Dome of the Chain is a free-standing dome located adjacently east of the Dome
of the Rock in the Old City of Jerusalem. One of the oldest structures
on the Haram ash-Sharif, it is not a mosque or shrine, but is used as a
prayer house. It was built by the Ummayads, became a Christian chapel
under the Crusaders, restored as an Islamic prayer house by the Ayyubids and
has been renovated by the Mamluks, Ottomans and the Palestinian-based waqf.
History Some structures within the dome date to
pre-Islamic times, but it is widely accepted by both Arab and Western
scholars that the Dome of the Chain was originally built by the caliph Abd
al-Malik in 691, during the Umayyad rule in Palestine. The Umayyad design of the
building has largely remained unaltered by later restorations. In addition to
being a prayer house, the dome was used as a treasury for the local Muslim
community. When the First Crusade invaded the
Levant in 1099, they identified the dome as the spot where Saint James was
martyred and transformed the building into a chapel dedicated to him. In 1187,
the building was returned to Islamic use after Saladin recaptured Jerusalem for
the Muslims. In 1199 the ceiling and pavings were renewed and marble was
added to the columns by the ruling Ayyubids.
The Crusaders briefly re-used the place from 1240–1244, but they were defeated
by the Mamluks of Egypt. The Mamluk sultan Baibars renovated the dome and
slightly reduced the number of columns in the 13th century, as well as refacing
the mihrab with marble. In 1561, under the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the
Magnificent, the tiles of the mihrab were glazed and later in 1760, more
tiles were added to it. The last major renovation was undertaken
by the Islamic waqf of Jerusalem in 1975-76.
Religious significance The Dome of the Chain owes its name to
an ancient legend during King Solomon's rule. According to Mujadir ad-Din,
Among the wonders of the Holy House is the chain, which Solomon, son of David,
suspended between Heaven and Earth, to the east of the Rock, where the Dome of
the Chain now stands. The chain had one characteristic. If two men approached it
to solve a point of litigation, only the honest and upright man could take hold
of it; the unjust man saw it move out of his reach.
The building in Islamic tradition is the spot where Judgment Day will occur in
the "end of days" and where a chain will stop the sinful and let the just pass
through. Notably, the mihrab in the al-Aqsa Mosque is located exactly in the
middle of the qibla wall of the Temple Mount on north-south axis with the Dome
of the Chain. Architecture
The building consists of a domed structure with two concentric open
arcades, that is: with no lateral walls closing it in. The dome, resting on a
hexagonal drum, is made of timber and is supported by six columns which together
create the inner arcade. The second, outer row of eleven columns creates an
eleven-sided outer arcade. The qibla wall contains the mihrab or prayer niche
and is flanked by two smaller columns. There are a total of seventeen columns
in the structure, excluding the mihrab. We know from historical sources that
initially there used to be twenty columns, indicating a radical rebuilding
phase, probably in the 13th century. The Dome of the Chain has a diameter of 14
meters, making it the third largest building on the Haram after the al-Aqsa
Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. = Dome of the Rock model theory=
According to a number of early Arab historians, the Dome of the Chain was
used as a model for the Dome of the Rock. Like the latter, the Dome of the
Chain consists of two concentric polygons, with columns bound together by
arcades and wooden beams. The Dome of the Rock is three times the size of the
Dome of the Chain and the ground plan and height are relatively proportional.
What does not seem to support this theory is the contrast between the
perfect octagonal symmetry of both archways of the Dome of the Rock, and
the mix of a hexagonal inner arcade and an fourteen-sided outer one for the Dome
of the Chain. The lack of an outer wall is an additional issue. The original
purpose of the Dome of the Chain is so far unknown.
References