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Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=37507
Ancient Muslim Inscription Proves Jewish Ties to Temple Mount
(Israel Hayom) Yori Yalon - A 1,000-year-old Muslim inscription provides yet more proof of Jewish ties to the Temple Mount and Jerusalem. On Thursday, archaeologists Assaf Avraham and Perez Reuven presented the inscription that was discovered at a recently excavated mosque in the village of Nuba near Hebron. It refers to the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount as "Bait al-Maqdess," an Arabicized version of the Hebrew words for the Temple, Beit Hamikdash. Other sources from the early Muslim period also refer to the Dome of the Rock as "al-Maqdess," demonstrating how Jewish tradition influenced the religious worldview of nascent Islam in the seventh century. "At the start of the Muslim period, religious rites were held inside the Dome of the Rock compound that imitated the ceremonies conducted in the Jewish Temple," Avraham said. "The people who conducted those ceremonies would purify themselves, change their clothes, burn incense, anoint the rock with oil, place curtains around the Foundation Stone, just like the ornamental curtain that existed in the [Jewish] Temple. In addition, those worshippers would wear ceremonial clothing and use incense burners over the Foundation Stone. These actions teach us that the Muslims saw the Dome of the Rock as the continuance of the Jewish Temple." "There is plenty of evidence that shows the Jewish influence on the Muslim world at the beginning [of Islam]. Among other things, we can take notice of Muslim coins minted in the Land of Israel in the eighth century by Muslim rulers, which feature the symbol of the menorah of the Temple," Avraham said.