Dome of the Prophet (Temple Mount, 2008)

The Dome of the Prophet ( ar, قبة النبي, Qubbat an-Nabi), also known as the Dome of the Messenger and the Dome of Muhammed ( tr, Muhammed Kubbesi) is a free-standing

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

located on the Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa enclave, in Quds. It is located on the northwest part of the elevated platform where the

Dome of the Rock The Dome of the Rock ( ar, قبة الصخرة, Qubbat aṣ-Ṣakhra) is an Islamic shrine located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, a site also known to Muslims as the ''al-Haram al-Sharif'' or the Al-Aqsa Compound. Its initial ...

stands and it is near the

Dome of the Ascension The Dome of the Ascension ( ar, قبة المعراج ) is a small Islamic free-standing domed structure built by the Umayyads that stands just north the Dome of the Rock (Arabic: قبة الصخرة Qubbat aṣ-Ṣakhra) on the al-Aqsa comp ...

History

Originally, built during the Umayyad period, the dome was subsequently destroyed by the Crusaders. In 1539, the dome was rebuilt by Muhammad Bek, Ottoman Governor of Jerusalem during the regin of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Its last renovation was in the reign of Sultan Abdul al-Majid II. Several

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

writers, most notably

al-Suyuti Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti ( ar, جلال الدين السيوطي, Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī) ( 1445–1505 CE),; (Brill 2nd) or Al-Suyuti, was an Arab Egyptian polymath, Islamic scholar, historian, Sufi, and jurist. From a family of Persian or ...

and al-Vâsıtî claimed that the site of the dome is where Muhammad led the former prophets and angels in prayer on the night of Isra and Mir'aj before ascending to

Heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...

. Endowment documents from the Ottoman period indicate that a portion of the endowment of the

al-Aqsa Mosque Al-Aqsa Mosque (, ), also known as Jami' Al-Aqsa () or as the Qibli Mosque ( ar, المصلى القبلي, translit=al-Muṣallā al-Qiblī, label=none), and also is a congregational mosque located in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is situa ...

and Haseki Sultan Imaret was dedicated to maintain the lighting of an oil-lamp in the Dome of the Prophet each night.Al Masjidul Aqsa Site Plan
Al-Aqsa Friends 2007.

Architecture

The Dome of the Prophet's octagonal structure is built atop eight gray marble columns.Jacobs, Daniel
Israel and the Palestinian Territories
Rough Guides, p.350. . The dome, which is covered with sheet lead and being without walls, is hemispherical and is supported by pointed arches decorated with red, black and white stones. The ancient ''

mihrab Mihrab ( ar, محراب, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "qibla w ...

'' is made of a white marble slab embedded in the floor and surrounded by red-colored stones and subsequently delimited by a low wall, that traditionally opened in the north to allow entrance of Muslim believers heading southward to

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...

in Muslim prayers.Prophet's Dome
Archnet Digital Library.

References

External links

{{Old City (Jerusalem) Buildings and structures completed in 1538 Temple Mount Buildings and structures of the Ottoman Empire Architecture in the State of Palestine Shrines in Jerusalem 1538 establishments in the Ottoman Empire Religious buildings and structures with domes