Islam's Unyielding Claim To Palestine Is Based On Muhammad's Mystic Night Journey
Six years after the death of Islam's Prophet Muhammad (638 years after the death of Christ), Jerusalem was conquered by an Army of Muslim calvary under Muhammad's second successor, Caliph Umar I.
To celebrate the subjugation of the "Holy City" by warriors for the new religion of Islam, Caliph Umar cleansed the Temple Mount (Mount Moriah) and built a small mosque for Muslim worship.
To proclaim the supremacy of Islam and to ensure that Jerusalem's new followers of Islam would not be tempted by Christianity. The Muslim conquerors began to built a more spectacular Islamic edifice adjacent to the Christian Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The site chosen was the very same rock where two temples of the Jews and the Jupiter temple of the Romans previously had stood. It was chosen because the Prophet Muhammad had designated Jerusalem as the first qibla (the direction Muslims face when praying) and because Muslims believed Muhammad ascended on his night journey to heaven from the area of Solomon's Temple.
The 17th Sura of the Muslim Koran entitled "The Night Journey," relates that Muhammad was carried by night "from the sacred temple to the temple that is most remote, whose precinct we have blessed, that we might show him our signs..."
Muhammad's mystic night journey, according to Muslim tradition, was made with the Archangel Gabriel. They were magically transported on a winged horse-like creature, called El Burak (meaning lightning), that was "smaller than a mule, but larger than a donkey."
They Stopped briefly at Mt. Sinai and Bethlehem before finally dismounting at Temple Mount in Jerusalem. There they encountered Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other prophets, whom Mohammed led in prayers.
Muhammad was then escorted by Gabriel to the pinnacle of a rock called as-Sakhra by Muslims, where a ladder of golden light materialized. Taking the latter, Mohammed ascended through the seven heavens into the presence of Allah, from whom he received divine instructions for himself and his followers.
After his meeting with Allah, Muhammad and the Archangel Gabriel flew back to Mecca on the winged horse, arriving there before dawn.
It was on this Jewish Holy Ground between 687 and 691 A.D., that Caliph Omar's successor, the 10th Caliph, Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, built the great Islamic Dome of the Rock and called it the "Furthest Mosque."
With the Islam's conquest of Palestine and the building of the Dome of the Rock on the site where the Temple of Solomon once stood, Muslims had effectively hijacked an ancient Holy Place.
The name Palestine is derived from a word meaning "land of the Philistines." It is a historic region on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea known as the "Holy Land" or "the Promised Land.".
In the Bible, Palestine is called Canaan before the invasion of Joshua; the usual Hebrew name is Eretz Israel (land of Israel).
The earliest known inhabitants of Palestine were people similar to the Neanderthal inhabitants of Europe.
The earliest traces of human settlement in the Jerusalem area are from the late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age (3000 BC) when most of the towns known in Biblical times came into existence as centers of trade for Egyptian and Babylonian goods.
During c. 2000 B.C., Palestine was ruled by the Hyksos and by the Egyptians. Near the end of that period Moses led the Hebrew people (Jews) out of Egypt, across the Sinai, and into Palestine.
Around 1200 B.C., the Philistines (Sea Peoples) invaded the southern coast land and established a powerful kingdom (Philistia). The Hebrews were subject to the Philistines until c.1000 B.C., when an independent Hebrew kingdom was established under King Saul, who was succeeded by King David.
During that time, a town existed on the south side of Mount Moriah, also called Temple Mount. The name of this town was Urusalim, a word probably of Semitic origin that apparently means 'Foundation of Shalem' or 'Foundation of God'.
King David, founder of the joint kingdom of Israel and Judah, captured Urusalim and made it the Jewish kingdom's capital.
Following King David's capture of Urusalim, the Ark of the Covenant (the Israelites most sacred object) was moved to that city around 955 B.C. The Ark was a portable shrine containing the two stone Tablets of the Law which the prophet Moses had received upon Mt. Sinai.
King David renamed his city Jerusalem, meaning "City of Peace" in Hebrew. Mt. Moriah, considered to be the site where Abraham built an altar on which he prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac, was chosen by King David as the site of his future temple.
King David was succeeded by his son, Solomon.
Under King Solomon Israel enjoyed peace and prosperity. Construction of the First Temple of the Jews began during his reign and was completed in 957 BC.
When King Solomon died in 922 BC, the Hebrew kingdom broke up into two states, Israel, with its capital at Samaria, and Judah, under the house of David, with its capital at Jerusalem.
These two kingdoms were conquered by Mesopotamian states, Israel by Assyria (c.720 B.C.) and Judah by Babylonia (586 B.C.). The First Temple was completely destroyed .
In 539 B.C. the Persians conquered the Babylonians and allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem. Reconstruction began and the Second Temple was completed by 515 B.C.
Alexander the Great of Macedon, conquered Palestine in 333 B.C.
The Jews under the Maccabees revolted against Alexander's successors and set up a new Jewish state in 142 B.C.
That state lasted until 63 B.C., when Roman general Pompey the Great conquered Palestine for Rome ushering in several centuries of Roman rule by Jewish kings. It was during the rule (37-4 BC) of King Herod the Great that Jesus Christ was born.
Herod the Great rebuilt and enlarged the Second Temple and created the famous Western Wall (also called the Wailing Wall) as part of the supporting structure for the enlarged Temple Mount.
In 6 A.D., the Romans turned the governance of Jerusalem over to a series of administrators known as procurators, the fifth of whom, Pontius Pilate, ordered the execution of Jesus.
Two more Jewish revolts erupted and were suppressed - in A.D. 66 to 73 and 132 to 135. The Second Temple was demolished in 70 AD.
After the second revolt, numerous Jews were killed, many were sold into slavery, and the rest were not allowed to visit Jerusalem. Judea was renamed Syria Palaistina.
In 135 A.D., the Roman Emperor Hadrain began construction of a new city, called Aelia Capitolina, upon the ruins of old Jerusalem. On the site of the destroyed Jewish temple, Hadrian built a temple to the god Jupiter.
After Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity (312 A.D.), the Hadrian temple was demolished and Jerusalem became a center of Christian pilgrimage. Many Jews left the region as a result.
Emperor Constantine's support of Christianity made possible the building of many Christian shrines in the city.
Finished in 335 A.D., the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which marked the site of the Resurrection soon became the supremely sacred place for all Christians.
It was during this era that the tradition of Christian pilgrimages to Jerusalem began. The pilgrimage sites included Bethlehem, were Jesus was born; Golgatha, the site of his death (and where legend says the skull of Adam is buried); the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; and the Mount of Olives, where Jesus ascended to heaven..
Palestine over the next few centuries generally enjoyed peace and prosperity until it was conquered in 614 A.D. by Persians who invaded the city, massacred the inhabitants and destroyed all the churches and monasteries.
Palestine was recovered briefly by the Byzantine Romans before being conquered by Muslims welding bloody swords and beginning 1300 years of Islam's claim to Palestine.