A view of the Dome of the Rock, the earliest surviving Islamic monument, dating from the late 7th century AD.
A view of the Dome of the Rock from afar. Various explanations have been forwarded to explain the original purpose of the building. Among the most widely circulated ones are three: the caliph Abd al Malik meant to divert the qiblah from Mecca to Jerusalem. The second, which is still accepted today among Muslims, is that the building was a commemorative structure, a sort of martyrium, to mark Muhammad’s Night-Journey (isra) and Ascension (m’iraj). The most historically sound explanation of the origins of the building lies in its statement of the victory of Islam over the Sassanians and the Byzantines, and as a display of Ummayad power. It was only later that the political connotations faded away and the religious ones accrued in their stead.
Photograph created 1977. Photograph processed April 1977. Formerly cataloged as B01.003. No notes written on the slide or index.
