Islamic Jerusalem

Dome of The Rock

Islamic Jerusalem marks the end of Byzantine Jerusalem, the Sassanians take Palestine and Jerusalem, 614-628 CE. 614 is the date that Jews were allowed to resettle back in the Holy Land since the Bar-Kokhba Revolt. In Islamic Jerusalem caliphs are established to lead the Islamic community. Caliph Umar takes Jerusalem in 638. In a written agreement with the Christians he does not allow Jewish settlement, to which later he allowed them to move back in to the city and Jewish population steadily grew. It was never the Muslims keeping them out but the Christians. 

The Haram took the place of the Temple Mount and it is there the Dome of the Rock is established. As Islam rises in prominence, and Mecca becomes the center of faith, Jerusalem's traditions transfer to Mecca. 

Umayyad Dynasty 638-750 CE

Abd al-Maliks purpose in building the Dome of the Rock was to divert pilgrimage from Mecca to Jerusalem because of his rivalry with Ibn Zubayr, playing on Jerusalem's traditions and keeping people around. The Dome of the Rock commissioned in 687 and finished in 691, is a shrine and model of a Christian Martyria (memorial).