Islam, Jews and the Temple Mount

The Rock of Our/Their Existence

Yitzhak Reiter, Dvir Dimant

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000066791
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This study presents the first comprehensive survey of the abundant early Islamic sources that recognize the historical Jewish bond to the Temple Mount (Masjid al-Aqsa) and Jerusalem. Analyzing these sources in light of the views of contemporary Muslim religious scholars, thinkers and writers, who – in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict – deny any Jewish ties to the Temple Mount and promote the argument that no Jewish Temple ever stood on the Temple Mount.

The book describes how this process of denying Jewish ties to the site has become the cultural rationale for UNESCO decisions in recent years regarding holy sites in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron, which use Muslim Arabic terminology and overlook the Jewish (and Christian) history and sanctification of these sites. Denying the Jewish ties to the Temple Mount for political purposes inadvertently undermines the legitimacy of Islam's sanctification of Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock as well as the credibility of the most important sources in Arabic, which constitute the classics of Islam and provide the foundation for its culture and identity.

Identifying and presenting the Jewish sources in the Bible, Babylonian Talmud and exegesis on which these Islamic traditions are based, this volume is a key resource for readers interested in Islam, Judaism, religion and political science and history in the Middle East.

1
Early Islamic sources

The nature of the sources

The ancient early Islamic sources presented in this chapter appear in medieval classical literature (ninth through eleventh centuries) as a narrative of events or transmission of traditions that were initially conveyed orally and later recorded. We chose to cite these sources in the same order as the events they describe, rather than the order in which they were recorded, because later sources cite earlier ones. Many scholars believe, for example, that the literature of the Hadith – traditions attributed to the Prophet Muhammad or his companions, which were transmitted orally and later recorded – were compiled in the eighth century, about a century after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. These usually appear in compositions from the ninth century onwards.

Accordingly, the presentation of sources in this chapter follows the order of the historical events they address in a manner that corresponds with the historical continuum of the chronicles of the Temple Mount during the time of the ancient Hebrews: the First Temple, its construction and its destruction; the Second Temple, its construction and its destruction. We then present Islamic traditions that focus on the Temple Mount or mention it without reference to a particular era. In addition, we present traditions that describe Jerusalem during the period of the Muslim conquest associated with the second caliph, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab.¹ These traditions refer to the historical Jewish context of the Temple Mount before the arrival of Islam, and they indicate that the reason for choosing this site – the Temple Mount Compound – for construction of Al-Aqsa Mosque and then the Dome of the Rock stemmed from a desire to maintain monotheistic continuity of its sanctity for the Israelites.

References to the Temple Mount in its ancient Jewish context appear, as noted, in a variety of literary genres: the literature in praise of Jerusalem is best known among these, but such references also appear in Muslim chronicles, in commentary on the Quran and in geography books. The diversity of literary genres containing these traditions serves as evidence that the traditions that recognize a Jewish bond with the Temple Mount were quite prevalent throughout Muslim culture from the Middle Ages until the modern era.

The earliest references to the Temple Mount that we found were in sources from the ninth century. It is evident that the Muslim historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari² of the ninth and tenth centuries was citing earlier sources, apparently from the eighth century and perhaps even from the seventh century. The Muslim traditions that describe the Jewish Temple as standing on the site where the Dome of the Rock now stands evidently first appeared during the Umayyad dynasty, and specifically during the time of the caliphs Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, to whom construction of the Dome of the Rock is attributed (according to an inscription from the year 691/2), and his son al-Walid, to whom construction of Al-Aqsa Mosque as a permanent structure is attributed. (Some sources assert that Al-Aqsa Mosque was built earlier, and a Christian monk by the name of Arculf, who visited Jerusalem, mentioned the existence of a crude wooden mosque in the year 670.)

During the Umayyad era – in the late seventh century – there first appeared commentary according to which the “Al-Aqsa Mosque” (“Farthest Mosque”) mentioned in the Quran was located in Jerusalem, on the site recognized by Judeo-Christian culture as the Temple Mount Compound. It was during this era that the literature in praise of Jerusalem was compiled. Among these sources is “The Tradition of the Three Mosques,” attributed to the Prophet Mohammed, according to which there are three mosques to which one must make the pilgrimage: the Great Mosque of Mecca, the Mosque of the Prophet in al-Madina and Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Muslim Arabic literature preserves earlier traditions, and therefore Arab writers have continuously cited their earlier sources. Thus, for example, traditions cited in the tenth century by al-Tabari also appear in the writings of scholars from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as well as later books and up to the present. A tradition attributed to one author, such as al-Tabari, will consequently have multiple citations in the compilation The Praises of Jerusalem and Hebron and al-Sham by ibn al-Murajja (eleventh century), the writings of the fifteenth-century Jerusalemite historian Mujir al-Din al-Hanbali³ and subsequent works.

The many and varied sources presented here make it clear that the Jewish bond with the Temple Mount was widely accepted across the Muslim world throughout the entire period of Muslim rule in Jerusalem and up to the modern era – or, more precisely, until 1967, when the Temple Mount and East Jerusalem came under Israeli rule. Notably, we offer only a selected sample aimed at representing the breadth and scope of the sources, but the reader should be aware that there are many more sources of a similar nature that we have not included.

Construction of the First Temple

The period of history that has received the most extensive and in-depth attention, in terms of the connection between the Israelites and the site of the Jewish Temple, is that of King David and King Solomon, during which the First Temple was built. Islamic sources explain why David chose to build the Temple specifically on this site: “the Rock.” The Rock described in the traditions links the Temple’s site of construction to the Temple Mount Compound, where the Dome of the Rock was built in the seventh century. The renowned tenth-century Muslim historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, who also authored an important Quranic exegesis, wrote in his voluminous chronicle The History of the Prophets and Kings:⁴

David wished to know the number of Israelites.… God said to him: You know of my promise to Abraham, that I would bless him and his seed so that their number would be as the stars in the sky… and you wish to count that which I have said cannot be counted? Choose among the following – three years of famine, or three months of slavery at the hands of your enemies, or three days of a plague of death. David sought counsel among the Israelites… and the only choice was death at the hands of God and not at the hands of another.… David saw this and said to God: My Lord! It is I who ate of the unripe fruit, yet you set the teeth of the Israelites on edge?⁵ For it was I who commanded the Israelites [to count their number]. Let the punishment be mine and forgive them. And God heard his cry and removed the death from their midst. Then David saw the angels returning their swords to their sheaths and ascending a ladder of gold from the Rock to the heavens. And David said: This place is worthy of having a place of worship built upon it.⁶

This tradition, as presented by al-Tabari, in which God reproaches David for his deeds, is based in large part on a Jewish tradition, with slight modifications. The similarity between the two traditions is evidenced by comparing this with the story as it appears in the Hebrew Bible,⁷ Chronicles I, Chapter 21, verses 1–29:

1 Now Satan arose upon Israel, and he moved David to count Israel. 2 And David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, “Go count Israel from Beersheba until Dan, and bring me [word], so that I may know their number.” 3 And Joab replied, “May the Lord add to His people a hundredfold of whatsoever they may be. My lord, the king, are they not all servants to my lord? Why does my lord request this? Why should this become guilt for Israel?” 4 But the king’s word prevailed over Joab, and Joab went forth and walked throughout Israel, and came to Jerusalem. 5 And Joab gave the number of the census of the people to David, and all Israel were a thousand thousand and a hundred thousand men who draw the sword, and Judah was four hundred seventy thousand men who draw the sword. 6 But Levi and Benjamin he did not count among them because the word of the king was repugnant to Joab. 7 Now God was displeased because of this thing, and He smote Israel. 8 And David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing, and now, please put aside the iniquity of Your servant, for I was very foolish.” 9 And the Lord spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying: 10 “Go and speak to David, saying: So said the Lord: Three things I offer you; choose one of them, and I shall do it to you.” 11 And Gad came to David, and said to him, “So said the Lord; Choose which you will. 12 Either three years famine or three months in which you will be destroyed by your enemies, and the sword of your enemies will overtake you, or three days of the sword of the Lord and pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout the boundary of Israel; and now consider what I should reply to Him Who sent me.” 13 And David said to Gad, “I am greatly oppressed; let me fall now into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great, but into the hand of man let me not fall...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Early Islamic sources
• 2 Contemporary Islamic sources
• 3 Contemporary sources that recognize a Jewish bond with the Temple Mount
• Summary and conclusions
• Bibliography
• Index