Kubbetü’s-Sahre

Standing in the walled Old City of Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock has been meticulously restored over the past fifty years, reclaiming its splendor as one of the most revered monuments in history. Located at Islam’s third-holiest site, this shrine serves as a bridge across time—linking the 7th century to the present through its enduring spiritual and architectural presence. Where history, religion, architecture, and ideology converge, the structure also stands as the earliest known domed monument in Islamic architecture.

This book explores the Dome of the Rock’s captivating story spanning over two millennia. It traces the monument’s long journey—from its rise on the site of the Second Jewish Temple in the 1st century BCE, through the Crusades and Jerusalem’s brief Christianization, to the multiple meanings it holds today for the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish worlds.

Renowned art historian Oleg Grabar approaches the monument not merely as a historical structure but as a work of art in its own right. While exploring the Dome’s aesthetic power that transcends eras, faiths, and cultures, he poses a timeless question: Can a community’s sacred values and the universal language of art truly converge?