Last week, Shaina Be Hirsch ascended to the Temple Mount with a friend, and then discussed the history of the Jewish Temples and the Muslim mosques and shrines there, on Facebook Live.
While there are some inaccuracies, the video gets most interesting at the 3:15 mark when a member of the Waqf interrupts her lesson and says (while she is still on live webstream) that she is “not allowed to talk Temple here in a mosque.”
Incredulous, Shaina argued with the guard about the most basic facts of documented history. He insisted that there was “zero proof” of a Temple at the site. He insisted that there was a mosque there “since Adam.” He insisted that Dan Bahat, an Israeli archaeologist, insisted that there was no evidence of a Temple at the site. (Here’s an illustration from one of his books.)
Shaina describes what happened to her next:
I was separated from my friend and taken by the Waqf security to be questioned.
They told me they would release me when I would stop telling lies. But I wasn’t telling lies.
They told me they would release me if I myself could prove that there was anything up there from before a mosque. I told them I just needed to take out the carbon-dating kit I always keep in my backpack and I could prove that in a jiffy. That seemed to confuse them.
But what really threw them for a loop was that I kept insisting that there were multiple temples there. At the very least four or maybe three and a half. The first Temple (Beit Hamikdash HaRishon), the Hasmonean Temple (perhaps this is the half because it was built out of existing parts), Herod’s Temple (The second Beit Hamikdash) and a temple to Jupiter. Now Herod’s Temple was clearly its own Temple, as he removed every single stone of the Hasmoneans before building his own.
As I kept repeating facts about the Second Temple Era, I held my phone tightly as they tried to grab it away. They didn’t seem to understand how LIVE video works, how well-locked an iPhone is, or that by erasing the history of the two other religions that their faith is based on, they weaken their own claim to this land.
After some questioning, I was handed off to the Israeli police, who tried to keep a straight face as they told me I did nothing illegal, but that I had to respect the site and I couldn’t say that there had been a Beit Hamikdash there. I wish they would have respected the integrity of the site. They also were very surprised to learn there had been more than two temples there. And even more surprised to learn that there had once been a church there. Does no one know history anymore?
While the incident is both funny and maddening, I think that Ms. Hirsch could have shut up her Waqf friend with two pieces of information.
One is from the Waqf itself. While the guard said that Jews were the ones who made up a story about the Temple around 1940, that happens to be not far from the time that the Waqf started erasing Jewish history there. The Waqf pamphlet for tourists up until around 1952 explicitly admitted that Solomon’s Temple was at the site:
The current Waqf pamphlet explicitly denies any Jewish history altogether.
The other piece of evidence that Muslims always admitted that there was a Temple at the site comes from one of the most celebrated and prolific Muslim writers, historians and scientists, Al Suyuti, a 15th century Egyptian, who wrote an entire book about the Temple that was translated to English:
Now we are told by Ibn Almubarak, from Othman, When God commanded David (with whom be peace !) to build this Temple, he said, O Lord, where shall I build it ? Who said, Where thou shalt see the angel with a drawn sword. David then did see the angel in that place. David there fore fixed the corner-stones of its foundation, and raised the walls ; but when the walls were raised, they were pulled down again. David then said, O Lord, thou didst command me to build a house for thee ; and now that I have raised the walls, thou dost pull them down. Then he said, O David, it is because I have not appointed thee my vicegerent among created beings; nor must thou alienate the place from its possessor without a price. As to that building, a man of thy sons shall construct it. Again, it has been said that the meaning of the building being pulled down after it had been raised, was, that the place be longed to the whole community of the children of Israel, every one of whom had a right in it.
...All this happened when he had reigned eleven years : but he died before he had accomplished the building, and enjoined his son Solomon (peace be with him !) to build it ; which he did, and built it in nine years : and when he had finished it, the children of Israel feasted therein upon twelve thousand oxen. It is again said, that the cause of this was, that David (peace be with him !) saw angels, with flaming swords, ascending by a golden ladder from the Rock unto heaven. Then said David, This is a place whereon it is fitting that a Mosque should be built to God Almighty. Thus therefore he built it ; but,dying before it was completed, he enjoined Solomon to build it ; who built it, and finished it.
Also, from the beginning of the building by David, unto the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, and the overthrow of the dynasty of the sons of Israel, elapsed 454 years. Again, from Abu Abdallah Almubarek, the Temple re mained in ruins until it was built by a Persian king, named Kushak ; for Al Baghooee says Kooshan-Ibn-Kushak-lbn-Achundash, built it seventy years after its demolition by Nebuchadnezzar. Then certain weak kings conquered Syria; the kings of Rome giving them the government thereof. These kings caused Syria to embrace their Christianity, until God brought Islam. Among these kings was Jabil-Ibn-Al-Ayham. And God gave the Moslem an entrance into Syria, at the time of Omar-Ibn-Al-Khattab, (God rest content with him !). Then the Temple was surrendered to Omar by capitulation, and continued in the hands of the Moslem from the Omarian conquest until the Franks seized upon it, and wrested it from the hands of the Moslem, and ruled over it, under the dynasty of the Fa- themites, until God again opened Syria to the hand of the Sultan of Islam and of believers, Salah-ud-din, (God show mercy to him !) according to the victories and the great events which will be accurately embodied (please God!) in a chapter of this book, which is to follow.
Muslims throughout history knew why the Dome of the Rock was built exactly where it was. The current attempts to rewrite history are quite pathetic. But all one has to do is to show them their own writings.