Al-Aqsa Part 1

 As I said in the last post, the Muslim and Christian story about the crucifixion agrees on several points but there are some major differences which leads to different theology. However, since Muslims do not venerate the crucifixion historical places as Christians do, Christians mostly manage these places as they wish.

The main place of interest to the Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem, is Al-Aqsa. 

(Note: I've used a lot of Christian vernacular in the last few posts but I will shift to Islamic and later  Jewish vernacular.)

A simple history is that Al-Aqsa is the presumed site of the Jewish First Temple or Solomon's Temple based on narratives from the Hebrew Bible. This was destroyed by the Babylonians. Under Persian rule, the Second Temple or Herod's Temple was built. This was destroyed by the Romans. There was some early Christian interest in this site which then shifted to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Rome. The site became a dumping ground under Byzantium rule until Muslim conquest of Jerusalem when they cleared the dumping ground and built the first rendition of the Aqsa Mosque. Jerusalem remained in rotating Muslim hands (Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid, Ayyubid) until the Crusaders. About 80 years later, Muslims retook Jerusalem until the end of the Ottoman empire when the British Mandate took over Jerusalem. Control passed to Jordan then Isreal. 

Today, the Jordanian Waqf is the Jordanian organization that controls administrative matters in Al-Aqsa. Israel controls security. Their most visible presence is at the gates but are also inside the compound. 

 

(If I've missed something or made a mistake please correct me.)

Masjid Al-Aqsa means "the Furthest Mosque" referring to it's distance from Makkah. It is also referred to as Al-Haram al-Sharif or "the Noble Sanctuary". Jews refer to it as Temple Mount. 

The mosque is actually a huge square-ish compound, a vast courtyard upon which sit multiple prayer halls. However, people will pray outside in the courtyard in nice weather or when it is too full inside. 

I went everyday from March 22 to 28, almost all five times a day to Al-Aqsa to pray. I believe I missed only two prayers in the compound. That was the primary focus of the pilgrimage part of the trip. 

We got a professional tour of the compound by Ehab. Because it was not crowded like the Via Dolorosa, I was able to take a lot more notes. I'll try not to get too academic and bog you guys down in excitement and detail. 

There's Ehab.

Here's my first few steps into the Aqsa compound. It was maybe four hours after landing in Jerusalem and I think I almost disassociated from my body, I was in so much disbelief that I was seeing this place with my own eyes.

There are 10 useable gates leading into the compound that center often in politics. 

 Typically, only 3 gates are allowed to be used and the other 7 are sealed. During Ramadan (when I was there), 7 gates are opened. The Moroccan Gate is closed to Muslims and opened everyday for Jews and other visitors that are not Muslim to enter by. (We Americans, the dizzy fish, asked them to open it for us one day when we were in a rush and they said no. 😅)

Here are the major buildings in the compound. (I will give one or two major points of interest about each one but it won't cover the encyclopedia I seemed to have garnered on this trip.)

The Dome of the Rock

By the way, if a photo looks extra fancy, I didn't take it. It was either Maisarah or Gassan, the two photographers in our group.

The Dome of the Rock is the most ornate building on the site. As I understand it, every Muslim ruler made it their pride to make it fancier on their dime.

These mosaics are gilded and they have master craftsmen who are almost constantly restoring them. We were very lucky to meet the head craftsman that day. He's been doing this work for decades. 

The Dome of the Rock houses the rock from which Muslims believe prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. There is a space carved into it for prayer.

The Qibli Mosque

This stained glass rosette was installed by Crusaders.The Muslims did not make it a point to destroy changes the Crusaders had made, removing only altars and images of living things which is not permitted especially where Muslims pray. (Graven images, you know.)

There's a lot of people napping because they did the Ramadan night prayers through the night and are catching up on some sleep.

The men's wash-up area before prayer is right in front of Qibli:

Women have to take off their hijabs for pre-prayer wash up so they have some enclosed washrooms. There are a few more open ones scattered around the compound.

Musallah Marwani (partially underground)

(Yeah, that's me. Reminds me of this meme:)

 The area where Musallah Marwani is now has some tradition attached to it of housing "nuns" and Muslims believe that before Eesa was born, Maryam (Mary) spent her life devoted to the temple given in the care of her uncle Zakaria by her mother Hannah. Thus, there is a small room that is called Maryam's Mihrab or Niche which is an approximation of where she might have stayed. 

The Quranic verses speak about her uncle Zakaria coming to her mihrab to check on her and finding her with food that the temple had not provided which she said was from Allah. Upon witnessing this, Zakaria prayed for offspring in his old age and was blessed with Yahya. And that is how Eesa and Yahya are related. (Jesus and John.)

I have a sense of identity with Maryam given that I am named after her and seeing this room, I had that same creeping, surreal feeling I did walking the Via Dolorosa. Maryam, Zakaria, Eesa, Yahya, they were here. Whatever your beliefs are, you know these people existed and were here. 

Some of the creeping might have been claustrophobia. The room was small, stone and partially underground. 

There is later history too. The mosque traditionally used this underground space as cisterns for water storage. When the Crusaders conquered the city, they converted it into horse stables and called it Solomon's Stables. You can still see where they drilled into the arches to tether the horses.

After Salahuddin took Jerusalem from the Crusaders, the Muslims turned the space into storage but renamed it Salahuddin's Stables. Only fairly recently (the 90s?), did the Muslims decide to convert it into a prayer hall. However, when they cleared out the space and dumped the storage material, Jews contended that the dumped material had contained Jewish artifacts from the time of the Second Temple. Muslims claimed that the Crusaders had cleared out the whole space a long time ago.

And so it goes. 

This is getting quite long so I will stop here. Tell me if it's getting boring.