Palestine · A closer look
638
Umar enters Jerusalem
The caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab accepted the city's surrender from its patriarch, Sophronius, and by tradition guaranteed the safety of its Christians and their churches. In 691 the Umayyads completed the Dome of the Rock. Over the following centuries Arabic became the language of the land and Islam the faith of most of its people, alongside Christian and Jewish communities that never left.
A new political centre
Jerusalem's surrender belongs to the early Muslim conquests that brought former Byzantine territories under Arab rule. The Umayyad dynasty, established in 661, later governed from Damascus. It connected Palestine to a state extending far beyond the Levant. This change in government unfolded alongside the continuing presence of older communities and artistic traditions, which helped shape the architecture and visual language of the new rulers.
The Dome and its setting
The Dome of the Rock was built under the caliph Abd al-Malik and completed in 691–692, decades after Umar's arrival. It stands on the sanctuary known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as the Temple Mount. Its octagonal form, mosaics and inscriptions combine an unmistakably Islamic statement with techniques associated with the Byzantine world. It is a shrine distinct from the nearby al-Aqsa Mosque.
Source: The Met: The Dome of the Rock
A monument remade over time
The building seen today contains the work of many centuries. Successive rulers restored, redecorated or reassigned it; Crusaders used it as a church, while Ottoman restoration gave its exterior a new programme of tilework. Reading it as an untouched seventh-century object would miss that history. Its fabric records how different governments sought to express authority in a city sacred to more than one religious community.
Source: The Met: The Dome of the Rock