Editing Al-Aqsa Mosque (section)

===Umayyad period===
[[File:Jerusalem_Tempelberg_BW_1.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|The mosque along the southern wall of al-Haram al-Sharif]]

A mostly wooden, rectangular mosque on the Temple Mount site with a capacity for 3,000 worshippers is attested by the [[Gaul|Gallic]] monk [[Arculf]] during his pilgrimage to Jerusalem in {{circa|679–682}}.{{sfn|Elad|1999|pp=31–32}}{{sfn|Grabar|1986|p=340}} Its precise location is not known.{{sfn|Grabar|1986|p=340}} The art historian [[Oleg Grabar]] deems it likely that it was close to the present mosque,{{sfn|Grabar|1986|p=340}} while the historian Yildirim Yavuz asserts it stood at the present site of the Dome of Rock.{{sfn|Yavuz|1996|p=153}} The architectural historian [[K. A. C. Creswell]] notes that Arculf's attestation lends credibility to claims by some Islamic traditions and medieval Christian chronicles, which he otherwise deems legendary or unreliable, that the second [[Rashidun]] [[caliph]], [[Umar]] ({{reign|634|644}}), ordered the construction of a primitive mosque on the Temple Mount. However, Arculf visited [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] during the reign of Caliph [[Mu'awiya I]] ({{reign|661|680}}), founder of the [[Bilad al-Sham|Syria]]-based Umayyad Caliphate.{{sfn|Elad|1999|pp=31–32}} Mu'awiya had been governor of Syria, including [[Jund Filastin|Palestine]], for about twenty years before becoming caliph and his accession ceremony was held in Jerusalem. The 10th-century Jerusalemite scholar [[Ibn Tahir]] claims Mu'awiya built a mosque on the Haram.{{sfn|Elad|1999|p=33}}

There is disagreement as to whether the present al-Aqsa Mosque was originally built by the Umayyad caliph [[Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan|Abd al-Malik]] ({{reign|685|705}}) or his successor, his son [[al-Walid I]] ({{reign|705|715}}). Several architectural historians hold that Abd al-Malik commissioned the project and that al-Walid finished or expanded it.{{efn|[[K. A. C. Creswell]], the archaeologists [[Robert Hamilton (archaeologist)|Robert Hamilton]] and Henri Stern, and the historian [[F. E. Peters]] attribute the original Umayyad construction to al-Walid.{{sfn|Allan|1991|p=16}}{{sfn|Elad|1999|p=36, note 58}} Other architectural historians, Julian Rabi,{{sfn|Allan|1991|pp=16–17}} [[Jere Bacharach]],{{sfn|Bacharach|1996|p=30}} and Yildirim Yavuz,{{sfn|Yavuz|1996|p=153}} as well as the scholars [[Idris Bell|H. I. Bell]],{{sfn|Bell|1908|p=116}} Rafi Grafman and Myriam Rosen-Ayalon,{{sfn|Grafman|Rosen-Ayalon|1999|p=2}} and Amikam Elad,{{sfn|Elad|1999|p=39}} assert or suggest that Abd al-Malik started the project and al-Walid finished or expanded it.}} Abd al-Malik inaugurated great architectural works on the Temple Mount, including construction of the Dome of the Rock in {{circa|691}}. A common Islamic tradition holds that Abd al-Malik simultaneously commissioned the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque.{{sfn|Elad|1999|p=36}} As both were intentionally built on the same axis, Grabar comments that the two structures form "part of an architecturally thought-out ensemble comprising a congregational and a commemorative building", the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, respectively.{{sfn|Grabar|1986|p=341}}{{efn|This tradition is detailed in the work of the 15th-century Jerusalemite historian [[Mujir al-Din]], the 15th-century historian [[al-Suyuti]] and the 11th-century Jerusalemite writers [[Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Wasiti|al-Wasiti]] and Ibn al-Murajja. The tradition cites an ''isnad'' (chain of transmission) traced to Thabit, a mid-8th-century attendant of the sanctuary complex, who transmits on the authority of [[Raja ibn Haywa]], Abd al-Malik's court theologian who supervised the financing of the Dome of the Rock's construction.{{sfn|Elad|1999|p=36}}}} Guy le Strange claims that Abd al-Malik used materials from the destroyed Church of Our Lady to build the mosque and points to possible evidence that substructures on the southeast corners of the mosque are remains of the church.{{sfn|Le Strange|1890a|pp=90–91}}

The earliest source indicating al-Walid's work on the mosque is the Aphrodito Papryi.{{sfn|Elad|1999|pp=36–37}} These contain the letters between al-Walid's [[Qurra ibn Sharik|governor of Egypt]] in December 708–June 711 and a government official in [[Upper Egypt]] which discuss the dispatch of Egyptian laborers and craftsmen to help build the al-Aqsa Mosque, referred to as the "Mosque of Jerusalem".{{sfn|Bell|1908|p=116}} The referenced workers spent between six months and a year on the construction.{{sfn|Elad|1999|pp=26, 36–37}} Several 10th and 13th-century historians credit al-Walid for founding the mosque, though the historian Amikam Elad doubts their reliability on the matter.{{efn|The 10th-century historians [[Eutychius of Alexandria]] and al-Muhallabi attribute the mosque's construction to al-Walid, though they also erroneously credit him for the Dome of the Rock's construction. Other inaccuracies in their works make Elad question their reliability on the matter. A number of 13th-century historians, including [[Ibn al-Athir]], support the claim, but Elad points out that they copy directly from the 10th-century historian [[al-Tabari]], whose work only mentions al-Walid building the [[Umayyad Mosque|great mosques of Damascus]] and [[Masjid al-Nabawi|Medina]], with the 13th-century historians adding the al-Aqsa Mosque to his roster of great building works. Traditions by sources based in nearby [[Ramla]] in the mid-8th century similarly credit al-Walid for the mosques in Damascus and Medina, but limit his role in Jerusalem to providing food for the city's [[Qurra|Quran reciters]].{{sfn|Elad|1999|pp=37–38}}}} In 713–714, a series of earthquakes ravaged Jerusalem, destroying the eastern section of the mosque, which was subsequently rebuilt by al-Walid's order. He had gold from the Dome of the Rock melted to use as money to finance the repairs and renovations. He is credited by the early 15th-century historian [[al-Qalqashandi]] for covering the mosque's walls with mosaics.{{sfn|Elad|1999|p=39}} Grabar notes that the Umayyad-era mosque was adorned with mosaics, marble, and "remarkable crafted and painted woodwork".{{sfn|Grabar|1986|p=341}} The latter are preserved partly in the [[Palestine Archaeological Museum]] and partly in the [[Islamic Museum, Jerusalem|Islamic Museum]].{{sfn|Grabar|1986|p=341}}

Estimates of the size of the Umayyad-built mosque by architectural historians range from {{convert|112x39|m|ft|sp=us}}{{sfn|Grafman|Rosen-Ayalon|1999|p=6}} to {{convert|114.6x69.2|m|ft|sp=us}}.{{sfn|Yavuz|1996|p=153}} The building was rectangular.{{sfn|Yavuz|1996|p=153}} In the assessment of Grabar, the layout was a modified version of the traditional [[hypostyle]] mosque of the period. Its "unusual" characteristic was that its aisles laid perpendicular to the ''qibla'' wall. The number of aisles is not definitively known, though fifteen is cited by a number of historians. The central aisle, double the width of the others, was probably topped by a dome.{{sfn|Grabar|1986|p=341}}

The last years of Umayyad rule were turbulent for Jerusalem. The last Umayyad caliph, [[Marwan II]] ({{reign|744|750}}), punished Jerusalem's inhabitants for supporting a rebellion against him by rival princes, and tore down the city's walls.{{sfn|Goitein|1986|p=326}} In 746, the al-Aqsa Mosque was ruined in an earthquake. Four years later, the Umayyads were toppled and replaced by the Iraq-based [[Abbasid Caliphate]].{{sfn|Pruitt|2017|p=36}}