Historical Evidence Shows Jews Prayed on Temple Mount Centuries After Temple's Destruction

Historical research reveals that Jews continued to pray on the Temple Mount, including the Holy of Holies site, for centuries after the destruction of the First and Second Temples. British historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, in his 2013 book 'Jerusalem: The Biography,' cites evidence from the 7th century during the rule of Umayyad caliph Muawiya, who allowed Jews to pray at the Holy of Holies even as he built the first mosque on the Temple Mount. Archaeological finds such as a 7th-century menorah support this claim. Montefiore also notes that under Muawiya's successor, Abd al-Malik, who constructed the Dome of the Rock, Jews still prayed there, interpreting the golden dome as a symbol of hope for a new Temple.

Remarkably, the medieval Jewish scholar Maimonides (Rambam), whose legal rulings are often cited to prohibit ascending the Temple Mount today, wrote explicitly that he ascended and prayed at the site of the Temple. In a letter dated to the year 1165 CE, he describes traveling from Acre to Jerusalem under dangerous conditions to pray in the "great and holy house" and later praying at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. His words express hope for the rebuilding of the Temple and the restoration of Jewish worship there.

Earlier historical research by Israeli historian Ben-Zion Dinur, published in 1929, also concluded that during the early Muslim period in the Land of Israel, from the 7th century until the Crusader conquest in 1099, an active synagogue existed on the Temple Mount where Jews prayed intermittently.

Today, the question of Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount remains highly controversial within religious and political spheres in Israel. The article calls for allowing Jewish prayer at this most sacred site while awaiting the eventual rebuilding of the Temple, marking the 9th of Av this year as the 1956th anniversary of the Temple's destruction.

This historical perspective challenges common assumptions and highlights a complex legacy of Jewish presence and worship on the Temple Mount throughout centuries of foreign rule.