Editing Temple Mount (section)

=== Crusader and Ayyubid period ===
[[Image:Baldwin II ceeding the Temple of Salomon to Hugues de Payens and Gaudefroy de Saint-Homer.jpg|thumb|[[Baldwin II of Jerusalem]], assigning the captured [[Qibli Mosque|Al-Aqsa Mosque]] to [[Hugues de Payens]] and Godfrey]]
The Crusader period began in 1099 with the [[First Crusade]]'s capture of Jerusalem. After the city's conquest, the Crusading order known as the [[Knights Templar]] was granted use of Al-Aqsa Mosque to use as their headquarters. This was probably by [[Baldwin II of Jerusalem]] and [[Warmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem]] at the [[Council of Nablus]] in January 1120.<ref>{{cite web|last=Selwood|first=Dominic|title=Birth of the Order|url=http://www.dominicselwood.com/birth-of-the-order/|access-date=20 April 2013|archive-date=17 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131217105335/http://www.dominicselwood.com/birth-of-the-order/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Temple Mount had a mystique because it was above what were believed to be the ruins of the [[Solomon's Temple|Temple of Solomon]].<ref name=HC>[[History (U.S. TV channel)|The History Channel]], ''Decoding the Past: The Templar Code'', 7 November 2005, video documentary written by Marcy Marzuni.</ref><ref>Barber, ''The New Knighthood'', p. 7.</ref> The Crusaders therefore referred to al-Aqsa Mosque as Solomon's Temple, and it was from this location that the new Order took the name of "Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon", or "Templar" knights.

In 1187, once he retook Jerusalem, [[Saladin]] removed all traces of Christian worship from the Temple Mount, returning the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque to their Muslim purposes. It remained in Muslim hands thereafter, even during the relatively short periods of Crusader rule following the [[Sixth Crusade]].