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A Sacred City of Islam

You have already learned about the Arabs conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries. It is important to note that these conquests included Jerusalem because this city is important to Jews, Christians, Muslims, and later historical developments. Its future political status is one of the major unresolved issues in the modern Arab-Israeli conflict.

As you have learned, Jerusalem was the capital of independent Jewish kingdoms and remains the location of Judaism’s holiest place, the site where the Jewish Temple stood. The city is also sacred to Christians because the New Testament recounts that Jesus preached, died, and was resurrected there. Continue reading to learn about the city’s importance to Islam.

Jerusalem is Islam’s third holiest city after Mecca and Medina. The Qur’an, the sacred text of Islam, states that Muhammad experienced a miraculous journey from Mecca to "the farthest mosque", which Muslims usually identify with the Noble Sanctuary in Jerusalem. The Noble Sanctuary is the Muslim name for the hill on which the Jewish Temple once stood and on which the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock stand today. From there, Muslims believe Muhammad ascended to heaven before returning to Mecca. According to tradition, the entire journey took place in a single night.

Jerusalem is also important to Islam because of the religion’s relationship to Judaism and Christianity. Islam teaches that many of the important figures in Judaism and Christianity were prophets and Muslims revere these individuals. Since many of these individuals including King David, King Solomon and Jesus were closely associated with Jerusalem, Muslims see the city as important and holy.

This importance of Jerusalem in Islam is shown by the fact that, according to Muslim tradition, Muhammad and his followers originally prayed facing in the direction of the city. Muslim tradition states that after the Muslim community fled to Medina, the direction of prayer was changed to face the Ka’aba in Mecca.

The Noble Sanctuary is the Muslim name for the site where the Jewish Temple stood before the Romans destroyed it in 70 CE. According to Muslim tradition, when Jerusalem surrendered to Caliph Umar in 637, he visited the site and found that the Romans had used it as a garbage dump! He cleared the site and built a mosque nearby. Approximately 50 years later, another caliph, Abd al-Malik, constructed the Dome of the Rock on the site where Muslims believed Muhammad ascended to heaven. He then began building the al-Aqsa Mosque, which was completed by his son, near this shrine. The Al-Aqsa Mosque was built on the site of Umar’s mosque. It is one of the most important centers of Muslim worship in the world.

This is a picture of the Dome of the Rock. Why do you think it is decorated so beautifully?

Jerusalem remained under Muslim rule for 462 years. Then, in 1099, crusaders (Christian soldiers who were answering the pope’s 1095 call to regain the “Holy Land”) arrived. They massacred almost every Muslim and Jewish inhabitant of Jerusalem. The Crusaders then established a series of states along the Mediterranean coast. The Muslim leader Saladin conquered Jerusalem in 1187. But some of the crusader states held on for more than a hundred years longer.

Between 1095 and 1272, Europeans launched nine crusades. Most, but not all, focused on establishing or protecting Christian states in the Middle East. Of these crusades, several never reached their final destination. For example, crusaders attacked the Christian Byzantine Empire instead of continuing to Egypt and the Holy Land in the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204). It is important to note that while the crusades are seen primarily as religious conflicts, political ambitions were also extremely important. In fact, even during the period of the crusader states, Muslim and Christian rulers allied with each other against their co-religionists to advance their political interests. This demonstrates the complexities that almost always exist in any conflict.

The crusades still influence modern events, perhaps most notably by fueling some Muslims’ distrust of the West.

LEARN MORE The The History of Jerusalem

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A Short Timeline of Majot Political and Religious Events in Jerusalem

c. 1000 BCE	Jerusalem became the capital of the Kingdom of Israel
c. 962 BCE	Construction of the First Temple
586 BCE	Babylonians destroy most of the city including the First Temple
539 BCE	Cyrus the Great of Persia conquers the Babylonian Empire and allows Jews to return to Jerusalem and to begin rebuilding the Temple
332 BCE	Alexander the Great conquers the city from the Persians; it will remain under Greek rule until the Maccabean revolt
164 BCE	The Maccabees, Jewish rebels who wanted to preserve their religion and traditional practices, capture Jerusalem and rededicate the Temple
63 BCE	Rome begins to dominate politics in the city
6 CE	Jerusalem becomes part of the Roman Empire
c. 29 CE	Jesus enters Jerusalem
70 CE	The Romans destroy the Second Temple during the First Roman-Jewish War
621 CE	Traditional date that Muslims believe Muhammad’s Night Journey occurred
637 CE	Muslim Arab forces capture the city from the Christian Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire; the city will be part of various Muslim empires and kingdoms until the First Crusade
691 CE	The Dome of the Rock is built on the site where the Jewish Temple once stood
1099 CE	Jerusalem captured by Christian Crusaders who slaughter most of the Muslim and Jewish inhabitants
1187 CE	Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria, captures Jerusalem from the crusaders; the city will be part of various Muslim empires and kingdoms until World War I in the 20th century
1517 CE	The Ottoman Empire captures Jerusalem
1917 CE	Britain captures Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire during World War I
1949 CE	Israel proclaims Jerusalem its capital following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War; the city is divided with Israel controlling West Jerusalem and Jordan controlling East Jerusalem
1967 CE	Following the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Israel declares Jerusalem unified and that Jews, Christians, and Muslims will each control their religion’s holy places and buildings
1977 CE	Anwar Sadat, president of Egypt, becomes the first Arab leader to visit Israel when he travels to Jerusalem

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Saladin became an inspirational figure to many Arabs in the 20th century. They remembered him for defeating the crusaders, who these Arabs compared to Western imperialists of the modern era. They viewed his empire as a time of relative Arab prosperity, achievement, and unity.

The Eagle of Saladin, which many people believe was Saladin’s personal symbol, became part of the coat of arms of several Arab governments including Egypt, the Palestinian National Authority, Yemen, and Iraq. The image above is the Flag of Egypt. The figure in the center is the Egyptian coat of arms, which includes the Eagle of Saladin. Why do you think that the Eagle of Saladin was included in the coat of arms of several Arab governments?