Jerusalem (Baitu-l-Maqdis)
... The Masjidu-l-Aqsa
4 (the Furthest Mosque) lies at the south-eastern corner of the city.
Its foundations were laid by David, each stone being ten cubits, or a little less in length. The stones are chiselled,
finely faced, and jointed, and of hardest material. On these foundations ‘Abdu-l-Malik subsequently built,
5 using smaller but well-shaped
stones and battlements were added above. This mosque was even more beautiful] than that of Damascus,
1 but
in the days of the
‘Abbäsides an earthquake occurred which threw down most of the main building; all, in fact, except the part around the mihräb.
Now when the Caliph of that day
2 obtained news of this, he enquired and learned the not all the sums in the treasury would
suffice to restore the mosque to its former state. So he wrote to the Governors of the Provinces and to other Commanders,
directing that each should undertake the building of a colonnade. The order was carried out, and the edifice rose firmer though
less elegant than it had been; and the more ancient portion remained, even like a beauty spot, in the midst of the new.
Footnotes
4 So. called from Qur'än xvii.l. The name al-Aqsä originallÿ applied to the whole temple area,
but is now generally confined to the building at the south end of the Haram. It was built by order
of the caliph ‘Umar, on the site of Justinian’s church of St. Mary.‘
The great sanctuary of Jerusalem is now known as the Mosque of ‘Umar.
5 The Mosque was commenced in A.D. 683, and completed in three years.
1 MS. C adds: For during the building of it they had for a rival and as a comparison the great church (the Church of the Holy Sepulchre)
belonging to the Christians at Jerusalem, and they built this to be even more magnificent than that other.
3 Said to have been the caliph al-Mahdi (AD. 774-785); but after the great earthquake, it was al-Ma’mün who restored the buildings of
the sanctuary. His name is still rend on a Cufic inscription on the Dome of the Rock.
