APPENDIX II.
Church of the Virgin, Jerusalem:
The description by Procopius of this church is very detailed; but the great alterations and destruction of buildings throughout the Harem area since his time make it extremely difficult to arrive at a correct understanding of his account, or to identify any portion of the church with existing buildings. It is usually supposed to have occupied the site of the present Mosque El Aksa, the entrances to which the Duc de Vogüé believes to be remains of Justinian’s church.
The questions as to the church are involved, to a considerable extent, with those relating to the date and authorship of the Dome of the Rock, which has usually been assigned to the Caleph Abd-el-Melek; but the late Mr. Fergusson, whose great architectural knowledge is undisputed, maintained that it was no other than Constantine’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and that the church described by Procopius was not on the site of El Aksa, but at the eastern angle of the temple area, and now utterly destroyed.
The subject, already sufficiently complicated, has been rendered still more so by a theory brought forward in 1882, by the well-known Professor Sepp, to the effect that the Dome of the Rock was not constructed by Constantine nor by Abd-el-Melek, but by Justinian.
The question is much more difficult to decide than may at first sight appear; and I confess that after having, for some years past, carefully collected the various documents on the subject, including the valuable translations published by my friend the late Professor Palmer, of Arabic historians, and having subsequently visited Jerusalem and studied the subject on the spot, with the kind assistance of Dr. Chaplin and others, I find that there are so many points to be cleared up, that I should not like to offer a definite opinion on the several disputed points until after another visit, which I hope to make shortly, to Jerusalem. My present views, so far as I may venture to put them forward, are in accordance with those of De Vogüé, Sir C. Warren and Captain Conder, viz., that the Dome of the Rock was built by Abd-el-Melek. (L.)