Mosque of Omar

“ The Mosque of Omar is not, strictly speaking, a mosque at all. The mosque is El Aksa, and the more famous building is but a glorified praying-station of the nature of a weli in its court. It stands near the centre of a wide open space, practically the only such space in Jerusalem, which occupies one-sixth part of the whole area of the city within the walls. The enclosure is partly artificial, supported on vast substructures of vaulted building which raise the enclosed ground to a general level. The mosque is set up on a platform ten feet higher than this level. ”

“ Is it conceivable, I wonder, that even in the twelfth century there lingered some local memory of what had once been a way of distinguishing Sion of the Jebusites from Salem of the Jews? The Zion Gate, however, is only a starting-point here; if we go south-eastward from it we descend a steep and rocky path, from which can be caught the first and finest vision of what stands on the other hill to the east. The great Mosque of Omar stands up like a peacock, lustrous with mosaics that are like plumes of blue and green. ”

“ Omar, the second successor, surrounded the Hujrah, or Ayishah's chamber, in which the Prophet was buried, with a mud wall; and in A.H. 17, he enlarged the Mosque to 140 cubits by 120, taking in ground on all sides except the Eastern, where stood the abodes of the "Mothers of the Moslems. [FN#38] " Outside the Northern wall he erected a Suffah, called Al-Batha-a raised bench of wood, earth, or stone, upon which the people might recreate themselves with conversation and quoting poetry, for the Mosque was now becoming [a] place of peculiar reverence to men. ”

“ A Christian must rise and stand in the presence of a Moslem. The latter might practise his religion and use his church undisturbed; but the great mosque of Omar was to rise over the ruined altar of the temple and over the sacred stone upon which the patriarch Jacob had once rested his head. ”

“ One can not see such things at an instant glance—one frequently only finds out how really beautiful a really beautiful woman is after considerable acquaintance with her; and the rule applies to Niagara Falls, to majestic mountains and to mosques—especially to mosques.
The great feature of the Mosque of Omar is the prodigious rock in the centre of its rotunda. It was upon this rock that Abraham came so near offering up his son Isaac—this, at least, is authentic—it is very much more to be relied on than most of the traditions, at any rate. ”

“ A black stone is set in the wall of the porch; whoever can walk, with closed eyes, across the porch pavement and put his finger on this stone may be sure of entering Paradise. According to this criterion, the writer of this is one of the elect of the Mohammedan Paradise and his dragoman is shut out. We were shown in this mosque the print of Christ's foot in a stone; and it is said that with faith one can feel in it, as he can in that of Mohammed's in the rock, the real flesh. Opening from this mosque is the small Mosque of Omar, on the spot where that zealous khalif prayed. ”

“ The mosaics of the Dome of the Rock differ, however, in this respect, that they are entirely confined to arabesques, and never represent human (or animal) figures, such as appear in the Greek mosaics at Bethlehem and elsewhere: this shows that they were intended for a Moslem, and not for a Christian building. The Arabs had no native style of architecture. Muḥammad and Omar built rude wooden structures, and it is recorded of El Welîd—son of ’Abd el Melek—that he employed skilled workmen from Persia and Byzantium to build his great mosque at Damascus. ”

“ The earliest mosque, built by Omar at Jerusalem, no longer exists, but in the mosque of ‘Amr at Cairo (fig. 54) , founded in 643 and probably restored or added to at various times, we find the characteristic features which form the base of the plans of all subsequent mosques. These features consist of (a) a wall built at right angles to a line drawn towards Mecca, in which, sunk in the wall, was a niche indicating the direction towards which the faithful should turn ”

“ Ah, well! and I
have found the moon to pale before the light of Thy
visage, that the cypress is deformed beside Thy beauteous
form.
46.
In the mosque, in the medresseh [school annexed to
the mosque] , in the church, and in the synagogue, they
have a horror of Hell and seek for Paradise, but the seed
of such disquiet never germinates in the hearts of those
who penetrate the secrets of the All-Powerful.
47.
You have traveled over the world! Ah, well! all that
you have seen is nothing; all that you have seen and all
that you have heard are equally nothing. ”

“ But according to a different tradition, the mosque here meant was that which Mohammed built at Medina. z Al Beidâwi says, that Mohammed walking once with the Mohâjerîn to Kobâ, found the Ansârs sitting at the mosque door, and asked them whether they were believers; and, on their being silent, repeated the question: whereupon Omar answered, that they were believers; and Mohammed demanding whether they acquiesced in the judgment Omar had made of them, they said yes. He then asked them whether they would be patient in adversity and thankful in prosperity ”

“ Become not a prey to sorrow in this world of iniquity;
recall not to thy soul the memory of those who are no
longer here; give up thy heart only to a friend with sweet
lips and fairy-like in form and never be deprived of
wine, or throw life to the winds.
368.
How long will you speak to me of the mosque, of
prayer and fasting? Go rather to the tavern and intoxicate
yourself, and even for that ask alms. O Khayyam!
drink wine, drink; for this earth of which thou
art composed will be made into cups, bowls, and pitchers. ”

“ No tool has ever touched its upper surface, but the north and west sides have been hewn vertical, and from the appearance of the work, I am inclined to think that it was done when the mosque was built by Omar. A circular hole is cut in its highest part towards the south-west, and on the south-east side is a doorway leading down into a rather large chamber within it, whitewashed, and lighted by the above-named hole. ”

“ Place not thy foot upon them with disdain; they spring
from dust which, once a face, was tinted with the colors
of a rose.
60.
Each heart that God illumines with the light of
love, as it frequents the mosque or synagogue, inscribes
its name upon the book of love, and is set free from
fear of Hell while it awaits the joys of Paradise.
294 61.
A cup of wine is better than the kingdom of Kawous,
and preferable to Kobad's throne or to the realm of
Thous. The sighs to which, at dawn, a lover is the prey
are sweeter than the groans of praying hypocrites. ”

“ The long, slender handle, which is made up of the modern peasant-markets, stretches away two miles southward. The nearer bowl is the site of the ancient city. Above its monotonous succession of solidly massed houses are seen high, cylindrical roofs which cover the most important bazaars; in the very center stands the famous Omayyade Mosque with its splendid dome and spacious court and three lofty towers, while a multitude of other graceful minarets—it is said that they are exactly as many as the days of the year—rise above the most mysterious and fascinating of Moslem capitals. ”

“ Even to-day the door facing the east which Christians entered to worship Jesus remains. When the Mohammedans took possession of the building a new door was made on the south side facing the holy city of Mecca. Mosques are regarded as holy and no animal is allowed to step in, especially dogs. If a Mohammedan knew that dogs sometimes enter Christian churches they would despise Christians the more. Jews and Christians are not allowed to enter a mosque. They can only stand before the door and listen solemnly. ”

“ Humanity, when crushed together in the heat, either in London ball-rooms or in waste places in Morocco city, sends up a perfume which makes one regret that the cynical contriver of the world endowed us with a nose. Therefore I waited but a little and rode on, turning occasionally to take a look at the great mosque and the tall dusty tower. The outside of the mosque, the name of which in Arabic means Mosque of the Books, from the word Kitab, a book, is not imposing. What it is inside I believe no Christian knows. ”

“ Near the tower, the red-brown walls and huge piers of the mosque built at the same time stretch their roofless alignment beneath the sky. This mosque, before it was destroyed, must have been one of the finest monuments of Almohad architecture in Morocco: now, with its tumbled red masses of masonry and vast cisterns overhung by clumps of blue aloes, it still forms a ruin of Roman grandeur.
The Mosque, the Tower, the citadel of the Oudayas, and the mighty walls and towers of Chella, compose an architectural group as noble and complete as that of some mediæval Tuscan city. ”

“ A good Moslem is peculiarly sensitive—he does not object to strangle a wife or two quietly at home if they are annoying, but he objects to a fellow male Moslem being publicly executed even for a murder. We look into the great mosque; in its courtyard are the remains of a small ancient temple to the sun—it was once a Roman temple, then a Greek basilica, and was in more ancient times probably the site of the very temple in which Naaman bowed the knee to Rimmon, when his master worshipped there. ”

“ There are about four hundred Mosques, some having six minarets, and adorned with beautiful granite columns, brought from Heliopolis and Memphis. About twenty deserve notice as works of art. The largest mosque is El Azhar, at the center of the city, regarded as a University for all Islam. The next in size is that of Sultan Hasan, in the Roumeyleh square, the finest structure in modern Egypt, and extremely light and elegant. It is built in the form of a parallelogram, and has a deep frieze running round all the wall, adorned with Gothic and Arabesque sculpture. ”

“ There are no chairs but the worshipers sit on the floor.
It is believed that any man who builds a mosque has remission of his sins. It gives him great reputation and he is known as a holy and religious man. There are some very old mosques, a few having stood as long as 900 years. In some instances Christian churches have been converted into mosques in times of persecution. In the city of Oroomiah one very fine church was converted into a mosque about 600 years ago. ”

“ The religious architecture of Islam, as far as its symbolism is concerned, is a thing that will never be understood by the Christian. A mosque to most people is simply a public monument, a thing of domes and minarets and many columns. The winter bird of passage at Cairo thinks it a great inconvenience that he should be made to put on a pair of babouches over his shoes in order to enter, forgetting that it is a Holy Place and that one of the tenets of the Mussulman religion forbids walking rough-shod over the rugs and carpets of a place of worship. ”

“ The great enclosure outside the platform is not paved; it is covered with grass and planted with olives and cypresses. Only the platform is fairly level, and its flagging in parts is covered with Crusading masons’-marks. There is, as above noticed, only one mosque in the enclosure—the great building on the south wall. The whole area is called Haram esh Sherîf, “High Sanctuary,” and Masjid el Haram, “Praying-place of Sanctuary;” also sometimes Masjid el Aksa, “the far-off praying-place,” in allusion to its distance from Mecca and to the Prophet’s long night journey. ”

“ The sunlight streams in from the numerous windows encircling the dome, or from those on the walls of the mosque, many of which are of beautiful stained glass, but without figures of any kind, as Moslems consider this would be breaking the commandment relating to images.
All mosques point toward Mecca, and at the Mecca end stands a mihrab, or niche, from which the imam conducts the devotions. Beside it, supported by pillars, is a terrace for the choir, which consists entirely of men. They chant, seated cross-legged on rugs. ”

“ But the Mosque — that blossom of Oriental architecture, with its crowning domes, like the inverted bells of the lotus, and its reed-like minarets, its fountains and marble courts — can only perish with the faith it typifies. I, for one, rejoice that, so long as the religion of Islam exists (and yet, may its time be short!) , no Christian model can shape its houses of worship. The minaret must still lift its airy tower for the muezzin; the dome must rise like a gilded heaven above the prayers of the Faithful, with its starry lamps and emblazoned phrases ”

“ Even in the reign of Almanzor, the specific style of the Arabs was giving place to less beautiful conceptions of line and decoration. Nevertheless, it is generally admitted that the Mosque is the finest example in Europe of the Moorish religious edifice. It maintains uniformity in the plan of its construction, while the dimensions are enormous, and the adornment elegant and characteristic of the art of Islam in the flower of its might and magnificence. ”

“ After his accession to the throne, he wrote to his governors as follows: "Do not pull down a church or a synagogue, but do not allow new ones to be built within your provinces." Omar devoted himself to making proselytes, holding out attractive promises to the new converts, or unceremoniously compelling both Jews and Christians to embrace Islam. It was probably for this reason that the Jews were disposed to support the false Messiah, and to lend credence to his representations that he would make them free again in the land of their fathers, and exterminate their enemies. ”

“ When ʿUmar ibn-ʿAbd-al-ʿAzîz became caliph, the Christians complained of what al-Walîd had down for their church. ʿUmar wrote to his ʿâmil ordering him to return to the Christians that part which he had added to the mosque from their church. The people of Damascus disliked the idea saying, "Shall we destroy our mosque after we have called to prayer and held service in it? And can a Christian church be returned [to its former owners] ?" Among the Moslems were at that time Sulaimân ibn-Ḥabîb al-Muḥâribi and other canonists. ”