Editing Dome of the Rock (section)

===Umayyads===
{{see also|History of medieval Arabic and Western European domes}}
====Original construction====
The initial octagonal structure of the Dome of the Rock and its round wooden dome had basically the same shape as it does today.<ref name=BRIT>{{cite encyclopedia |url= https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9030854/Dome-of-the-Rock |encyclopedia= Encyclopædia Britannica |title= Dome of the Rock |access-date= 4 April 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080615131142/https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9030854/Dome-of-the-Rock |archive-date= 15 June 2008 |url-status= live }}</ref> It was built by the order of the [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] caliph [[Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan|Abd al-Malik]] ({{reign|685|705}}).{{sfn|Elad|1999|p=45}} According to [[Sibt ibn al-Jawzi]] (1185–1256), construction started in 685/6, while [[al-Suyuti]] (1445–1505) holds that its commencement year was 688.{{sfn|Elad|1999|p=44–45, notes 98–99}} A dedicatory inscription in [[Kufic]] script is preserved inside the dome. The date is recorded as [[Hijri year|AH]] 72 (691/2 CE), the year most historians believe the construction of the original Dome was completed.{{sfn|Necipoğlu|2008|p=22}} An alternative interpretation of the inscription claims that it indicates the year when construction started.<ref name="Blair">Sheila Blair, "What Is The Date Of The Dome Of The Rock?" in J. Raby & J. Johns (ed.), "Bayt Al-Maqdis: 'Abd al-Malik's Jerusalem", 1992, Part 1, Oxford University Press: Oxford (UK), pp. 59-87.</ref> In this inscription, the name of "al-Malik" was removed and replaced by the name of the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]] caliph [[al-Ma'mun]] ({{reign|813|833}}). This alteration of the original inscription was first noted by [[Melchior de Vogüé]] in 1864.{{sfn|Vogüé|1864|p=[https://archive.org/stream/letempledejrusal00vogm#page/85/mode/1up 85]}} Some scholars have suggested that the dome was added to an existing building, built either by [[Muawiyah I]] ({{reign|661|680}}),<ref>Oleg Grabar: ''The Meaning of the Dome of the Rock.''</ref> or indeed a Byzantine building dating to before the Muslim conquest, built under [[Heraclius]] ({{reign|610|641}}).<ref>{{cite journal |last= Busse |first= Heribert |year= 1991 |title= Zur Geschichte und Deutung der frühislamischen Ḥarambauten in Jerusalem |language= de |journal= Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins |volume= 107 |pages= 144–154 |jstor= 27931418}}</ref>

The Dome of the Rock's architecture and mosaics were patterned after nearby Byzantine churches and palaces.<ref name="avner43" /> The supervisor and engineer in charge of the project were [[Raja ibn Haywa]], Yazid ibn Salam, and the latter's son Baha.{{sfn|Gil|1997|p=92}}<ref name="avner43" /><ref name="EttinghausenGrabarJenkins20">{{cite book |author1= Richard Ettinghausen |author2= Oleg Grabar |author3= Marilyn Jenkins |title= Islamic Art and Architecture 650–1250 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=l1uWZAzN_VcC |year= 2001 |publisher= Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-08869-4 |page= 20}}</ref> Raja was a Muslim theologian and native of [[Beisan]], and Yazid and Baha were {{transliteration|ar|[[mawla|mawali]]}} (non-Arab, Muslim converts; clients) of Abd al-Malik from Jerusalem. Abd al-Malik was represented in the supervision of the construction by his son [[Sa'id al-Khayr]].{{sfn|Gil|1997|p=92}} The Caliph employed expert works from across his domain, at the time restricted to [[Bilad al-Sham|Syria]] and [[Egypt in the Middle Ages|Egypt]],{{sfn|Gil|1997|p=92}} who were presumably Christians.<ref name="EttinghausenGrabarJenkins20"/> Construction cost was reportedly seven times the yearly tax income of Egypt.{{sfn|Lassner|2006|p=176}} The historian [[K. A. C. Creswell]] noted that those who built the shrine used the measurements of the [[Church of the Holy Sepulchre]]. The diameter of the dome of the shrine is {{cvt|20.20|m|ft}} and its height {{cvt|20.48|m|ft}}, while the diameter of the dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is {{cvt|20.90|m|ft}} and its height {{cvt|21.05|m|ft}}.

====Motivations for construction====
Narratives by the medieval sources about Abd al-Malik's motivations in building the Dome of the Rock vary.{{sfn|Grabar|1986|p=299}} At the time of its construction, the Caliph was engaged in war with Christian Byzantium and its [[Mardaites|Syrian Christian allies]] on the one hand and with the rival caliph [[Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr]], who controlled [[Mecca]], the annual destination of Muslim pilgrimage, on the other hand.{{sfn|Grabar|1986|p=299}}{{sfn|Johns|2003|pp=425–426}} Thus, one series of explanations was that Abd al-Malik intended for the Dome of the Rock to be a religious monument of victory over the Christians that would distinguish Islam's uniqueness within the common [[Abrahamic]] religious setting of Jerusalem, home of the two older Abrahamic faiths, Judaism and Christianity.{{sfn|Grabar|1986|p=299}}{{sfn|Hawting|2000|p=60}} The historian [[Shelomo Dov Goitein]] has argued that the Dome of the Rock was intended to compete with the many fine buildings of worship of other religions: "The very form of a rotunda, given to the {{transliteration|ar|Qubbat as-Sakhra}}, although it was foreign to Islam, was destined to rival the many Christian domes"<ref name=SDG>{{cite journal |last= Goitein |first= Shelomo Dov |author-link= Shelomo Dov Goitein |year= 1950 |title= The historical background of the erection of the Dome of the Rock |journal= Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume= 70 |issue= 2 |pages= 104–108 |doi= 10.2307/595539 |jstor= 595539 }}</ref> - and more specifically, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, according to others.<ref name= Sonn229>{{cite book |last1= Ahmed |first1=A.S. |last2= Sonn |first2=T. |title= The SAGE Handbook of Islamic Studies |publisher= SAGE Publications |year= 2010 |pages= 229–230 |quote= Questions of visual domination and conversion were among the important factors in the construction of the oldest surviving Islamic monument, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. |isbn=978-1-4739-7168-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qihRCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT229}}</ref>

The other main explanation holds that Abd al-Malik, in the heat of the war with Ibn al-Zubayr, sought to build the structure to divert the focus of the Muslims in his realm from the Ka'aba in Mecca, where Ibn al-Zubayr would publicly condemn the Umayyads during the annual pilgrimage to the sanctuary.{{sfn|Grabar|1986|p=299}}{{sfn|Johns|2003|pp=425–426}}{{sfn|Hawting|2000|p=60}} Though most modern historians dismiss the latter account as a product of anti-Umayyad propaganda in the traditional Muslim sources and doubt that Abd al-Malik would attempt to alter the sacred Muslim requirement of fulfilling the pilgrimage to the Ka'aba, other historians concede that this cannot be conclusively dismissed.{{sfn|Grabar|1986|p=299}}{{sfn|Johns|2003|pp=425–426}}{{sfn|Hawting|2000|p=60}}