Dome of the Rock

Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque

View of the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque on Temple Mount
in the ancient city of Jerusalem. by Sarah Ferguson (2009)
copyright: 2009 Sarah Ferguson
photographed place: Ierusalem, Hierosolyma, 
Col. Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem)
[http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/687928/]

Published by the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
as part of the Ancient World Image Bank (AWIB).
[http://www.nyu.edu/isaw/awib.htm].

images source: http://maps.google.com

Dome of The Rock

-       Completed in 691

-       The earliest remaining Islamic monument; most probably the first major artistic endeavor of the Umayyads  (Ettinghausen and Grabar, 1987)

-       Literary or epigraphic sources do not give the original reasons for its erection  (idem)

-       Traditionally associated with the Night Journey of the Prophet Muhammad

-       Its location, form, iconographic elements suggests a political-ideological perspective: the temporal victory of Islam, the - at least partial - reclamation of the symbolic heritage of the monotheistic religions in ancient sacred grounds, an implicit dynastic claim or association on the site of the ancient Temple of Solomon, the theological completion and supersession of both Judaism and Christianity (idem)

Axonometric Drawing of the Holy Site of Mount Moriah, Jerusalem

from Dan Bahat, THE ILLUSTRATED ATLAS OF JERUSALEM, 1989, Simon & Schuster

image source:  Islamic Architecture by Takeo Kamiya

 Dome of The Rock - plan and model

image source:  Islamic Architecture by Takeo Kamiya

Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem
(first erected by Constantine, reconstructed 1048 AD)

 

- According to Cresswell, the measurements of the Dome of the Rock are related to the measurements of the Church of The Holy Sepulcher.

- The Dome of the Rock is built in the shape of a Byzantine martyrium: a shrine for the relics of saints.

-  In its turn, the Byzantine form can be related to the Roman mausoleum.
- The Church of the Ascension in Jerusalem (378), and the Church of San Vitalis in Ravenna, Italy (540 AD) have plans, geometric and architectural elements,  as well as measuraments close or identical to the Dome of The Rock. (Ecochard quoted by Stierlin, 1996)

Mausoleum of Augustus  built by the Roman Emperor Augustus in 28 BC

 

Dome of the Rock Interior

 

 interior photographed in 1915

The decoration of the Dome of The Rock shows Byzantine techniques, materials and forms, and it was created by Byzantine artisans. However, as with the dome form, that makes its first appearance here and  would later develop into a specific Islamic architectural element, the decorative motifs and forms reveal some Oriental, that is, Mesopotamian and Persian influences, and the absence of representations of human and animals discloses the initial steps of an aesthetics guided by the doctrinal stipulations of the faith.

MGL