Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations The Quranic Noah and the Making of the Islamic Prophet: A Study of Intertextuality and Religious Identity Formation in Late Antiquity (original) (raw)
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The Meaning of the Dome of the Rock-published:The Islamic Quarterly, Fall 1999
1999
The meaning that the Dome of the Rock had to its creators has eluded students of Architecture. But through an interdisciplinary approach involving Art and Architecture, Religious History and Eschatology, the meaning of the Dome of the Rock is shown to be expressed in the connective symbolism shared by the three great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Furthermore, instead of being viewed as a structure in opposition to the Ka'bah at Mekkah, the Dome of the Rock is shown to be a complement to it—for as the Ka'bah looks back to Abraham, so the Dome of the Rock looks forward to the time of the end when the faith of Abraham will culminate in the final resurrection and judgment.
Providence College This collaborative and ecumenical conference provides a common forum f or leading international scholars to address the history and archaeology of this extraord inary 35-acre platform and its sacred status. The project seeks to be an agent of dialogue by bringing together diverse scholars in the humanities whose research furthers our understanding of the site and its historical context. Marking the Sacred is an opportunity for experts on the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions to engage in unique and fruitful discussions leading to a scholarly publication that will reach a worldwide academic audience in multiple disciplines.
The First Islamic Monument Kubbet'üs-Sahra (Dome of the Rock): A New Proposition
Holy places have an important part in people's lives as areas in which belief in a way becomes visualized. Jerusalem appears as the holiest common area for Judaism, Christianity and Islam which are referred to as Abrahamic religions. In Grabar's words, the city which has become the symbol of Palestine nationalism embodies significant places, structures and stories for all three religions. For Muslims, the city is important since it is the first kiblah and due to the belief that the event of Isra referred to in Qur'an/night journey and Ascension (of the prophet Mohammed) have taken place in Jerusalem. As a result of the effect of this belief, the structure which was to be named Kubbet'üs-Sahra (Dome of the Rock) was built in the holiest point of Jerusalem in 692. Researchers who have analyzed the period and the structure suggest three different views as to why the structure was built. These can be expressed as follows: 1-It was built in the memory of Prophet Mohammed's ascension; 2-Caliph Abd al-Malik got very excited upon seeing the Church of Ascension when he came to Jerusalem which was built by the order of Justinian and wished to have a similar structure built on a rock to prevent Muslims from being affected by the church; 3-The wish to have a structure built in Jerusalem which could compete with the Ka'bah and pilgrimage journey. The most researched point by the researchers along with why the structure was built is the origin of the plan of the structure. Noting that it was impossible for Muslims who did not have an art tradition to have built such a structure, it is suggested that the source of the plan was obtained from the Roman-Byzantium repertoire. What is more, the ornamentation technique and compositions are used to support this view. A new view on the origin argues in the favor of the legendary mausoleums of the ancient Arab kings which were built in Yemen area. The lack of a historical document indicates that this issue will be discussed for a long time to come. In this abstract titled The first Islamic Monument Kubbet'üs-Sahra (Dome of the Rock): A New Proposition, current discussions and views on the structure will briefly be presented and the subject will be dealt in terms of the cultural environment of the period and Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik. A new evaluation will be presented on Kubbet'üs-Sahra which can without doubt be defined as the most controversial structure not only in Islamic art, but also in terms of the cultural history of the world.
The primary sources shedding light on the origins of Islam suggest that it may have been a seventh century religious revival towards a more orthodox monotheism during the rise of an Arab kingdom. Archaeological and historical research in recent decades has shed new light and put forward hypotheses that challenge the accepted picture of the origins of Islam. E. Gibson suggests that the Quranic geography be questioned, F. M. Donner points out that Christians were important Muslim leaders in the early days of Islam, the constitution of Medina shows Jews as its signatories, coins minted in the early 7th century speak of a "commander of the believers" rather than a Muslim caliph, according to G. Avni, excavations in Palestine and Syria show centuries of joint use of places of worship by Muslims and Christians and their relatively conflict-free coexistence whereas P. Sivers sees the key event in the migration of Arabs from the Lakhmid state after the execution of its last king at the hands of the Persian Sassanid ruler. Tendencies emerged to unite the Arabs, who were then no longer connected to either Byzantium or Ctesiphon. Archaeological sources contemporaneous with the events are mainly coins, fragments of Arabic texts of the period preserved in Vienna, Berlin and Chicago, Christian chronicles of the time, but also the Quran, temple remains and an inscription on the Al-Aqsa mosque, opposing the Trinity. One can conclude from these that the early 7th C "realm of the believers" was not a political emanation of a separate religion, but rather stood in opposition above all to the tritheistic heresy within monophysitism. Against the background of the problem thus outlined, the excavations in the Lakhmid capital, Al-Hira, where the leaders of the religious and political revival of the Arabs may have originated, seem of crucial significance.
Muqarnas Online, 2017
As a monument with a disputed function and iconography, the Dome of the Chain is something of an art historical conundrum. Constructed by the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwan (r. 685–705) in 692 on the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem, it reportedly commemorates a chain tethered to the heavens that aided the Prophet King David (Dāʾūd) in the dispensation of justice. By the sixteenth century, however, the Dome of the Chain became associated with other sites of Davidic commemoration such as the Qurʾanic Mihrab of David (Miḥrāb Dāʾūd) referred to in Qurʾan 38:21–26, and was believed to be located in the western citadel of Jerusalem. Through an analysis of the Arabic primary sources, this study situates the history of the Dome of the Chain and the Qurʾanic Miḥrāb Dāʾūd within the context of the Davidic repertoire and commemorative practice in Islam. By examining changing trends of Davidic commemoration in Jerusalem from the seventh to the sixteenth centuries, this study reveals trajec...