The Minbar of the al-Aqsa Mosque, also known as the Minbar of Saladin, was a notable historic ''

minbar A minbar (; sometimes romanized as ''mimber'') is a pulpit in a mosque where the imam (leader of prayers) stands to deliver sermons (, ''khutbah''). It is also used in other similar contexts, such as in a Hussainiya where the speaker sits and lec ...

'' (

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

in a

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers (sujud) are performed, in ...

) inside 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 situate ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. It was originally commissioned by Nur al-Din in 1168-69 CE in

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

and was later moved to Jerusalem after the city was conquered in 1187 by Salah ad-Din (Saladin). It was one of the most famous historic minbars of the Muslim world and was considered by scholars to be a highly significant object of medieval

Islamic art Islamic art is a part of Islamic culture and encompasses the visual arts produced since the 7th century CE by people who lived within territories inhabited or ruled by Muslim populations. Referring to characteristic traditions across a wide ra ...

. The minbar remained in the mosque until 1969 when it was destroyed by an arson fire set by a disturbed Australian Christian. A reconstruction of the minbar created by an international team of experts in

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

was installed in its place in 2007.

Historical background

Nur al-Din (ruled 1146–1174) started his career as the

Atabeg Atabeg, Atabek, or Atabey is a hereditary title of nobility of Turkic origin, indicating a governor of a nation or province who was subordinate to a monarch and charged with raising the crown prince. The first instance of the title's use was wit ...

of Aleppo but subsequently conquered

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

and unified much of Syria under

Zengid The Zengid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Oghuz Turkic origin, which ruled parts of the Levant and Upper Mesopotamia on behalf of the Seljuk Empire and eventually seized control of Egypt in 1169. In 1174 the Zengid state extended from Tripoli to ...

rule, positioning himself as the main military opponent of the Crusader states. He commissioned the construction of the minbar in 1168-69 (564 AH) in anticipation of recapturing Jerusalem, promising to install it in the al-Aqsa Mosque. This act and promise thus had both religious and political significance, denoting Nur al-Din's role as leader of the Muslim counter-crusade. The minbar of a mosque was itself symbolically significant as it was not only one of the only major formal furnishings of a mosque but it was also the setting for the weekly Friday sermon (''

khutba ''Khutbah'' ( ar, خطبة ''khuṭbah'', tr, hutbe) serves as the primary formal occasion for public preaching in the Islamic tradition. Such sermons occur regularly, as prescribed by the teachings of all legal schools. The Islamic tradition ...

''), which usually mentioned the name of the current Muslim ruler and included other public announcements of a religious or political nature. The minbar was manufactured in Aleppo and, once finished, was placed in the

Great Mosque of Aleppo The Great Mosque of Aleppo ( ar, جَـامِـع حَـلَـب الْـكَـبِـيْـر, ''Jāmi‘ Ḥalab al-Kabīr'') is the largest and one of the oldest mosques in the city of Aleppo, Syria. It is located in al-Jalloum district of the A ...

until it could be moved to its intended location. It was seen by

Ibn Jubayr Ibn Jubayr (1 September 1145 – 29 November 1217; ar, ابن جبير), also written Ibn Jubair, Ibn Jobair, and Ibn Djubayr, was an Arab geographer, traveller and poet from al-Andalus. His travel chronicle describes the pilgrimage he made to M ...

in 1182, who praised its beauty in his writings. Nur al-Din had also commissioned other minbars in the cities under his control, such as the minbar commissioned for the mosque he founded in Hama (the

Nur al-Din Mosque The Nur Al-Din Mosque ( ar, جَامِع نُور ٱلدِّين, Jāmiʿ Nūr ad-Dīn, transliteration: ''Jami Nur al-Din'') is a Zengid-era mosque in Hama, Syria.Saladin), who had also taken control of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

from the

Fatimids The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a dyn ...

, succeeded him as sultan. Salah ad-Din eventually realized his uncle's goal of capturing Jerusalem after a siege in 1187. Upon his victory, he moved the minbar to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, where it remained until the 20th century.

Description

The minbar is considered one of the finest examples of woodwork art from medieval Syria, and one of the most significant historic minbars of the Muslim world for both its artistic and symbolic merits. It was made of interlocking pieces of

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts ...

wood decorated with inlaid mother-of-peal, ivory, and

ebony Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus ''Diospyros'', which also contains the persimmons. Unlike most woods, ebony is dense enough to sink in water. It is finely textured and has a mirror finish when pol ...

. Composed of a total of about 6500 pieces, it was held together without glue or metal nails by using an interlocking technique (''ta'shiq'') also found in other major works of its kind, aided by wooden nails or pins. Like other minbars, it took the form of a staircase with a doorway portal at its bottom and a kiosk structure at its summit. The doorway contained an ornate arch of alternating curved and straight lines, surrounded by surfaces carved with intricate

arabesque The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements. Another definition is "Foli ...

s, while the doors themselves consisted of two panels carved with geometric motifs featuring six-pointed stars. Both the top of the portal and the contour of the copula were crowned with

gilded Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...

muqarnas Muqarnas ( ar, مقرنص; fa, مقرنس), also known in Iranian architecture as Ahoopāy ( fa, آهوپای) and in Iberian architecture as Mocárabe, is a form of ornamented vaulting in Islamic architecture. It is the archetypal form of ...

'' sculpting. The flanks of the minbar were decorated with several star-shaped and

octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

al geometric patterns which were also carried into the

balustrades A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

of the stairs, which were made of turned wood or '' mashrabiyya''. The balustrades were in turn framed by a long

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

inscription Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

in a cursive script.

Calligraphic Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

inscriptions are also found in various locations on the sides of the minbar. The inscriptions include Qur'anic verses, a description of its creation by Nur al-Din, and, notably, the signatures of five different craftsmen who created the minbar, including a master craftsman called Al-Akharini. File:Saladin Minbar-Aqsa.JPG, The front portal of the minbar File:The Temple area. Mosque el Aksa (i.e., al-Aqsa), Int(erior). Details of pulpit. Sectional front view. LOC matpc.02509.jpg, The portal and doors File:El Aksa (i.e., al-Aqsa) Mosque. Cedar pulpit. Close up of carving LOC matpc.03249.jpg, The side of the minbar File:El Aksa (i.e., al-Aqsa) Mosque. Cedar pulpit. Details of carving LOC matpc.03251.jpg, Close-up of the decorative details on the side of the minbar File:The Temple area. Mosque el Aksa (i.e., al-Aqsa), Int(erior). Details of pulpit. The central side panel. LOC matpc.02512.jpg, Close-up of the decorative details, with one of the inscriptions containing a craftsman's signature

Destruction and reconstruction

On August 21, 1969, Michael Rohan, a disturbed Australian Christian

fundamentalist Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that is characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishing ...

, entered the mosque and set fire to the pulpit. The resulting blaze destroyed the pulpit and damaged the surrounding area of the mosque, including the historic ''

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 ...

''. The mosque underwent repairs and restoration over time, but the replacement of the minbar was a more complicated task which was not completed until 2007. The few surviving pieces of the original wooden minbar were moved to the Islamic Museum on the

Haram al-Sharif The Temple Mount ( hbo, הַר הַבַּיִת, translit=Har haBayīt, label=Hebrew language, Hebrew, lit=Mount of the House

f the Holy F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. His ...

, also known as al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf (Arabic: الحرم الشريف, lit. 'The Noble Sanctuary'), al- ...

(Temple Mount). A "Reconstruction Committee" based in Jordan was charged with reconstructing the minbar. An expert artist from Jerusalem, Jamal Badran al-Maqdisi, was hired to draw life-scale reproductions of the minbar's pieces and its decoration, based on the few surviving pieces of the original minbar, on photographs of the minbar before its destruction, and on comparisons with similar minbars and decorative objects contemporary with the minbar's original creation. A local engineering consultant office, ''Al-Mihrab for Islamic Architecture'', was hired to reproduce the drawings in digital form. A local university in Amman, Al-Balqa Applied University, was charged with implementing the physical reconstruction under the direction of Dr. Mahmoud al-Balbisi. A team of 30 carpenters specialized in various aspects of woodworking were assembled from many different Muslim-majority countries including

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. In ...

, and Jordan. The pieces of the minbar were crafted out of walnut wood, like the original. The pieces were then assembled in Amman first in order to compare the overall work with the appearance of the original minbar and to make further calibrations. Once the process was finished, the minbar was disassembled again and shipped in pieces to the al-Aqsa mosque, where it was reassembled on site.

References

{{Reflist

Historical background

Description

Destruction and reconstruction

See also

References

Further reading