Mel#9: Concludes the Dome is NOT what Muslims tell us!

We now come to our concluding episode where Mel tries to give us a date for the Dome and consequently for the large inscription with the references against Jesus' divinity, the trinity and Jesus' sonship.

1523-1543 AD: We find the Serpent King Mosaic on the outer arcade created, upon which sits the inscription which states that Umar was the builder of the Dome.

1720-1744 AD: The inscription is changed from Umar to Abd al-Malik as the builder.

1790-1820 AD: Al Ma'mun's name replaces that of Abd al-Malik as the builder of the Dome of the Rock.

1726 AD: Horn who worked at the Church of the Sepulchre mentions that the Dome wasn't built by Abd al-Malik, nor by Mamun, but had the signature of Umar applied to it in the 1520s.

1804 AD: Luigi Mayer says that the Drum was now round, yet the cupola was elongated and resembled an acorn.

1817 AD: The Sultan Mahmud II says that the outside of the Dome was restored with a round cupola, accompanied with Mosaics, while Mamun's corrected inscription was added at this time, so sometime before 1833 AD.

1841 AD: We are given descriptions of a similar Dome to what we have now, but it is not golden.

1842: William Leighton Leitch creates steel engravings of the Dome which look similar to the dome we have today, while David Robert draws the dome and calls it the "Mosque of Umar", suggesting, as before, that Umar built it.

1862 AD: Drawings of the Dome show that it still isn't golden.

1876 AD: It is at this time that the gold is added to the dome, and the outer inscriptions are created; including Surah 2:145-149 about the Qibla being changed from Jerusalem to the 'Masjid al Haram' (which Muslims claim is in Mecca) which was added above the southern portico, while Surah 17:1 is inscribed upon the Drum itself. This verse refers to the 'Miraj', the supposed night journey of Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem, though the verse itself only states that the prophet (no reference to Muhammad) went from the "great mosque to the farthest mosque".

Mel then concludes by pointing out 7 Holes in the history of the Dome of the Rock, derived from A.J. Deuss's research:

1) Our earliest reference to a structure (i.e. a Dome situated over the Temple Mount foundation rock) is in the late 9th century, while all other buildings on the Temple Mount are either too far east, or too far north; thus, 150 - 200 years too late!

2) Our earliest verifiable witness to the Dome of the Rock mosaics and the inner arcade inscriptions as they exist today is not until 1523-1543 AD, which is 830 years too late!

3) The earliest witnessed inscription concerning who built the Dome was from 1523-1543AD, and
it said Umar built it, so 830 years too late, and the wrong person.

4) The earliest verifiable date for the creation of the Abd Al Malik inscription is 1720-1744 AD, thus 1,028 years too late!

5) A complete re-building of the drum (from the ground up), going from an octagonal shape to a circular shape is not until the mid 18th century, so 1,058 years too late!

6) The mosaics and inscriptions on the drum and the dome are 18th century creations, which are again over 1,000 years too late!

7) The earliest verifiable date for the creation of the “Al Ma’mun” corrected inscription is sometime between 1817 and 1833 AD, so from 1,125 to 1,141 years too late!

So, in conclusion, we find that not only is there no building on the correct site on the Temple Mount until almost 200 years after Abd al-Malik, the inscriptions concerning who Jesus is don't really appear for another 800 years, while the references to who built it keep changing for over 1,000 years, and the final building which we see today was only finished in 1876, a good 1,180 years after Abd al-Malik time, whom the Traditions and everyone else has assumed up to now was the true builder.

With all of these eye-witness accounts, tabulated by A.J. Deuss, confronting the Standard Islamic Narrative (SIN), we are forced to, once again, re-assess everything we have known about this building, considered to be the 3rd most holy structure in Islam, which has huge ramifications concerning the origins of Islam.

© Pfander Centre for Apologetics - US, 2022
(65,280) Music: "Townsong" by Alexander Nakarada, from filmmusic-io