[325] ‘Whither away?’ said Aly to the Caliph; ‘wilt thou go and fight with dogs?’ ‘Nay,’ replied Omar; ‘not so, but I mean to visit the seat of war, before Abbâs is taken, and the flames of sedition burst forth.’ He then started, leaving Aly in charge of Medîna. But the tradition has a strong Abbasside tinge.
[326] The name is not given by the Arabian annalists. We learn it from Theophanes.
[327] The received account is that Omar made this (his first) journey to Syria on horseback; the second (on the Roman invasion by sea), riding on a camel; the third (at the great plague) on a mule; and the last (his progress through Syria) on an ass.
[328] The heavenly journey is thus referred to in the Corân: ‘Praise be to Him, who carried His servant by night to the Farther Temple (Masjid al Acksa), the environs of which we have made blessed.’ Sura xvii. (The ‘Farther Temple,’ in opposition to the Nearer Temple, the Kaaba.) See the tale, Life of Mahomet, p. 126. Jerusalem was the Kibla of Mahomet and his followers all the time he worshipped at Mecca. In the second year after his flight to Medîna, the Prophet was suddenly instructed to turn instead to Mecca, to which ever since, the Moslems have turned at prayer. (Ibid. p. 198.)
[329] The Haram, is the sacred inclosure on the S.E. corner of Mount Zion. It is minutely described by Ali Bey, vol. ii. p. 214, with its two great mosques, Masjid al Acksa (said to be the Basilica of the Virgin) and Kubbet al Sakhra (the Dome of the Stone),—where also will be found plans and sketches of the same. Until the Crimean War, the Haram was guarded, as sacredly as Mecca itself, from the tread of an infidel. But it is now more or less accessible, and an elaborate survey of the two Mosques and their surroundings has recently been made by the Palestine Exploration Society: see their Proceedings, January 1880.
The Kubbet al Sakhra, or ‘Dome of the Stone,’ has been built polygonal to meet the shape of the ‘Stone,’ or Rock referred to in the text, which gives its name to the Mosque. This rock rises to a height of six or seven feet from a base, according to Ali Bey, 33 feet in diameter (or, according to others, 57 feet long and 43 wide). The architecture is Byzantine, but Greek builders were no doubt engaged for its construction. There is probably little, if anything, of original Christian building in the present Haram.
Ali Bey describes the Sakhra itself as a stony apex cropping out from the rock, which, when Mahomet stood upon it, ‘sensible of the happiness of bearing the holy burden, depressed itself, and becoming soft like wax, received the print of his holy foot upon the upper part.... This print is now covered with large sort of cage of gilt metal wire, worked in such a manner that the print cannot be seen on account of the darkness within, but it may be touched with the hand through a hole made on purpose. The believers, after having touched the print, proceed to sanctify themselves by passing the hand over the face and beard.’ (Travels of Ali Bey, vol. ii. p. 220.)
[330] According to Theophanes, Omar, clad in unclean garments of camel hair, demanded of Sophronius to be shown over the Temple of Solomon, and was with difficulty constrained to change them by the protestations of the Patriarch, who wept over the threatened ‘abomination of desolation.’ But the general tenor of Christian tradition (whatever its worth may be) is, as in the text, altogether favourable to Omar’s courtesy and condescension. Sophronius, we are told, showed him the stony pillow of Jacob. It was covered with soil and sweepings. Whereupon Omar, with his own hands, assisted by his people, set to work to clear the spot, and the rock (Sakhra) having been laid bare, the foundation of the Great Mosque was built upon it.
The most unlikely part of these traditions is that which supposes that Omar would have ever thought of praying in a church adorned by pictures, crosses, &c., though of course it is possible that he may have made the excuse given in the text out of courtesy and politeness.
[331] It is of this journey the tale is told that in the midst of one of his discourses Omar was interrupted by an ecclesiastic. The Caliph quoted from the Corân the passage—Whom the Lord misleadeth, for him there is no guide (Sura iv. 90, 142; xvii. 99; and xviii. 6), whereupon the Christian cried out: Nay! God misleadeth no one. Omar threatened that he would behead the Christian if he continued his interruption, and so the Christian held his peace. The story is told both in the Romance of Wâckidy, and in the Fatooh al Shâm; and though wanting in authority, gives truly the popular impression of the doctrine of Predestination as taught in the Corân. (See The Corân: its Composition and Teaching, Christian Knowledge Society, p. 56.)