Jerusalem in defiance of international condemnation.
54. Pixner, Bargil (2010). Rainer Riesner (ed.). Paths of the Messiah. Translated by Keith Myrick and Miriam Randall. Ignatius Press. pp. 320–322. ISBN 978-0-89870-865-3.
55. Isaiah 60:14.
56. Robinson, E.; Smith, E. (1841). Biblical Researches in Palestine. John Murray. The Jámi'a el-Aksa is the mosk alone; the Mesjid el-Aksa is the mosk with all the sacred enclosure and precincts, including the Sükhrah. Thus the words Mesjid and Jāmi'a differ in usage somewhat like the Greek ίερόν and ναός.
57. Palmer, E.H. (1871). "History of the Haram Es Sherif: Compiled from the Arabic Historians". Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 3 (3): 122–132. doi:10.1179/peq.1871.012. ISSN 0031-0328. Excursus in the Name Masjid el Aksa. In order to understand the native accounts of the sacred area at Jerusalem, it is essentially necessary to keep in mind the proper application of the various names by which it is spoken of. When the Masjid el Aksa is mentioned, that name is usually supposed to refer to the well-known mosque on the south side of the Haram, but such is not really the case. The latter building is called El Jámʻi el Aksa, or simply El Aksa, and the substructures are called El Aksa el Kadímeh (the ancient Aksa), while the title El Masjid el Aksa is applied to the whole sanctuary. The word Jámi is exactly equivalent in sense to the Greek συναγωγή, and is applied to the church or building in which the worshippers congregate. Masjid, on the other hand, is a much more general term; it is derived from the verb sejada "to adore," and is applied to any spot, the sacred character of which would especially incite the visitor to an act of devotion. Our word mosque is a corruption of masjid, but it is usually misapplied, as the building is never so designated, although the whole area on which it stands may be so spoken of. The Cubbet es Sakhrah, El Aksa, Jam'i el Magharibeh, &c., are each called a Jami, but the entire Haram is a masjid. This will explain how it is that 'Omar, after visiting the churches of the Anastasis, Sion, &c., was taken to the "Masjid" of Jerusalem, and will account for the statement of Ibn el 'Asa'kir and others, that the Masjid el Aksa measured over 600 cubits in length-that is, the length of the whole Haram area. The name Masjid el Aksa is borrowed from the passage in the Coran (xvii. 1), when allusion is made to the pretended ascent of Mohammed into heaven from ·the temple of Jerusalem; "Praise be unto Him who transported His servant by night from El Masjid el Haram (i.e., 'the Sacred place of Adoration' at Mecca) to El Masjid el Aksa (i.e., 'the Remote place of Adoration' at Jerusalem), the precincts of which we have blessed," &c. The title El Aksa, "the Remote," according to the Mohammedan doctors, is applied to the temple of Jerusalem "either because of its distance from Mecca, or because it is in the centre of the earth."
58. PEF Survey of Palestine, 1883, volume III Jerusalem, p. 119: "The Jamia el Aksa, or 'distant mosque' (that is, distant from Mecca), is on the south, reaching to the outer wall. The whole enclosure of the Haram is called by Moslem writers Masjid el Aksa, 'praying-place of the Aksa,' from this mosque."
59. "Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem". Atlas Travel and Tourist Agency. Archived from the original on 26 July 2008. Retrieved 29 June 2008.
60. "Lailat al Miraj". BBC News. BBC MMVIII. Retrieved 29 June 2008.
61. Le Strange, Guy (1890). Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500. Translated from the Works of the Medieval Arab Geographers. Houghton, Mifflin. p. 96. Great confusion is introduced into the Arab descriptions of the Noble Sanctuary by the indiscriminate use of the terms Al Masjid or Al Masjid al Akså, Jami' or Jami al Aksâ; and nothing but an intimate acquaintance with the locality described will prevent a translator, ever and again, misunderstanding the text he has before him-since the native authorities use the technical terms in an extraordinarily inexact manner, often confounding the whole, and its part, under the single denomination of "Masjid." Further, the usage of various writers differs considerably on these points : Mukaddasi invariably speaks of the whole Haram Area as Al Masjid, or as Al Masjid al Aksî, "the Akså Mosque," or "the mosque," while the Main-building of the mosque, at the south end of the Haram Area, which we generally term the Aksa, he refers to as Al Mughattâ, "the Covered-part." Thus he writes "the mosque is entered by thirteen gates," meaning the gates of the Haram Area. So also "on the right of the court," means along the west wall of the Haram Area; "on the left side" means the east wall; and "at the back" denotes the northern boundary wall of the Haram Area. Nasir-i-Khusrau, who wrote in Persian, uses for the Main-building of the Aksâ Mosque the Persian word Pushish, that is, "Covered part," which exactly translates the Arabic Al Mughatta. On some occasions, however, the Akså Mosque (as we call it) is spoken of by Näsir as the Maksurah, a term used especially to denote the railed-off oratory of the Sultan, facing the Mihrâb, and hence in an extended sense applied to the building which includes the same. The great Court of the Haram Area, Nâsir always speaks of as the Masjid, or the Masjid al Akså, or again as the Friday Mosque (Masjid-i-Jum'ah).
62. Idrīsī, Muhammad; Jaubert, Pierre Amédée (1836). Géographie d'Édrisi (in French). à l'Imprimerie royale. pp. 343–44. Sous la domination musulmane il fut agrandi, et c'est (aujourd'hui) la grande mosquée connue par les Musulmans sous le nom de Mesdjid el-Acsa مسجد الأقصى. Il n'en existe pas au monde qui l'égale en grandeur, si l'on en excepte toutefois la grande mosquée de Cordoue en Andalousie ; car, d'après ce qu'on rapporte, le toit de cette mosquée est plus grand que celui de la Mesdjid el-Acsa. Au surplus, l'aire de cette dernière forme un parallelogramme dont la hauteur est de deux cents brasses (ba'a), et le base de cents quatre-vingts. La moitié de cet espace, celle qui est voisin du Mihrab, est couverte d'un toit (ou plutôt d'un dôme) en pierres soutenu par plusieurs rangs de colonnes ; l'autre est à ciel ouvert. Au centre de l'édifice est un grand dôme connu sous le nom de Dôme de la roche; il fut orné d'arabesques en or et d'autres beaux ouvrages, par les soins de divers califes musulmans. Le dôme est percé de quatre portes; en face de celle qui est à l'occident, on voit l'autel sur lequel les enfants d'Israël offraient leurs sacrifices; auprès de la porte orientale est l'église nommée le saint des saints, d'une construction élégante ; au midi est une chapelle qui était à l'usage des Musulmans; mais les chrétiens s'en sont emparés de vive force et elle est restée en leur pouvoir jusqu'à l'époque de la composition du présent ouvrage. Ils ont converti cette chapelle en un couvent où résident des religieux de l'ordre des templiers, c'est-à-dire des serviteurs de la maison de Dieu. Also at Williams, G.; Willis, R. (1849). "Account of Jerusalem during the Frank Occupation, extracted from the Universal Geography of Edrisi. Climate III. sect. 5. Translated by P. Amédée Jaubert. Tome 1. pp. 341–45.". The Holy City: Historical, Topographical, and Antiquarian Notices of Jerusalem. J.W. Parker.
63. Williams, George (1849). The Holy City: Historical, Topographical and Antiquarian Notices of Jerusalem. Parker. pp. 143–60. The following detailed account of the Haram es-Sherif, with some interesting notices of the City, is extracted from an Arabic work entitled " The Sublime Companion to the History of Jerusalem and Hebron, by Kadi Mejir-ed-din, Ebil-yemen Abd-er-Rahman, El-Alemi," who died A.H. 927, (A.D. 1521)… "I have at the commencement called attention to the fact that the place now called by the name Aksa (i. e. the most distant), is the Mosk [Jamia] properly so called, at the southern extremity of the area, where is the Minbar and the great Mihrab. But in fact Aksa is the name of the whole area enclosed within the walls, the dimensions of which I have just given, for the Mosk proper [Jamia], the Dome of the Rock, the Cloisters, and other buildings, are all of late construction, and Mesjid el-Aksa is the correct name of the whole area." and also von Hammer-Purgstall, J.F. (1811). "Chapitre vingtième. Description de la mosquée Mesdjid-ol-aksa, telle qu'elle est de nos jours, (du temps de l'auteur, au dixième siècle de l'Hégire, au seizième après J.C.)". Fundgruben des Orients (in French). Vol. 2. Gedruckt bey A. Schmid. p. 93. Nous avons dès le commencement appelé l'attention sur que l'endroit, auquel les hommes donnent aujourd'hui le nom d'Aksa, c'est à-dire, la plus éloignée, est la mosquée proprement dite, bâtie à l'extrêmité méridionale de l'enceinte où se trouve la chaire et le grand autel. Mais en effet Aksa est le nom de l'enceinte entière, en tant qu'elle est enfermée de murs, dont nous venons de donner la longueur et la largeur, car la mosquée proprement dite, le dôme de la roche Sakhra, les portiques et les autres bâtimens, sont tous des constructions récentes, et Mesdjidol-aksa est le véritable nom de toute l'enceinte. (Le Mesdjid des arabes répond à l'ίερόν et le Djami au ναός des grecs.)
64. Abu Sway, Mustafa (Fall 2000). "The Holy Land, Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Islamic Sources". Journal of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR): 60–68. Quoting Mujir al-Din: "Verily, 'Al-Aqsa' is a name for the whole mosque which is surrounded by the wall, the length and width of which are mentioned here, for the building that exists in the southern part of the Mosque, and the other ones such as the Dome of the Rock and the corridors and other [buildings] are novel."
65. Le Strange, Guy (1890). Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500. Translated from the Works of the Medieval Arab Geographers. Houghton, Mifflin. The Askà Mosque. The great mosque of Jerusalem, Al Masjid al Aksà, the "Further Mosque," derives its name from the traditional Night Journey of Muhammad, to which allusion is made in the words of the Kuran (xvii. I)... the term "Mosque" being here taken to denote the whole area of the Noble Sanctuary, and not the Main-building of the Aksà only, which, in the Prophet's days, did not exist.
66. Strange, Guy le (1887). "Description of the Noble Sanctuary at Jerusalem in 1470 A.D., by Kamâl (or Shams) ad Dîn as Suyûtî". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 19 (2). Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland: 247–305. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00019420. ISSN 0035-869X. JSTOR 25208864. S2CID 163050043. …the term Masjid (whence, through the Spanish Mezquita, our word Mosque) denotes the whole of the sacred edifice, comprising the main building and the court, with its lateral arcades and minor chapels. The earliest specimen of the Arab mosque consisted of an open courtyard, within which, round its four walls, run colonades or cloisters to give shelter to the worshippers. On the side of the court towards the Kiblah (in the direction of Mekka), and facing which the worshipper must stand, the colonade, instead of being single, is, for the convenience of the increased numbers of the congregation, widened out to form the Jami' or place of assembly… coming now to the Noble Sanctuary at Jerusalem, we must remember that the term 'Masjid' belongs not only to the Aksa mosque (more properly the Jami' or place of assembly for prayer), but to the whole enclosure with the Dome of the Rock in the middle, and all the other minor domes and chapels.
67. • Abu-Sway, Mustafa (2013-03-31). "Al-Aqsa Mosque: Do Not Intrude!". Palestine-Israel Journal. Not only do the Israeli occupation authorities prevent freedom of movement and freedom of worship, they interfere in defining Al-Aqsa Mosque by restricting the meaning of Al-Aqsa Mosque to the southernmost building, Qibli Mosque, rather than all 144 dunums or 36 acres.
    • Omar, Abdallah Marouf (2017). "Al-Aqsa Mosque's Incident in July 2017: Affirming the Policy of Deterrence". Insight Turkey. 19 (3): 69–82. doi:10.25253/99.2017193.05. ISSN 1302-177X. JSTOR 26300531. As shown before, Israel tried first to play with the definition of al-Aqsa as being only the Qibli Mosque building. This would give Israel an excuse to request a share in administrating the whole compound, claiming that not all of it is al-Aqsa Mosque.
    • UNESCO World Heritage Centre (2022-04-04). "39 COM 7A.27 – Decision". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 30 May 2022. Retrieved 2022-05-29. …the historic Gates and windows of the Qibli Mosque inside Al-Aqsa Mosque/ Al-Haram Al-Sharif, which is a Muslim holy site of worship and an integral part of a World Heritage Site.
    • Jordan-PLO Agreement on the Jerusalem Holy Sites – English (2013): "Recalling the unique religious importance, to all Muslims, of al-Masjid al-Aqsa with its 144 Dunums, which include the Qibli Mosque of al-Aqsa, the Mosque of the Dome of the Rock and all its mosques, buildings, walls, courtyards, attached areas over and beneath the ground and the Waqf properties tied-up to al-Masjid al-Aqsa, to its environs or to its pilgrims (hereinafter referred to as "Al-Haram Al-Sharif")."
    • Yehia Hassan Wazeri "The Farthest Mosque or the Alleged Temple an Analytic Study", Journal of Islamic Architecture Vol. 2 Iss. 3 June 2013, “The blessed Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa, which is mentioned in the Ever Glorious Qur'an (in Sura Al-Isra'), is the blessed spot that is now called Al-Haram Al-Qudsi and is surrounded by the great wall along with the buildings and monuments that have been built on it, on top of which is Al-Masjid Al-Qibli (covered Masjid) and the Dome of the Rock.”
    • Kamil, Meryem (2020-09-01). "Postspatial, Postcolonial". Social Text. 38 (3). Duke University Press: 55–82. doi:10.1215/01642472-8352247. ISSN 0164-2472. S2CID 234613673. The compound is an enclosed platform, with its western portion demarcated as the Jewish holy site of the Wailing Wall. Within the com- pound are two hallowed buildings: the Dome of the Rock and al-Qibli mosque.19 Muslims venerate the Dome of the Rock as the site where Muhammad ascended to heaven, and Jews honor the site where Abraham sacrificed Isaac. Al-Qibli mosque is noted by Muslims as the initial direction for prayer before Mecca.
    • Omran M. Hassan, A Graphical Vision of Aesthetics of Al-Quds Architecture through the Digital Technology, International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology Vol. 29, No. 7s, (2020), pp. 2819–38: “As shown, it is a part of the building of Al-Qibli mosque which is part of Al-Aqsa Mosque and one of its monuments with a roofed building topped by a dome covered by a layer of lead, located in the south side of Al-Aqsa Mosque towards Al-Qiblah in which the name Al-Qibli came from.”
    • Mahdi Abdul Hadi, Al-Aqsa Mosque Archived 16 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs: "Al-Aqsa Mosque, also referred to as Al-Haram Ash-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), comprises the entire area within the compound walls (a total area of 144,000 m2) – including all the mosques, prayer rooms, buildings, platforms and open courtyards located above or under the grounds – and exceeds 200 historical monuments pertaining to various Islamic eras. According to Islamic creed and jurisprudence, all these buildings and courtyards enjoy the same degree of sacredness since they are built on Al-Aqsa’s holy grounds. This sacredness is not exclusive to the physical structures allocated for prayer, like the Dome of the Rock or Al-Qibly Mosque (the mosque with the large silver dome).
    • Tim Marshall (2017). A Flag Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of National Symbols. Simon & Schuster. p. 151. ISBN 978-1-5011-6833-8.: "Many people believe that the mosque depicted is called the Al-Aqsa; however, a visit to one of Palestine's most eminent intellectuals, Mahdi F. Abdul Hadi, clarified the issue. Hadi is chairman of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, based in East Jerusalem. His offices are a treasure trove of old photographs, documents, and symbols. He was kind enough to spend several hours with me. He spread out maps of Jerusalem's Old City on a huge desk and homed in on the Al-Aqsa compound, which sits above the Western Wall. "The mosque in the Al-Aqsa [Brigades] flag is the Dome of the Rock. Everyone takes it for granted that it is the Al-Aqsa mosque, but no, the whole compound is Al-Aqsa, and on it are two mosques, the Qibla mosque and the Dome of the Rock, and on the flags of both Al-Aqsa Brigades and the Qassam Brigades, it is the Dome of the Rock shown", he said."
68. Carpenter, E.E.; Comfort, P.W. (2000). Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew Words Defined and Explained. B&H Publishing Group. p. 404. ISBN 978-0-8054-9352-8. Retrieved 2022-07-25. The New Testament writers used two different Greek words to describe the "temple": naos and hieron. Naos refers to the actual "sanctuary" of the temple, the place of God's dwelling. Hieron refers to the "temple precincts" as well as to the "sanctuary." Generally speaking, naos was used to designate the inner section of the temple known as the "holy place" and the "holy of holies," whereas hieron would designate the outer court and the temple proper.
69. Le Strange, Guy (1890). Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500. Translated from the Works of the Medieval Arab Geographers. Houghton, Mifflin. pp. 94–96. The main characteristics of the primitive Arab mosque are well exemplified in the accompanying plan representing the Jâmi' of Ibn Talûn. This is the oldest mosque in Cairo… As here seen in its simplest form, the mosque primarily consisted of an open courtyard, within which, and round its four walls, ran colonnades or cloisters, to give shelter to the worshippers. On the side of the court towards the Kiblah (in the direction of Makkah), and facing which the worshipper must stand and kneel during prayers, the colonnade, instead of being single, is, for the convenience of the increased numbers of the congregation, widened out to form the Jâmi', or "place of assembly." In the case of Ibn Talūn's Mosque, five rows of columns, with the boundary-wall, form the five transverse aisles (A to a). In the centre of the boundary-wall on the Makkah side is set the great Mihrab of the mosque (a), indicating the direction of the Kiblah. Now in all descriptions of a mosque it is taken for granted that the visitor is standing in the Court (as Sahn) of the mosque, and facing the Kiblah. Fronting him therefore is the Main-building, called the "covered-part" (al Mughattâ), or the "fore-part" (al Mukaddamah) of the mosque (A to a); while in his rear is the colonnade (B), single or double, against the wall of the courtyard, furthest from the Makkah-side, and this is called the "back" of the mosque (al Muakhkharah). The "right-hand side " of the mosque is in the neighbourhood of the colonnades (C), along the wall on the right of the Court when you face the Mihrab, and the "left-hand side" is on the opposite side (D). In the Court (as Sahn) thus enclosed, are often other buildings, such as tombs or minor chapels. In the Mosque of Ibn Tulan there is a domed building (E), originally intended to serve as the mausoleum of the founder, but which, as he died far away in Syria, was.subsequently fitted up with a water-tank to serve as a place for the ablution before prayer. Turning now to the Arab descriptions of the Haram Area at Jerusalem, the point it is of importance to remember is that the term Masjid (whence through the Egyptian pronunciation of Masgid, and the Spanish Mezquita, our word "mosque") applies to the whole of the Haram Area, not to the Aksâ alone. Masjid in Arabic means "a place of prostration (in prayer);" and therefore to revert once again to Ibn Tûlûn's Mosque, (1) the Mainbuilding, A; (2) the Court, and (3) the Colonnades at the back, B; with those (4) to the right, C; to the left, D; as also (5) the Dome E in the Court-one and all form essential parts of the mosque, and are all comprehended by the term "Al Masjid.' Bearing these points in mind, and coming to the Noble Sanctuary at Jerusalem, we find that the term "Masjid," as already stated, is commonly applied not only to the Aksâ Mosque (more properly the Jâmi', or "place of assembly," for prayer), but to the whole enclosure of the great Court, with the Dome of the Rock in the middle, and all the other minor domes, and chapels, and colonnades. The Dome of the Rock (misnamed by the Franks "the Mosque of 'Omar"), is not itself a mosque or place for public prayer, but merely the largest of the many cupolas in the Court of the Mosque, and in this instance was built to cover and do honour to the Holy Rock which lies beneath it.
70. Yavuz, Yildirim (1996). "The Restoration Project of the Masjid Al-Aqsa by Mi̇mar Kemaletti̇n (1922–26)". Muqarnas. 13: 149–164. doi:10.2307/1523257. ISSN 0732-2992. JSTOR 1523257.
71. Salameh, Khader (2009). "A New Saljuq Inscription in the Masjid al-Aqsa, Jerusalem". Levant. 41 (1): 107–17. doi:10.1179/175638009x427620. ISSN 0075-8914. S2CID 162230613.
72. 1936 Survey of Palestine map of the Old City of Jerusalem.
73. Reiter, Yitzhak (2008). Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity. Palgrave Macmillan US. pp. 21–23. ISBN 978-0-230-61271-6. During the Middle Ages, when the issue of Jerusalem's status was a point of controversy, the supporters of Jerusalem's importance (apparently after its liberation from Crusader control) succeeded in attributing to al-Quds or to Bayt-al-Maqdis (the Arabic names for Jerusalem) the status of haram that had been accorded to the sacred compound. The site was thus called al-Haram al-Sharif, or al-Haram al-Qudsi al-Sharif. Haram, from an Arabic root meaning "prohibition," is a place characterized by a particularly high level of sanctity – a protected place in which blood may not be shed, trees may not be felled, and animals may not be hunted. The status of haram was given in the past to the Sacred Mosque in Mecca and to the Mosque of the Prophet in al-Madina (and some also accorded this status to the Valley of Wajj in Ta'if on the Arabian Peninsula?). Thus, al-Masjid al-Aqsa became al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) in order to emphasize its exalted status alongside the two other Muslim sanctuaries. Although, as noted before, Ibn-Taymiyya refuted the haram status of the Jerusalem mosque, al-Aqsa's upgrading to haram status was successful and has prevailed. It became a commonly accepted idea and one referred to in international forums and documents. It was, therefore, surprising that during the 1980s the Palestinians gradually abandoned the name that had been given to the Haram/Temple Mount compound in apparent honor of Jerusalem's status as third in sanctity – al-Haram al-Sharif – in favor of its more traditional name-al-Aqsa. An examination of relevant religious texts clarifies the situation: since the name al-Aqsa appears in the Quran, all Muslims around the world should be familiar with it; thus it is easier to market the al-Aqsa brand-name. An additional factor leading to a return to the Qur'anic name is an Israeli demand to establish a Jewish prayer space inside the open court of the compound. The increased use of the name al-Aqsa is particularly striking against the background of what is written on the Web site of the Jerusalem Waqf, under the leadership of (former) Palestinian mufti Sheikh Ikrima Sabri. There it is asserted that "al Masjid al-Aqsa was erroneously called by the name al-Haram al-Qudsi al-Sharif," and that the site's correct name is al-Aqsa. This statement was written in the context of a fatwa in response to a question addressed to the Web site's scholars regarding the correct interpretation of the Isra' verse in the Quran (17:1), which tells of the Prophet Muhammad's miraculous Night Journey from the "Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque" – al-Aqsa. In proof of this, Sabri quotes Ibn-Taymiyya, who denied the existence of haram in Jerusalem, a claim that actually serves those seeking to undermine the city's sacred status. Sabri also states that Arab historians such as Mujir al-Din al-Hanbali, author of the famed fifteenth-century work on Jerusalem, do not make use of the term "haram" in connection with the al-Aqsa site. Both Ibn-Taymiyya and Mujir al-Din were affiliated with the Hanbali School of law-the relatively more puritan stream in Islam that prevailed in Saudi Arabia. The Hanbalies rejected innovations, such as the idea of a third haram. One cannot exclude the possibility that the Saudis, who during the 1980s and 1990s donated significant funds to Islamic institutions in Jerusalem, exerted pressure on Palestinian-Muslim figures to abandon the term "haram" in favor of "al-Aqsa". The "al-Aqsa" brand-name has thus become popular and prevalent. Al-Haram al-Sharif is still used by official bodies (the Organization of the Islamic Conference [OIC], the Arab League), in contrast to religious entities. The public currently uses the two names interchangeably. During the last generation, increasing use has been made of the term "al-Aqsa" as a symbol and as the name of various institutions and organizations. Thus, for example, the Jordanian military periodical that has been published since the early 1970s is called al-Aqsa; the Palestinian police unit established by the PA in Jericho is called the Al-Aqsa Division; the Fatah's armed organization is called the Al-Aqsa Brigades; the Palestinian Police camp in Jericho is called the Al-Aqsa Camp; the Web sites of the southern and northern branches of the Islamic movement in Israel and the associations that they have established are called al-Aqsa; the Intifada that broke out in September 2000 is called the al-Aqsa Intifada and the Arab summit that was held in the wake of the Intifada's outbreak was called the al-Aqsa Summit. These are only a few examples of a growing phenomenon.
74. St Laurent, B., & Awwad, I. (2013). The Marwani Musalla in Jerusalem: New Findings. Jerusalem Quarterly.
75. Jarrar, Sabri (1998). "Suq al-Ma'rifa: An Ayyubid Hanbalite Shrine in Haram al-Sharif". In Necipoğlu, Gülru (ed.). Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World (Illustrated, annotated ed.). Brill. p. 85. ISBN 978-90-04-11084-7. Al-Masjid al-Aqsa' was the standard designation for the whole sanctuary until the Ottoman period, when it was superseded by 'al-Haram al-Sharif'; 'al-Jami' al-Aqsa' specifically referred to the Aqsa Mosque, the mughatta or the covered aisles, the site on which 'Umar founded the first mosque amidst ancient ruins.
76. Grabar, Oleg (2000). "The Haram al-Sharif: An Essay in Interpretation" (PDF). Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies. Constructing the Study of Islamic Art. 2 (2). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-04-14. It is only at a relatively late date that the Muslim holy space in Jerusalem came to be referred to as al-haram al-sharif (literally, the Noble Sacred Precinct or Restricted Enclosure, often translated as the Noble Sanctuary and usually simply referred to as the Haram). While the exact early history of this term is unclear, we know that it only became common in Ottoman times, when administrative order was established over all matters pertaining to the organization of the Muslim faith and the supervision of the holy places, for which the Ottomans took financial and architectural responsibility. Before the Ottomans, the space was usually called al-masjid al-aqsa (the Farthest Mosque), a term now reserved to the covered congregational space on the Haram, or masjid bayt al-maqdis (Mosque of the Holy City) or, even, like Mecca's sanctuary, al-masjid al-ḥarâm.
77. Schick, Robert (2009). "Geographical Terminology in Mujir al-Din's History of Jerusalem". In Khalid El-Awaisi (ed.). Geographical Dimensions of Islamic Jerusalem. Cambridge Scholars Publisher. pp. 91–106. ISBN 978-1-4438-0834-7. Mujir al-Din defined al-Masjid al-Aqsā as the entire compound, acknowledging that in common usage it referred to the roofed building at the south end of the compound. As he put it (1999 v. 2, p. 45; 1973 v. 2, p. 11), the jami' that is in the core of al-Masjid al-Aqsa at the qiblah where the Friday service takes place is known among the people as "al-Masjid al-Aqsa", and (1999 v. 2, pp. 63–64; 1973 v. 2, p. 24) what is known among the people as "al-Aqsa" is the jami in the core of the masjid in the direction of the giblah, where the minbar and the large mihrab are. The truth of the matter is that the term "al-Aqsa" is for all of the masjid and what the enclosure walls surround. What is intended by "al-Masjid al-Aqsā" is everything that the enclosure walls surround. Mujir al-Din did not identify al-Masjid al-Aqsā by the alternative term "al-Haram al-Sharif". That term began to be used in the Mamluk period and came into more general use in the Ottoman period. He only used the term when giving the official title of the government-appointed inspector of the two noble harams of Jerusalem and Hebron (Nazir al-Haramavn al-Sharifayn). While Mujir al-Din did not explicitly discuss why the masjid of Bayt al-Magdis 'is not called the haram' (1999 v. 1, p. 70; 1973 v. 1, p. 7), he may well have adopted the same position as Ibn Taymiyah, his fellow Hanbali in the early 14th century (Ziyarat Bayt al-Maqdis Matthews 1936, p. 13; Iqtida' al-Sirat al-Mustaqim Mukhalafat Ashab al-Jahim Memon 1976: 316) in rejecting the idea that al-Masjid al-Aqsa (or the tomb of Abraham in Hebron) can legitimately be called a haram, because there are only three harams (where God prohibited hunting): Makkah, Madinah, and perhaps Täif. However Mujir al-Din was not fully consistent and also used al-Masiid al-Aqsã to refer to the roofed building, as for example when he referred to al-Nasir Muhammad installing marble in al-Masjid al-Aqsà (1999 v. 2, p. 161; 1973 v. 2, p. 92); he used the term al-Jami al-Aqsa in the parallel passage (1999 v. 2, p. 396; 1973 v. 2, p. 271).
78. Wazeri, Yehia Hassan (2014-02-20). "The Farthest Mosque or the Alleged Temple an Analytic Study". Journal of Islamic Architecture. 2 (3). Maulana Malik Ibrahim State Islamic University. doi:10.18860/jia.v2i3.2462. ISSN 2356-4644. S2CID 190588084. Many people think that Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa is only the mosque established south of the Dome of the Rock, where the obligatory five daily prayers are performed now. Actually, Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa is a term that applies to all parts of the Masjid, including the area encompassed within the wall, such as the gates, the spacious yards, the mosque itself, the Dome of the Rock, Al-Musalla Al-Marawani, the corridors, domes, terraces, free drinking water (springs), and other landmarks, like minarets on the walls. Furthermore, the whole mosque is unroofed with the exception of the building of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Musalla Al-Jami`, which is known by the public as Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa. The remaining area, however, is a yard of the mosque. This is agreed upon by scholars and historians, and accordingly, the doubled reward for performing prayer therein is attained if the prayer is performed in any part of the area encompassed by the wall. Indeed, Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa, which is mentioned in Almighty Allah's Glorious Book in the first verse of Sura Al-Isra' is the blessed place that is now called the Noble Sanctuary (Al-Haram Al-Qudsi Ash-Sharif) which is enclosed within the great fence and what is built over it. Moreover, what applies to the mosque applies by corollary to the wall encircling it, since it is part of it. Such is the legal definition of Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa. Regarding the concept (definition) of Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa, Shaykh `Abdul-Hamid Al-Sa'ih, former Minister of (Religious) Endowments and Islamic Sanctuaries in Jordan said: "The term Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa, for the Muslim public, denotes all that is encircled by the wall of Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa, including the gates". Therefore, (the legally defined) Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa and Al-Haram Al-Qudsi Ash-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) are two names for the same place, knowing that Al-Haram Ash-Sharif is a name that has only been coined recently.
79. Grabar, Oleg; Binyamin, Kedar (2009). Where Heaven and Earth Meet: Jerusalem's Sacred Esplanade. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-72272-9.
80. Day, John (2012). "Review: Where Heaven and Earth Meet: Jerusalem's sacred esplanade". Journal of Modern Jewish Studies. 11 (2): 293–95. doi:10.1080/14725886.2012.689206. S2CID 144286697.
81. "Provocations on Jerusalem's Holy Esplanade Must Stop Now, Secretary-General Says, Stressing Need to Respect, Uphold Status Quo at Holy Sites". 15 April 2022.
     • "Middle East Report N°159 – The Status of the Status Quo at Jerusalem's Holy Esplanade". 15 April 2022.
     • "Statement By UN Special Coordinator For The Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, On The Security Situation In Jerusalem". 15 April 2022.
82. Gonen 2003, p. 9–11.
83. Lundquist (2007), p. 103.
84. Finkelstein, Horbury, Davies & Sturdy (1999), p. 43.
85. "Temple Mount – Other sites".
86. Montefiore, Simon Sebag (2011). Jerusalem: The Biography. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 371. ISBN 978-0-307-59448-8.
87. Centre, UNESCO World Heritage. "Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 2024-03-09.
88. "Report of the 1st Extraordinary Session of the World Heritage Committee". Whc.unesco.org. Retrieved 2013-10-14.
89. "Justification for inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger, 1982: Report of the 6th Session of the World Heritage Committee". Whc.unesco.org. Retrieved 2013-10-14.
90. Sharaf, Nabil (15 May 2023). "Jerusalem's Status Quo Agreement: History and Challenges to Its Viability". Arab Center Washington DC.
91. "UNESCO. Executive Board; 200th; Decisions adopted by the Executive Board at its 200th session; 2016" (PDF). United Nations. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
92. "UNESCO adopts anti-Israel resolution on al-Aqsa Mosque". aljazeera.com. Archived from the original on 21 October 2016. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
93. Meskell, Lynn (2018). A Future in Ruins:UNESCO, World Heritage, and the Dream of Peace. Oxford University Press. pp. 165–66. mention is made of "illegal archaeological excavations" and the "continuous, intrusive archaeological demolitions and excavations in and around the Mughrabi Gate Ascent." The text notes that "damage caused by the Israeli security forces ... to the historic Gates and windows of the Qibli Mosque inside Al-Aqsa Mosque" occurred in 2014.
94. "UNESCO approves new Jerusalem resolution". www.aljazeera.com. Archived from the original on 27 October 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
95. "Commission report" (PDF). unesdoc.unesco.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 October 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
96. Eichner, Itamar (13 October 2016). "UNESCO fails to acknowledge Jewish ties to Temple Mount". Ynetnews. Archived from the original on 18 October 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
97. "Netanyahu leads angry denunciations of 'absurd' UNESCO decision". The Times of Israel. Archived from the original on 18 October 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
98. "The United States Withdraws From UNESCO". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on 8 April 2019. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
99. Harris, Gardiner; Erlangeroct, Steven (12 October 2017). "U.S. Will Withdraw From Unesco, Citing Its 'Anti-Israel Bias'". The New York Times. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 21 October 2017. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
100. "UNESCO unanimously adopts resolution on old Jerusalem". 7 April 2022.
101. Marshall J., Breger; Ahimeir, Ora (2002). Jerusalem: A City and Its Future. Syracuse University Press. p. 296. ISBN 978-0-8156-2912-2. OCLC 48940385.
102. Cohen-Hattab, Kobi; Bar, Doron (2020). The Western Wall: The Dispute over Israel's Holiest Jewish Site, 1967–2000. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-43133-1.
103. "BBC – Science & Nature – Horizon". BBC.
104. Toledot 25:21.
105. Babylonian Talmud Yoma, 54b.
106. "Jerusalem: Eye of the Universe". torah.org. Archived from the original on 2010-06-16.
107. Baker, Eric W. The Eschatological Role of the Jerusalem Temple: An Examination of the Jewish Writings Dating from 586 BCE to 70 CE. Germany: Anchor Academic Publishing, 2015, pp. 361–62.
108. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Avoda, Beit haBechira, 6:14.
109. Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi, Bernard Avishai, 'Jews Don’t Have a ‘Holiest’ Site,' Haaretz 13 May:’The point is, this kind of recklessness not only offended secular democrats, it vulgarized what “holy” has meant for most observant Jews, too. Not coincidentally, more than 85 percent of Israel’s Haredi Jews oppose prayer on the Mount, for reasons having to do with purity and impurity that cannot be resolved in “our time.” Advocates of such prayer and sacrifice tend to be, like Goren, Orthodox-nationalist zealots educated in local yeshivas and identified with the neo-Zionist settlement project. They are, like Islamists, fanatics warped by violence and nationalist fantasy – “Jewists,” not Jews.‘
110. Sam Sokol, Should Jews Be Allowed to Pray on the Temple Mount? Many Israelis Think So, Poll Shows,' Haaretz 3 May 2022: '86.5 percent of ultra-Orthodox Jews opposed prayer for reasons of halakha, while national religious (51 percent), traditional religious (54.5 percent) and traditional non-religious respondents (49 percent) supported worship on the mount for nationalist reasons. Many rabbis, and almost all ultra-Orthodox ones, prohibit their followers from ascending the Temple Mount due to concerns over ritual purity.'
111. 2 Samuel 24:18–25.
112. Pruitt 2014. King David later took the Ark to Jerusalem.
113. II Sam. xxiv. 16 et seq.; I Chron. xxi. 15 et seq.
114. Temple of Jerusalem.
115. "Moriah". Easton's Bible Dictionary. Retrieved July 14, 2008.
116. Jonker 1990, p. 656.
117. Garfinkel, Yosef; Mumcuoglu, Madeleine (2019-03-15). "The Temple of Solomon in Iron Age Context". Religions. 10 (3): 198. doi:10.3390/rel10030198. ISSN 2077-1444.
118. Stefon 2020.
119. 2 Chronicles 3:1
120. Britannica: Holy of Holies.
121. Deuteronomy 12:5–26; 14:23–25; 15:20; 16:2–16; 17:8–10; 26:2; 31:11; Isaiah 2:2–5; Obadiah 1:21; Psalms 48.
122. Genesis Rabba 79.7: "And he bought the parcel of ground, where he had spread his tent...for a hundred pieces of money." Rav Yudan son of Shimon said: 'This is one of the three places where the non-Jews cannot deceive the Jewish People by saying that they stole it from them, and these are the places: Ma'arat HaMachpela, the Temple and Joseph's burial place. Ma'arat HaMachpela because it is written: 'And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver,' (Genesis, 23:16); the Temple because it is written: 'So David gave to Ornan for the place,' (I Chronicles, 21:26); and Joseph's burial place because it is written: 'And he bought the parcel of ground...Jacob bought Shechem.' (Genesis, 33:19)." See also: Kook, Abraham Issac, Moadei Hare'iya, pp. 413–15.
123. Levine, Lee I. (2002). Jerusalem: portrait of the city in the Second Temple period (538 BCE – 70 CE) (1st ed.). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Jewish Publication Society, published in cooperation with the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. pp. 15–20. ISBN 978-0-8276-0956-3. OCLC 698161941.
124. Isaiah 2:2–3
125. Carol Delaney, Abraham on Trial: The Social Legacy of Biblical Myth, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 120.
126. Todd Gitlin, 'Apocalypse Soonest,' Tablet 11 November 2014.
127. Jonathan Klawans, Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple: Symbolism and Supersessionism in the Study of Ancient Judaism, Oxford University Press, US, 2006 p. 236: "Some analyses rest on the assumption that the ancient Jewish temple was inherently flawed, and in need of replacement. This kind of approach is contradicted by the rather significant evidence that can be marshaled to the effect that early Christians remained loyal to the Jerusalem temple, long after Jesus' death."
128. Jervell, Jacob (1996). The Theology of the Acts of the Apostles. Cambridge University Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-316-58247-3.
129. Anderson, Jeff S. (2002). The Internal Diversification of Second Temple Judaism: An Introduction to the Second Temple Period. University Press of America. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-7618-2327-8.
130. Catherine Hezser, 'The (In)Significance of Jerusalem in the Yerushalmi Talmud,' in Peter Schäfer, Catherine Hezser (eds.) The Talmud Yerushalmi and Graeco-Roman Culture, Mohr Siebeck, Vol. 2, 2000, pp. 11–49 [17].
131. Klawans, Jonathan (2013). Josephus and the Theologies of Ancient Judaism. Oxford University Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-19-992862-0.
132. Matthew 23:28.
133. Matthew 24:2.
134. Andrew Marsham, 'The Architecture of Allegiance in Early Islamic Late Antiquity,' in Alexander Beihammer, Stavroula Constantinou, Maria G. Parani (eds.), Court Ceremonies and Rituals of Power in Byzantium and the Medieval Mediterranean: Comparative Perspectives, Brill, 2013, pp. 87–114 [106].
135. Kofsky, Arieh (2000). Eusebius of Caesarea Against Paganism. Brill. p. 303. ISBN 978-90-04-11642-9.
136. Avni, Gideon (2014). The Byzantine-Islamic Transition in Palestine: An Archaeological Approach. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press Oxford. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-19-150734-2.
137. Robert Shick, 'A Christian City with a Major Muslim Shrine: Jerusalem in the Umayyad Period,' in Arietta Papaconstantinou (ed.), Conversion in Late Antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and Beyond: Papers from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, University of Oxford, 2009–2010 pp. 299–317, 300, Routledge 2016.
138. Shick, p. 301.
139. Lundquist, John M. (2008). The Temple of Jerusalem: Past, Present, and Future. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-275-98339-0.
140. Davidson, Linda Kay; Gitlitz, David M. (2002). Pilgrimage [2 Volumes]: From the Ganges to Graceland, An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: Bloomsbury Academic. p. 274. ISBN 978-1-57607-004-8.
141. Schiller, Gertud. Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. I, 1971 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London, ISBN 978-0-85331-270-3; Penny, Nicholas. National Gallery Catalogues (new series): The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, Volume I, 2004, National Gallery Publications Ltd., ISBN 978-1-85709-908-9.
142. John 4:21–24
143. Andreas J. Köstenberger, 'The Destruction of the Second Temple and the Composition of the Fourth Gospel,' in John Lierman (ed.)Challenging Perspectives on the Gospel of John, Mohr Siebeck, 2006, pp. 69–108 [101–02].
144. Avni, Gideon (2014). The Byzantine-Islamic Transition in Palestine: An Archaeological Approach. Oxford University Press Oxford. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-19-968433-5.
145. Nicolle, David (1994). Yarmuk AD 636: The Muslim Conquest of Syria. Osprey Publishing.
146. Coogan, Michael D. (2001). The Oxford History of the Biblical World. Oxford University Press. p. 443. ISBN 978-0-19-988148-2.
147. Frank, Daniel (2004). Search Scripture Well: Karaite Exegetes and the Origins of the Jewish Bible Commentary in the Islamic East. Brill. p. 209. ISBN 978-90-04-13902-2.
148. Mosaad, Mohamed. Bayt al-Maqdis: An Islamic Perspective Archived 10 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine pp. 3–8
149. "History of Al-Aqsa Mosque: Chapter one – The History of Palestine". www.mustaqim.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-03-09.
150. "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, p. 2168.)
151. Khalek, N. (2011). "Jerusalem in Medieval Islamic Tradition". Religion Compass, 5(10), pp. 624–30, 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."
152. "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.)
153. "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.)
154. 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)"
155. "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.
156. Di Cesare, M. (2017). "A Lost Inscription from the Dome of the Rock?: the Western Attitude Towards Islamic Epigraphy in 17th-Century Jerusalem", pp. 77–86.
157. Jacobson, D.M. The Enigma of the Name Īliyā (= Aelia) for Jerusalem in Early Islam. Dio, 69, 1.
158. Carroll, James (2011). Jerusalem, Jerusalem: How the Ancient City Ignited Our Modern World. HMH. ISBN 978-0-547-54905-7.
159. Buchanan, Allen (2004). States, Nations, and Borders: The Ethics of Making Boundaries. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-52575-6.
160. Vuckovic, Brooke Olson (2003). Heavenly Journeys, Earthly Concerns: The Legacy of the Mi'raj in the Formation of Islam. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-203-48747-1.
161. Martin, Richard C.; Arjom, Said Amir; Hermansen, Marcia; Tayob, Abdulkader; Davis, Rochelle; Voll, John Obert, eds. (2003). Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World. Macmillan Reference USA. p. 482. ISBN 978-0-02-865603-8.
162. Religion and the Arts, Volume 12. 2008. pp. 329–42.
163. Vuckovic, Brooke Olson (2004). Heavenly Journeys, Earthly Concerns: The Legacy of the Mi'raj in the Formation of Islam (Religion in History, Society and Culture). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-96785-3.
164. Sahih al-Bukhari 7517.
165. el-Khatib, Abdallah (1 May 2001). "Jerusalem in the Qur'ān". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 28 (1): 25–53. doi:10.1080/13530190120034549. S2CID 159680405. Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2006.
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174. Wāqidī, Muḥammad ibn ʻUmar, or 748–823 (2011). The life of Muḥammad : al-Wāqidī's Kitāb al-maghāzī. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail, Abdulkader Tayob, Andrew Rippin. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. p. 469. ISBN 978-0-415-57434-1. OCLC 539086931. Archived from the original on 30 May 2022. Retrieved 2 February 2022. When he desired to turn back to Medina, he set out from al-Jirrana on Wednesday night, twelve nights remaining in Dhul-Qada. He donned his ihram at the furthest mosque (al-masjid al-Aqsa), which was below the wadi on a remote slope. It was the place of prayer of the Messenger of God when he was in al-Jiranna. As for the closest mosque, a man from the Quraysh built it and he marked that place with it.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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289. Rabbis who support this opinion include: Mordechai Eliyahu, former Sefardi Chief Rabbi of Israel; Zalman Baruch Melamed, rosh yeshiva of the Beit El yeshiva; Eliezer Waldenberg, former rabbinical judge in the Rabbinical Supreme Court of the State of Israel; Avraham Yitzchak Kook, Chief Rabbi of Palestine (Mikdash-Build (Vol. I, No. 26) Archived 2013-09-27 at the Wayback Machine); Avigdor Nebenzahl, Rabbi of the Old City of Jerusalem.
290. These rabbis include: Rabbis Yona Metzger (Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel); Shlomo Amar (Sefardi Chief Rabbi of Israel); Ovadia Yosef (spiritual leader of Sefardi Haredi Judaism and of the Shas party, and former Sefardi Chief Rabbi of Israel); Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron (former Sefardi Chief Rabbi of Israel); Shmuel Rabinowitz (rabbi of the Western Wall); Avraham Shapiro (former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel); Shlomo Aviner (rosh yeshiva of Ateret Cohanim); Yisrael Meir Lau (former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel and current Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv). Source: Leading rabbis rule Temple Mount is off-limits to Jews Archived 2012-09-24 at the Wayback Machine.
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External links

• Templemount.org
• New Evidence of the Royal Stoa and Roman Flames. Biblical Archaeology Review.
• Virtual Walking Tour of Al-Haram Al-Sharif ("The Noble Sanctuary")
• Temple Mount Sifting Project