The Dome of the Rock (Arabic: قبة الصخرة Qubbat al-Sakhrah, Hebrew: כיפת הסלע Kippat ha-Sela) is an Islamic shrine located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. It was initially completed in 691–92 CE at the order of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik during the Second Fitna on the site of the Second Jewish Temple, destroyed during the Roman Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. The original dome collapsed in 1015 and was rebuilt in 1022–23. The Dome of the Rock is in its core one of the oldest extant works of Islamic architecture.
The Foundation Stone the temple was built over bears great significance in the Abrahamic religions as the place where God created the world and the first human, Adam. It is also believed to be the site where Abraham attempted to sacrifice his son Isaac, and as the place where God's divine presence is manifested more than in any other place, towards which Jews turn during prayer. The site's great significance for Muslims derives from traditions connecting it to the creation of the world and the belief that the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey to heaven started from the rock at the center of the structure.
Dome of the Rock in Alpha and Omega[]
The importance of Dome of the Rock to Islam became a further point of contention between the Muslim world and the State of Israel. After Israel captured the Dome during the short 1967 war, the Israeli government invested the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf with the authority manage the Dome and the Temple Mount. However, devout Jews wanted to pull the Muslim structures down and build the Third Temple on the site of the Second Temple. Muslims denied that the Temple Mount was the location of the Second Temple.
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