The Aqsa Mosque, also known as the Qibli Mosque or Qibli Chapel, is the main congregational mosque or prayer hall in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem. In some sources the building is also named al-Masjid al-Aqṣā, but this name primarily applies to the wider compound in which the building sits, which is itself also known as "Al-Aqsa Mosque", "Al-Aqsa" or "Haram al-Sharif".
According to Islamic tradition, a small prayer hall (musalla), what would later become the Al-Aqsa Mosque, was built by Umar, the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate. In the reign of the caliph Mu'awiyah I of the Umayyad Caliphate (founded in AD 661), a quadrangular mosque for a capacity of 3,000 worshipers is recorded somewhere on the Haram ash-Sharif. The current mosque, located on the south wall of the compound, was originally built by the fifth Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik () or his successor al-Walid I () (or both) as a congregational mosque on the same axis as the Dome of the Rock, a commemorative Islamic monument. After being destroyed in an earthquake in 746, the mosque was rebuilt in 758 by the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur. It was further expanded upon in 780 by the Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi, after which it consisted of fifteen aisles and a central dome. However, it was again destroyed during the 1033 Jordan Rift Valley earthquake. The mosque was rebuilt by the Fatimid caliph al-Zahir (), who reduced it to seven aisles but adorned its interior with an elaborate central archway covered in vegetal mosaics; the current structure preserves the 11th-century outline.
During the periodic renovations undertaken, the ruling Islamic dynasties constructed additions to the mosque and its precincts, such as its dome, façade, minarets, and minbar and interior structure. Upon its capture by the Crusaders in 1099, the mosque was used as a palace; it was also the headquarters of the religious order of the Knights Templar. After the area was conquered by Saladin in 1187, the structure's function as a mosque was restored. More renovations, repairs, and expansion projects were undertaken in later centuries by the Ayyubids, the Mamluks, the Ottomans, the Supreme Muslim Council of British Palestine, and during the Jordanian rule of the West Bank. Since the beginning of the ongoing Israeli occupation of the West Bank, the mosque has remained under the independent administration of the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf.
Definition
thumb|Extract of an [[1840–41 Royal Engineers maps of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria|1841 British map showing both "Mesjid el-Aksa" and "Jami el-Aksa"]]
The English term "Al-Aqsa Mosque" is the translation of two distinct Arabic terms: al-Masjid al-Aqṣā and Jāmiʿ al-Aqṣā. The former name (al-Masjid al-Aqṣā, "the furthest mosque") was first used in the Quran's Surah 17, where it referred to the whole compound of Al Aqsa, or Haram al-Sharif – there were no buildings on the site at the time the Quran was written. The latter name (Jāmiʿ al-Aqṣā) is used for the subject of this article – the silver-domed congregational mosque building. 11th-century scholar Nasir Khusraw, and 15th-century Islamic scholar Mujir al-Din, as well as 19th-century American and British Orientalists Edward Robinson, Al-Muqaddasi referred to the southern building (the subject of this article) as Al Mughattâ ("the covered-part") and Nasir Khusraw referred to it with the Persian word Pushish (also the "covered part", exactly as "Al Mughatta") or the Maqsurah (a part-for-the-whole synecdoche). "Qibli" is the name used in official publications by the governmental organization which administers the site, the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf (part of the Jordanian government), and the Jordanian government more widely. It is also the official name used by the Palestine Liberation Organization. the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (whose role is to act as "the collective voice of the Muslim world"), and UNESCO, as well as various scholars
History
Pre-construction
thumb|right|The mosque is situated at the Southern end of the Haram al-Sharif
The mosque is located on the southern part of the Temple Mount or Haram al-Sharif, an enclosure expanded by King Herod the Great beginning in 20 BCE during his reconstruction of the Second Jewish Temple. The mosque resides on an artificial platform that is supported by arches constructed by Herod's engineers to overcome the difficult topographic conditions resulting from the southward expansion of the enclosure into the Tyropoeon and Kidron valleys. During the late Second Temple period, the present site of the mosque was occupied by the Royal Stoa, a basilica running the southern wall of the enclosure.
Analysis of the wooden beams and panels removed from the mosque during renovations in the 1930s shows they are made from Lebanese cedar and cypress. Radiocarbon dating gave a large range of ages, some as old as the 9th century BCE, showing that some of the wood had previously been used in older buildings. However, reexamination of the same beams in the 2010s gave dates in the Byzantine period.
During his excavations in the 1930s, Robert Hamilton uncovered portions of a multicolor mosaic floor with geometric patterns, but did not publish them. The date of the mosaic is disputed: Zachi Dvira considers that they are from the pre-Islamic Byzantine period, while Baruch, Reich and Sandhaus favor a much later Umayyad origin on account of their similarity to a mosaic from an Umayyad palace excavated adjacent to the Temple Mount's southern wall. Moreover, the mosaic designs were common in Islamic, Jewish and Christian buildings from the 2nd to the 8th century. the al-Aqsa Mosque was used as a royal palace and also as a stable for horses. In 1119, the Crusader king accommodated the headquarters of the Knights Templar next to his palace within the building. During this period, the mosque underwent some structural changes, including the expansion of its northern porch, and the addition of an apse and a dividing wall. A new cloister and church were also built at the site, along with various other structures. The Templars constructed vaulted western and eastern annexes to the building; the western currently serves as the women's mosque and the eastern as the Islamic Museum. This restoration is commemorated by an inscription in Arabic naskhi script executed in a gilded glass mosaic panel above the mihrab. Saladin's predecessor—the Zengid sultan Nur al-Din—had also commissioned the construction of a new minbar or "pulpit" made of ivory and wood in 1168–69, which was completed after his death. Nur ad-Din's minbar was added to the mosque in November 1187 by Saladin, placed next to the mihrab.
The Ayyubid sultan of Damascus, al-Mu'azzam, built the northern porch of the mosque with three gates in 1218. In 1345, the Mamluk sultan al-Kamil Sha'ban added two naves and two gates to the mosque's eastern side. He also rebuilt the southern wall of Al-Aqsa, while Qaitbay has ordered the lead roof to be restored.
After the Ottomans assumed power in 1517, they did not undertake any major renovations or repairs to the mosque. They made architectural contributions elsewhere on the Haram, including building the Fountain of Qasim Pasha (1527) and three free-standing domes—the most notable being the Dome of the Prophet built in 1538, and restoring the Pool of Raranj. These constructions were commissioned by the Ottoman governors of Jerusalem, rather than the sultans, whose contributions were limited to additions to the existing minarets.
The mosque was damaged by the Galilee earthquake of 1837.
Severe damage was caused by the 1927 Jericho earthquake earthquake. Repairs were undertaken in 1938 and 1942.
On 20 July 1951, King Abdullah I was shot three times by a Palestinian gunman as he entered the mosque, killing him. His grandson Prince Hussein, was at his side and was also hit, though a medal he was wearing on his chest deflected the bullet.
thumb|The dome in 1982, covered in aluminum and visibly silver, following the 1969 fire, rather than the original grey lead
The site fell under Israeli control on 7 June 1967, during the Six Day War.
On 21 August 1969, a fire was started by a visitor from Australia named Denis Michael Rohan, an evangelical Christian who hoped that by burning down al-Aqsa Mosque he would hasten the Second Coming of Jesus. In response to the incident, a summit of Islamic countries was held in Rabat that same year, hosted by Faisal of Saudi Arabia, the then king of Saudi Arabia. The al-Aqsa fire is regarded as one of the catalysts for the formation of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC, now the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) in 1972.
Following the fire, the dome was reconstructed in concrete and covered with anodized aluminium, instead of the original ribbed lead enamel work sheeting. In 1983, the aluminium outer covering was replaced with lead to match the original design by az-Zahir.
In the 1980s, Ben Shoshan and Yehuda Etzion, both members of the Gush Emunim Underground, plotted to blow up the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Etzion believed that blowing up the two mosques would cause a spiritual awakening in Israel, and would solve all the problems of the Jewish people. They also hoped the Third Temple of Jerusalem would be built on the location of the mosque.
21st century
On 5 November 2014, Israeli police entered Al-Aqsa for the first time since capturing Jerusalem in 1967, said Sheikh Azzam Al-Khatib, director of the Islamic Waqf. Previous media reports of 'storming Al-Aqsa' referred to the Haram al-Sharif compound rather than the Al-Aqsa mosque itself.
During the 2026 Iran war, the mosque was closed for a period of 40 days by the Israeli authorities, marking the first time the mosque was closed on the Eid prayers since 1967. An estimated 100,000 people attended the Friday prayer the day after the mosque was re-opened.
Architecture
The rectangular al-Aqsa Mosque and its precincts cover , although the mosque itself is about in area and can hold up to 5,000 worshippers.
Dome
thumb|The silver-colored dome consists of lead sheeting
Nothing remains of the original dome built by Abd al-Malik. The present-day dome mimicks that of az-Zahir, which consisted of wood plated with lead enamelwork, but which was destroyed by fire in 1969. Today it is made of concrete with lead sheeting. The interior of the dome is painted with 14th-century-era decorations. During the 1969 burning, the paintings were assumed to be irreparably lost, but were completely reconstructed using the trateggio technique, a method that uses fine vertical lines to distinguish reconstructed areas from original ones. The second-hand material of the facade's arches includes sculpted, ornamental material taken from Crusader structures in Jerusalem. The facade consists of fourteen stone arches, most of which are of a Romanesque style. The outer arches added by the Mamluks follow the same general design. The entrance to the mosque is through the facade's central arch.
The porch is located at the top of the facade. The central bays of the porch were built by the Knights Templar during the First Crusade, but Saladin's nephew al-Mu'azzam Isa ordered the construction of the porch itself in 1217. There are 121 stained glass windows in the mosque from the Abbasid and Fatimid eras. About a fourth of them were restored in 1924.
<gallery widths="200" heights="200">
File:المسجد الأقصى من الداخل.jpg|Interior view of the mosque facing the mihrab
File:Al Aqsa mosque (17127686720).jpg|View of the hypostyle prayer hall
File:16-03-30-Jerusalem-Altstadt-RalfR-DSCF7721.jpg|view of the ceiling facing the mihrab
File:Aqsa3.jpg|Interior view of the mosque showing the mihrab, indicating the qiblah
File:Saladin Minbar-Aqsa.JPG|The doors of the Saladin Minbar, early 1900s.
File:Inscription showing contributors name to restore dome of Aqsa.jpeg|Inscription showing Quran's aayat & contributors name to restore dome of Aqsa after 1969 burning
</gallery>
The mosque's interior is supported by 45 columns, 33 of which are white marble and 12 of stone.
A great portion of the mosque is covered with whitewash, but the drum of the dome and the walls immediately beneath it are decorated with mosaics and marble. Some paintings by an Italian artist were introduced when repairs were undertaken at the mosque after an earthquake ravaged the mosque in 1927.
After its destruction by Rohan in 1969, it was replaced by a much simpler minbar. In January 2007, Adnan al-Husayni—head of the Islamic waqf in charge of al-Aqsa—stated that a new minbar would be installed; it was installed in February 2007. The design of the new minbar was drawn by Jamil Badran based on an exact replica of the Saladin Minbar and was finished by Badran within a period of five years.
The Jerusalem Waqf is responsible for administrative matters in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Religious authority on the site, on the other hand, is the responsibility of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, appointed by the government of the State of Palestine.
After the 1969 arson attack, the waqf employed architects, technicians and craftsmen in a committee that carry out regular maintenance operations. The Islamic Movement in Israel and the waqf have attempted to increase Muslim control of the Temple Mount as a way of countering Israeli policies and the escalating presence of Israeli security forces around the site since the Second Intifada. Some activities included refurbishing abandoned structures and renovating.
Ownership of the al-Aqsa Mosque is a contentious issue in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. During the negotiations at the 2000 Camp David Summit, Palestinians demanded complete ownership of the mosque and other Islamic holy sites in East Jerusalem.
Access
thumbnail|Palestinian Muslim man reading the [[Quran inside al-Aqsa Mosque]]
Muslims who are residents of Israel or visiting the country and Palestinians living in East Jerusalem are normally allowed to enter the Temple Mount and pray at al-Aqsa Mosque without restrictions. other times they are over an extended period of time. Restrictions are most severe for Gazans, followed by restrictions on those from West Bank. The Israeli government states that the restrictions are in place for security reasons.
Until 2000, non-Muslim visitors could enter the Aqsa Mosque by getting a ticket from the Waqf. That procedure ended when the Second Intifada began. Over two decades later, the Waqf still hopes negotiations between Israel and Jordan may result in allowing visitors to enter once again.
Excavations
Several excavations outside the Temple Mount took place following the 1967 War. In 1970, Israeli authorities commenced intensive excavations outside the walls next to the mosque on the southern and western sides. Palestinians believed that tunnels were being dug under the Aqsa Mosque in order to undermine its foundations, which was denied by Israelis, who claimed that the closest excavation to the mosque was some to its south. The Archaeological Department of the Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs dug a tunnel near the western portion of the mosque in 1984. According to UNESCO's special envoy to Jerusalem Oleg Grabar, buildings and structures on the Temple Mount are deteriorating due mostly to disputes between the Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian governments over who is actually responsible for the site.
In February 2007, the department started to excavate a site for archaeological remains in a location where the government wanted to rebuild a collapsed pedestrian bridge leading to the Mughrabi Gate, the only entrance for non-Muslims into the Temple Mount complex. This site was away from the mosque. The excavations provoked anger throughout the Islamic world, and Israel was accused of trying to destroy the foundation of the mosque. Ismail Haniyeh—then Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas leader—called on Palestinians to unite to protest the excavations, while Fatah said they would end their ceasefire with Israel. Israel denied all charges against them, calling them "ludicrous".
Conflicts
thumb|192px|Israeli police at one of the entrances to the mosque.
In April 2021, during both Passover and Ramadan, the site was a focus of tension between Israeli settlers and Palestinians. Jewish settlers broke an agreement between Israel and Jordan and performed prayers and read from the Torah inside the compound, an area normally off limits to non-Muslims. On 14 April, Israeli police entered the area and forcibly cut wires to speakers in minarets around the mosque, silencing the call to prayer, claiming the sound was interfering with an event by the Israeli president at the Western Wall. On 16 April, seventy thousand Muslims prayed in the compound around the mosque, the largest gathering since the beginning of the COVID pandemic; police barred most from entering the structure itself. In May 2021, hundreds of Palestinians were injured following clashes in the compound after reports of Israel's intention to proceed to evict Palestinians from land claimed by Israeli settlers.
On 15 April 2022, Israeli forces entered the Temple Mount and used tear gas shells and sound bombs to disperse Palestinians who, they said, were throwing stones at policemen. Some Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa mosque, where they were detained by Israeli police. Over 150 people ended up injured and 400 arrested. On April 5, 2023, Israeli police raided the temple, saying "agitators" who had thrown stones and fired fireworks at the police, had barricaded themselves and worshippers inside. Following the incident, militants fired rockets from Gaza into southern Israel. On 22 April 2024 Israeli police arrested 13 for incitement to violence after they were caught in the act of smuggling goats onto the site for ritual sacrifice, 3 had been arrested in 2023 for trying to smuggle lambs and goats onto the site.
See also
- List of mosques in Palestine
- Al-Juʽranah in Saudi Arabia, alternative location for Quranic "al-Aqsa mosque"