Jerusalem in Medieval Islamic Tradition

The history of Islamic thought about Jerusalem has been hindered by a lack of comprehensive historical sources on the city in what is traditionally thought of as the Classical period of Islam, from the 6th to the mid‐13th centuries. As a result, scholars have relied on geographical works and texts in a genre known as ‘Religious Merits’ or faḍā’ il , as well as apocalyptic and prophetic tradition ( ḥadīth ) for insight into the role and importance of the city for early medieval Muslims. Jerusalem’s major Islamic monuments, including the Dome of the Rock and the Aqṣā Mosque, were early Muslim buildings whose meaning changed significantly over the course of the medieval period. The incorporation of towns and cities outside Mecca and Medina into a sacred landscape encompassing broad regions such as al‐Shām /Greater Syria was partly the by‐product of the effulgence of the faḍā’ il genre, a feature of the High Middle Ages. Like Damascus, Kufa and Baghdad, among others, Jerusalem became one of a constellation of pilgrimage centers in broader conceptions of the Islamic world’s actual and sacred territory.