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Construction of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem

691 CE·Culture, arts & philosophy·Levant (Jerusalem)·
691 CEDate
Culture, arts & philosophyCategory
17Empires active
Date
691 CE
Category
Culture, arts & philosophy
Region
Levant (Jerusalem)
Era
Post-Classical / Medieval
Significance

The Dome of the Rock, completed around 691–692 CE under the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik, is the oldest surviving monument of Islamic architecture and the earliest major religious building erected by a Muslim ruler.

Built atop the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif) in Jerusalem, enclosing the rock associated in Muslim tradition with Muhammad's Night Journey and ascension, its gilded dome and rich mosaics deliberately rivalled the nearby Christian Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Erected as Abd al-Malik emerged victorious from the Second Fitna, the shrine asserted the permanence and confidence of Islamic rule in a city sacred to Jews and Christians and proclaimed Islam as the culmination of the Abrahamic tradition. Its interior carries some of the earliest monumental Arabic inscriptions, including Quranic verses and explicit affirmations of Muhammad's prophethood, dated by the building's founding inscription. Architecturally it fused Byzantine and Sasanian techniques into a new Islamic idiom, and it remains one of the most recognisable and contested holy sites in the world, a touchstone of Islamic identity and of the layered sacred geography of Jerusalem.

See the world map in 691 CE →More culture, arts & philosophyThe Post-Classical / Medieval era

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