All the buildings connected with Herod's Temple were finished at the time of our Saviour's ministry[258]. He frequently taught in its courts, and twice expelled those who profaned them with merchandise. He prophesied the destruction of the place; and in its citadel His sufferings commenced; for the Prætorium of Pilate was in the tower Antonia, which was the residence of the Roman Governor and his garrison[259]. There the sentence was proclaimed to the infuriated people, who called down on their own heads the curse of the innocent blood; in a few years so terribly avenged.
The description of Josephus, who was an eye-witness of the scene, has been followed by all who have written on the siege and fall of Jerusalem; it bears every mark of truth; and I shall give a brief sketch of the part relating to the Temple and its environs, in order that the account of my researches on the spot may be more intelligible to the reader. On the first day of the month Thammuz (June-July) the Romans assaulted the tower Antonia[260] and made a breach in the wall; but were surprised to find that a second had been built up behind it. This was carried on the fifth of the same month, and the Jews were driven within the walls of the Temple courts. The greater part of the fortress was razed during the next seven days, and the assailants erected mounds for their engines on the space thus cleared, and battered the walls of the Temple. Meanwhile the Jews burnt the north-west cloister, fearing that it would open a communication with the main building for the Romans, who themselves burnt the north cloister on the twenty-fourth day. This was in no way opposed by the Jews, who considered that their position was improved by the destruction of the cloister, and on the twenty-seventh, by a feigned retreat, they decoyed a number of the Romans on to the roof of the west cloister, and then fired a quantity of combustible material, which had been previously heaped up below; so that numbers of their enemies perished in the flames. The Romans having battered the west wall of the inner inclosure during six days, and tried in vain to undermine the north gate, were ordered to carry the cloisters by escalade. On the eighth day of the month Ab (July-August) they mounted the ladders without opposition, but when they had arrived on the roof, they were fiercely assailed by the Jews, and driven back with the loss of some standards. Titus, seeing that the attempt had failed, set the gates on fire; these were quickly destroyed, and the flames spread to the cloisters in both directions. The fire continued till the next day, when Titus, wishing to open a passage to the Temple for his troops, and to save the building itself, if possible, ordered it to be extinguished. During this day the Jews remained quiet; but on the morrow they renewed the attack, determined either to drive the Romans from the Sanctuary, or to perish beneath its ruins. By a sortie from the east gate they forced back the enemy; but Titus, seeing from the Antonia the retreat of his soldiers, went to their aid, and at last, about the fifth hour, the Jews were again driven within the walls. He determined to wait and collect his forces before making the assault; but this was a fatal day, being the anniversary of the destruction of Solomon's Temple by the Babylonians, six centuries and a half before[261]. The Jews made another sortie upon the Romans, who were occupied in extinguishing the flames in the inner inclosure, and were forced back as far as the buildings in the neighbourhood of the House itself; these were set on fire by a Roman soldier without orders, and the flames quickly spread to all the chambers. Titus, in vain, commanded his troops to extinguish them; his voice was drowned in the tumult; the Jews, with loud shrieks, fought furiously in defence of the last bulwark of their nationality; but it was now too late; the sacred building was in a blaze, and its obstinate and heroic defenders perished beneath the ruins. After the Temple had fallen, Titus tried to induce John and Simon, who had retreated into the Upper city, to submit, and a parley was held at the bridge by the Xystus[262]. These proud and blood-thirsty tyrants would not hearken to him; the siege was carried on, and before long the whole upper city was in his power. He ordered the Temple and the rest of Jerusalem to be levelled with the ground, leaving only some of the western fortifications to mark its former magnificence[263]. Thus ended the political existence of the Jewish race.
The Christians came back from Pella to Jerusalem soon after its destruction, and some of the Jews returned there to mourn over its sacred ashes; so that the place was not wholly deserted even in the darkest days of Trajan's persecution. Therefore tradition, as well as the heaps of ruins, pointed out the site of the Sanctuary to Hadrian, when, in order to humiliate the Jews and extinguish every hope of its restoration, he built thereupon a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus.
When the idol temples were destroyed by Constantine the Great A.D. 332, this too was demolished; but he took no care of Moriah, and allowed two statues of Hadrian to remain there; neither did he attempt to clear it of ruins, nor prevent its becoming a receptacle for rubbish; as if he wished every trace of the departed glory of the nation to disappear. However, the wretched descendants of David visited the place in solitude, to anoint with oil and bedew with tears the 'perforated stone,' which they considered a relic of their Sanctuary[264].
The accession of Julian the Apostate renewed the hopes of the Jews. Wishing to prove the words of Scripture[265] false, he determined to rebuild the Temple; and supplied the necessary funds, giving the business in charge to Alypius of Antioch, Governor of Great Britain. The Jews came in crowds to take part in the work, but their attempts to lay the foundations were frustrated by flames, which issued from the excavations with such peals of thunder, that the workmen fled affrighted, mistaking in their ignorance a natural phenomenon for a miracle[266].
The Emperor Justinian was the first to begin to clear away some of the ruins from Moriah, A.D. 527. He endeavoured to identify the places mentioned in the Gospels, and ordered a basilica to be erected on the south side dedicated to the Presentation of the Virgin, not far from the site of the Temple[267]. Some buildings were also constructed on the north side, and perhaps on the east, as I will presently shew.
The Mohammedans, commanded by Khaled and Abu Obeida, besieged the Holy City, A.D. 636. The Patriarch Sophronius capitulated to Omar himself, and the new master of the place converted the basilica of Justinian into a mosque (Aksa); purified the sacred rock (Sakharah), the ancient threshing-floor of Araunah[268], and ordered a mosque to be built over it, which was commenced A.D. 643. William of Tyre reports that in his time Arabic inscriptions existed in the building, mentioning the date of the foundation, the founder's name, and the cost of the work[269]. However, from the account of Said-Ebn-Batrik, it appears that the mosque was afterwards enlarged by Abd-el-Malek-Ibn-Meruan, fifth Khalif of the race of the Ommiades, who ascended the throne the 65th year of the Hejra (A.D. 684), and died in the 86th (A.D. 705)[270]. His eldest son, Valid or Elulid, embellished and enlarged the mosque, enriching it with a dome of gilded copper, which he took from the church of Baalbek and placed over the Sakharah[271]. The completion of the building must therefore be attributed to him; although it was from time to time improved by the Khalifs his successors, being considered second only in sanctity to Mecca and Medina; so that when, during the Khalifat of Al-Moktadar (Hej. 229 = A.D. 950), the pilgrimages to the former place were interrupted by the invasions of the Karmali, the Kubbet-es-Sakharah took the place of the Kaaba[272]. It is evident that the present mosque is not in every respect identical with that built by Omar, from the words of Adamnanus (an author of the eighth century) in a book on the Holy Places, compiled from the accounts of Arculf, who had passed nine months at Jerusalem. He says (speaking of the mosque) "but on that celebrated spot where once the magnificent Temple stood, near the wall on the east side, the Saracens have now meanly built with uprights and great beams, a quadrangular house of prayer over some ruined remains, which they frequent; it is large enough to contain three thousand men at once[273]." William of Tyre however asserts that on the building seen by him (which was different from the one described by Adamnanus), the name of Omar its founder was inscribed. One of the existing Arabic inscriptions seems, at first sight, to cause some difficulty; it runs as follows: "May God render illustrious the great king, son of Meruan, who enlarged this majestic temple, and grant him mercy." 65th year of the Hejra (A.D. 684, the first of the reign of Abd-el-Malek[274]). This at first sight appears to contradict the assertion made above, that Elulid, son and successor of Abd-el-Malek, was the Khalif who added to the splendour of the mosque, but it is very likely that if he completed the work of restoration, he would inscribe not only the name of the first founder Omar, but also that of his father. In other respects William of Tyre gives no detailed information, in speaking of the mosque of Omar; only alluding to it in general terms[275]. During my frequent visits to the Haram, I often thought of copying all the inscriptions, but was always pressed for time, and afraid that each visit might be the last; therefore, as the examination of the subterranean vaults was by far the most important matter, I thought it better not to turn aside to a work, which others may easily execute by degrees.
It is evident that the mosque remained in the hands of the Mohammedans from the commencement of Omar's building, A.D. 643, to the arrival of the Crusaders, A.D. 1099. These soldiers of Christ, forgetful alike of charity and mercy, slaughtered numbers of the followers of Islam in the building[276]: they also converted the mosque el-Aksa into a dwelling-house, and after altering the interior of the Kubbet-es-Sakharah, consecrated it as a Christian church, on the third day after Easter, A.D. 1143[277], under the name of Templum Domini[278]; because the first Temple to the honour of God had been erected by Solomon on that spot. Saladin, the champion of toleration, magnanimity, and generosity[279], restored the worship of Islam in the two mosques, A.D. 1187[280]; and from his time the Haram-es-Sherîf has remained in the hands of the Mohammedans as one of their holy places.
Selim I., Sultan of Constantinople, who conquered Syria and Palestine, A.D. 1517, restored and improved the two mosques; doubtless the internal and external mosaic decorations, with the various arabesque ornaments still existing, are due to his liberality, and that of his successor, Solyman I., with his favourite Sultana Rossellane; who, according to the works of authors preserved in the Mohammedan archives, spent large sums of money in adorning the whole of the Haram, and in erecting there schools and other philanthropic establishments.
From the above narrative I draw the following conclusions: that history and an unbroken chain of events prove that the whole Haram-es-Sherîf is the ancient Mount Moriah; that the present mosque of Omar stands upon the ancient threshing-floor of Araunah; that the levelled rock on the north-west, and that rising at the barrack mark the position of the tower Antonia, and that the mosque el-Aksa is the original basilica of Justinian.