Mosque of Umar (may Allah be pleased with him)

This is the place where the Caliph Umar (may

Allah be pleased with him) performed salat after

the conquest of Jerusalem in 638 CE. The

Patriarch of Jerusalem was showing Umar (may

Allah be pleased with him) around the Church of

the Holy Sepulchre during which the time for

salat occurred. The Patriarch offered a place for

him to pray in the church but Umar (may Allah

be pleased with him) refused, explaining to the

Patriarch, “Had I prayed inside the church, the

Muslims coming after me would take possession

of it, saying that I had prayed in it.” Tradition

has it that he picked up a stone, threw it outside

and prayed at the spot it landed. The present

Mosque of Umar (or Masjid-e-Umar) was built

over this place by Salahuddin Ayyubi’s son

Afdhal Ali in 1193 CE.

At the time when the Muslims first conquered

Jerusalem, the Jews had long been banned

from Jerusalem and the surrounding areas by

the Christian rulers. Umar (may Allah be

pleased with him) agreed with Sophronius (the

Patriarch of Jerusalem) that the Jews would

not be permitted to reside but later revoked

this arrangement. Umar (may Allah be pleased

with him) invited 70 Jewish families from

Tiberias to settle in Jerusalem, allowing them

to also build a synagogue.

Several eminent Companions of the Prophet

(peace and blessings of Allah be on him)

settled in Jerusalem, drawn by the holiness of

the city. Ubaidah ibn al-Samit (may Allah be

pleased with him), one of the leading experts in

the Quran, became the first qadi (Islamic

judge) of Jerusalem.

A copy of the Covenant which Umar (may Allah

be pleased with him) had drawn up giving

assurances of safety to the (non-Muslim)

people of Jerusalem is displayed in the

mosque.

This mosque is not to be confused with the

Dome of the Rock which is sometimes

mistakenly referred to as the Mosque of Umar.

There is also a small mosque adjacent to the

Al-Aqsa Mosque known as the Mosque of

Umar.

References: A history of Jerusalem – Karen

Armstrong, Wikipedia, The Rough Guide to

Jerusalem