Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Burhan al-Din Al-Marghinani, The 

Hedaya: Commentary on the Islamic Laws. Translated 

by Charles Hamilton (New Delhi: Kitab Bhavan, 1994; 

Rudolph Peters and Gert J. J. De Vries, “Apostasy in 

Islam.” Die Welt des Islams 17 (1976–77): 1–25; Abdullah 

Saeed and Hassan Saeed, Freedom of Religion, Apostasy 

and Islam (Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, 2004).

Aqsa Mosque

 

(Arabic: 

al-Masjid al-aqsa)

Regarded by most Muslims as the third most 

sacred 

mosqUe

 after those of m

ecca

 and m

edina

,

the Aqsa Mosque is situated on the eastern edge of 

K  48  

apostasy

---

the Old City in J

erUsalem

. It is part of a complex 

of buildings and monuments known as the Noble 

Sanctuary, which stands atop the remains of the 

Second Temple of i

srael

, which was destroyed 

by the Roman army in 70 

c

.

e

. Jews and Chris-

tians therefore commonly know this area as the 

Temple Mount. The name of the mosque itself 

was obtained from a passage in the q

Uran

 that 

says, “Glory be to him who transported his ser-

vant by night from the sacred mosque [in Mecca] 

to the most distant (aqsa) mosque, the precincts 

of which we have blessed” (Q 17:1). Though 

there was some dispute over where the mosque 

mentioned in the Quran was actually located, the 

verse was eventually linked by Islamic tradition 

to the n

ight

 J

oUrney

 

and

 a

scent

 of m

Uhammad

,

when he was believed to have been miraculously 

transported one night from Mecca to Jerusalem, 

up to heaven, then back down to Mecca. The Aqsa 

Mosque, therefore, was said to be where Muham-

mad led the 

angels

 and former prophets in 

prayer

before his heavenly ascent to meet with God.

Despite this legendary account, the mosque 

was first constructed after Muhammad’s death by 

the Umayyad caliphs Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) 

and his son, al-Walid (r. 705–715). It was designed 

as a rectangular congregational mosque for Friday 

prayers, with a dome and a long north-south axis 

that was aligned with the d

ome

 

oF

 

the

  r

ock

, a 

separate memorial structure to the north. Mosa-

ics, marble, and carved wood decorated its walls. 

It had to be reconstructed and expanded several 

times over the centuries because of earthquakes, 

and it now can hold up to 400,000 worshippers. 

When the crusaders seized Jerusalem in 1096, 

the Aqsa Mosque was converted into a royal pal-

ace and later a barracks for the Knights Templar. 

Muslims believed that these Christians had defiled 

the mosque; when s

aladin

 (d. 1193) recaptured 

the city in 1187, he purified the building so it 

could once again be used as a place for congrega-

tional prayer. After Israel captured east Jerusalem 

in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, administration of 

the mosque remained in the hands of Muslim 

authorities, and Palestinian Muslims were allowed 

to continue using it for Friday prayers. Together 

with the Dome of the Rock, the Aqsa Mosque 

has since become a symbol for the Palestinian 

nationalist movement and liberation from Israeli 

occupation. Indeed, Palestinians call the second 

intifada (uprising) in the West Bank and Gaza that 

started in 2000 the al-Aqsa Intifada.

See also a

rab

-i

sraeli

 

conFlicts

; 

architectUre

; 

c

hristianity

 

and

 i

slam

; p

alestine

.