s . Born boundaries the he spent much of his adult life outside of than for geographers by native values for its sentimental of the so-called sons, his description was and poet. He belonged to the in Cairo, a Persian philosopher caliphs and he was an ac (Travel agent of their power. His Sefername Book), 700 TO llOO 125 of a Sanctuary The Completion with its description report, scientist's drawings. possibly was writing tant audience, of Jerusalem based on carefully in 1047, reads at times like a social observations, and and place for a dis of a very specific kept notes, he came from elsewhere because Precisely to evoke the character his account is particularly trustworthy. the Fada'il and on par These Fada'il my In the tenth century genre appeared, on Jerusalem associations. of the pious and historical a new literary

tual political history enough, themselves. the authors physical full of stories, them an abstraction piety, sual indicators which concentrated in the city with for their definition around Jerusalem as sources that had developed by the end of the for a purely They are less reliable fac and, curiously of the city or its buildings; uninformative they are remarkably about the monuments of our own time, Like many historians of these books were blind to or uninterested or theologians in the was for of the city they praised. Jerusalem space with vi not a constructed configuration or behavior. of history, we have archaeological and visual of additions And finally of repairs These and novelties. in textual in inscriptions, sometimes of construc accounts investigations provide about these architectural

additional and embellishments. From all of these sources, occasionally are preserved much more rarely Further in eyewitness may eventually bits of evidence alterations we can conclude of the Dome of the Rock and the arthat the four centu ries between the completion 126 THE DOME OF THE ROCK rival of the Crusaders meanings changes divided will identify, tivities and for which we possess particular group of structures emphasize enth century monuments. the preceding sketch ucated Muslims And in conclusion of the changes times permanently, enth century. turned out to be more important for the around the Dome of the Rock than for any that accrued Accordingly, in the form of the monument itself. information the available I have First, I into two broad sections. or ac the events order,

I will stress reasonably of a visual and other objects in for the building-a to strengthen the development context intended and its impact. I will then jump to the middle of the elev account and its of Jerusalem in parallel Khosro's and to Nasir-i Using this account of Fada'il, I will with the geographies contemporary out what the Dome of the Rock seems to have meant to ed and the nearly century before the arrival of the Crusaders. explanation a generation I will propose a more hypothetical if not in form, that affected, some of the late sev in meaning, this architectural masterpiece Visual Context Like any work of architecture, stant need of repairs terations of these activities building, the Dome of the Rock was in con damage and of al from natural or man-made to meet new needs, new tastes, occasions. Some left on the in geographical