For our Jerusalem ...

         I still remember clearly the last time i visited Jerusalem, i was in the fifth grade, today after 15 years i still remember that visit like it was yesterday . Although Jerusalem is only 65 km. far from Nablus, interring the city is more complicated than you think.  Every sense of beauty in Jerusalem comes from the heart of the contradictions and the diversity of its landmarks and its embrace of the three monotheistic religions . In this blog I will try to describe briefly and clearly the most prominent landmarks in Jerusalem, namely: the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque.

           The Dome of the Rock

            The poet Tamim Al-barghoti wrote  wonderful lines in describing the beauty of the Dome of the Rock in Arabic , i translated them and i hope i kept the same beauty of them :

"In Jerusalem the definition of beauty is a blue octagon

surmounted by a golden dome

seems in my opinion like a convex mirror where you see the face of the sky summarized on it" 

            We can conclude from these lines that the poet describes the Dome of the Rock not  Al-Aqsa mosque i, as the Dome of the Rock is one of the features of  Al Aqsa Mosque. The Dome of the Rock is the most important and the most prominent landmarks of Islamic architecture and is also the oldest Islamic building conservative  its shape and decoration. The Dome was  built by the  Umayyad Caliph Abdul Malik bin Marwan, where he began to build in  685 AD, and finished in 691 AD, the construction was supervised by the engineers : Raja Ben Haywah Al-kindi and Yzid bin Mawla .

             

                The Dome of the Rock is an octagonal building has four doors, and within the appreciation of other based on the pillars and columns drum, inside a circle surrounding a "Rock" by which the Prophet Muhammad ascended (Pray God be upon him) the night of Isra and Mi'raj. 

           It is estimated that the Rock height of about 1.5 meters, which is irregularly and shaped diameter ranges between 13 and 18 meters, and above the Dome of the Rock in the middle circular diameter of about 20 meters, painted from the outside panels of gold, 35 m height, topped by a crescent height of 5 meters as clear in the photos below :

              Under the Rock there is a  cave which is an old  niche : called Chapel of the prophets, you can reach it from the south side through eleven stairs . The shape of the niche is almost  a square , the length of each side about four and a half meters, and has a ceiling height of three meters, and in the ceiling gap to widen the one-meter at the door arch compartment on the marble columns, as in the picture below: 

                 

  Most of the corridors and walls inside the chapel are covered with mosaic, showing Islamic art in the decoration to form a functional unit in a harmonious and configuration method, where the stone mosaics were made locally. The most beautiful in the decoration are the  Quran verses at the top of the polygon arcs where the verses where wrote in oldest handwriting called  Galilee handwriting.. Ath photos below some of these decorations from inside and outside the Dome of the Rock :         

You can visit those links for further reading :

http://www.eslam.de/arab/begriffe_arab/21qaf/felsendom.htm

http://alqudslana.com/index.php?action=article&id=66

             Al-Aqsa Mosque

                Al-Aqsa Mosque is the name of all the buildings located inside the old walled city of Jerusalem at the southeastern corner of Jerusalem city in general . Al-aqsa Mosque  includes the Dome of the Rock and which is  located at the heart of it ,  and the whole clan (domed lead-black) and the fact the extreme southern point of direction, in addition to about 200 teachers located within the boundaries of the Al Aqsa Mosque and Msaagd vary between buildings and domes and water fountains and terraces and corridors of science and Madras and niches and pulpits and minarets and doors and wells and libraries and arenas in addition to the Islamic Museum. Al-Aqsa Mosque is located in the south-eastern corner of the walled city of Jerusalem, as shown below:

               Al-masjed Al-qibli ( what people call it Al-aqsa Mosque ) 

The rectangular al-Aqsa Mosque and its precincts are 144,000 square meters (1,550,000 sq ft), although the mosque itself is about 35,000 square meters (380,000 sq ft) and could hold up to 5,000 worshipers. It is 272 feet (83 m) long, 184 feet (56 m) wide

                The first renovation in the 20th-century occurred in 1922, when the Supreme Muslim council  under Amin al-Husayni (the Grand mufti of Jerusalem ) commissioned Turkish architect Ahmet Kemalettin Bey to restore al-Aqsa Mosque and the monuments in its precincts. The council also commissioned British architects, Egyption engineering experts and local officials to contribute to and oversee the repairs and additions which were carried out in 1924–25 by Kemalettin. The renovations included reinforcing the mosque's ancient Umayyad foundations, rectifying the interior columns, replacing the beams, erecting a scaffolding , conserving the arches and drum of the main dome's interior, rebuilding the southern wall, and replacing timber in the central nave with a slab of concrete. The renovations also revealed Fatimid-era mosaics and inscriptions on the interior arches that had been covered with plastwork . The arches were decorated with gold and green-tinted gypsum and their timber tie beams were replaced with brass.  A quarter of the stained glass windows also were carefully renewed so as to preserve their original Abbasid and Fatimid designs.Severe damage was caused by the 1927 and 1937 earthquakes, but the mosque was repaired in 1938 and 1942.

For further reading you can visit the following link :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Aqsa_Mosque

                

The overall objective of this blog is to clarify the differentiate  between Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock , also to draw attention to its  religious importance .These sacred landmarks are  subjected daily to threats, desecration and abuse by the occupation forces in an attempt to obliterate these monuments and Judaize it and deny the right of Muslims in them and to drop Islamic character of them. Jerusalem is a right of every Muslim, not just every Palestinian, and we must defend it by all means available, even through words , as is the case with this blog ..