Dome Of The Rock

In The Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, art historian and archeologist Oleg Grabar questions the historical context of the Dome of the Rock and its direct association with early Islamic history. Grabar breaks his argument down into several parts. The first section addresses what ways the early Islamic history of the Dome of the Rock can be researched. He explains how two typical forms of cultural identification, reconstruction and dating, do not necessarily give any answers regarding the historical Islamic significance of the building because they are already known. He also explains that textual evidence is unreliable because most of the descriptive texts concerning Jerusalem rarely delve into the historical circumstances of the time. Grabar then choses three elements of the Dome of the Rock that he believes can be tied to current events of the time and provide a historically relevant reason for its construction. In the second part he defines the three elements and provides proof how the three together can be used to give reason as to why Abd al-Maliq built the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.
Question Two:
In the first section of his essay, Oleg Grabar provides proof for and against the two commonly known explanations of the Dome of the Rock’s construction. The first explanation he explores is the conception that the Dome of the Rock was built

Historical texts and religious traditions do not offer water tight answers as to why it is considered a holy Islamic monument. When the architectural evidence of location, decoration and architecture, and inscriptions are taken in historical context it’s then we can fully grasp the meaning and significance of the Dome of the Rock. It’s along with that understanding that we can draw parallels between the building and events and recreate the story of its