Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/519

Rh Bk. I. Ch. II. EL-AKSAH, JEKUSALEM. 503 little farther westward originally, and a portion of it may have been cut off when the neighborinoj Aksah was built and included within its walls. 1 The troubles which, during the next half-century, succeeded the murder of Ali and his sons, seem to have been unfavorable to build- ing or any of the arts of peace, and no record has yet been brought to light of any important structure erected during that period. In the 69th year of the Hejira, Abd el-Malek, the Caliph of Damascus, 957. View in the Mosque el-Aksah at Jerusaleiu. detei-mined to erect a mosque at Jerusalem. His objects were to set up that city as a place of pilgrimage in opposition to Mecca, which was then in the possession of a rival, and to carry into effect what was at one time understood to have been the intention of Mahomet, namely, to convert the temple of Jerusalem into the holy place of his new religion, instead of that of Mecca. These ulterior purposes were never realized, in consequence of the violent opposition which the project met with from the Jews.
 * The Mosque of the Mogrebins is also a plain vaulted apartment, 25 ft. by 173