Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is, after the mosques of Mecca and Medina, the third holiest site in Islam. Its name means "the farthest", the farthest mosque from Mecca in the Prophet's time. This article introduces its significance and history with care and respect, noting that Jerusalem is a city held sacred by more than one faith.
The first Qibla
Before Muslims were directed to face Mecca, they turned in prayer toward Jerusalem. For roughly sixteen months after the migration to Medina, Al-Aqsa was the Qibla of the young Muslim community, until the Quran directed the change toward the Kaaba. For this reason Al-Aqsa is remembered as the first Qibla, and it is counted, in the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, as one of three mosques toward which Muslims may travel in pilgrimage, alongside the Two Holy Mosques.
The Night Journey
Al-Aqsa is closely tied to the Night Journey (Al-Isra wa al-Mi'raj), described in the Quran, in which the Prophet was carried by night from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to "the farthest mosque, whose surroundings We have blessed," and from there raised through the heavens. Muslim tradition also holds Al-Aqsa to be the second mosque established on earth after the Kaaba.
What Al-Aqsa actually is
Al-Aqsa is often pictured as a single building, but the name properly refers to the whole walled compound in the south-east corner of the Old City, an enclosure of some 144,000 square metres containing many mosques, domes, courtyards and monuments. Two structures dominate it: the silver-domed Al-Qibly Mosque at the southern end, the first building raised on the site, and the golden Dome of the Rock at its centre, built by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik around 691 to 692 CE and one of the earliest masterpieces of Islamic architecture. In Islamic understanding a worshipper receives the same reward for praying anywhere within the compound, including its open courtyards.
Centuries of history
The site was cleared and a simple mosque built on it in the years after Muslims entered Jerusalem in 638 CE. Across the Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman eras it was built, damaged by earthquakes, and repeatedly restored, the wooden pulpit installed after Saladin regained the city in 1187 CE is among its most famous fittings. Its long story belongs to the wider short history of mosques. To find a mosque in your own city, use MosqueFinder to find mosques nearby or open the the interactive map.