Legends of the
Dome of the Rock:
14 / THE CRESCENT ON THE DOME
The round shape of the crescent, symbol of Islam, is
fixed atop the Dome of the Rock. Legend says that occasionally the crescent
turns of itself and changes its direction. And this is an ominous portent.
Rabbi Moses Bassola, who visited the Holy Land in 1522,
in the time of the Turks, reported that the "rumor concerning the crescent
is, that an overturned crescent, facing south, protrudes from a big column of
metal at the head of a dome which the Arabs have in the Temple. It is said that
during the Feast of Tabernacles [Sukkoth] in 1519 it turned eastward. The Arabs
believed this to be a portentous omen. They attempted to turn it southward, in
the direction of Mecca, the holy city of Moslems in Arabia, and a tree, growing
in the Temple court since tile days of Muhammad, fell. Thus have I heard".
David ha-Reubeni, a false Messiah of Israel, went to
Jerusalem from Arabia. He was on his way to Rome to petition the pope for help
in his endeavor to restore the Jewish people to their land. In 1523, he entered
the Dome of the Rock, and he relates:
"Now on the top of the dome there is a crescent
which faces westward. On the first day of the Feast of Pentecost [Shavuoth],
this crescent was seen to face the east, and when the Arabs saw this, they
shouted in great alarm. I asked them, 'Why do you shout?' They answered,
'Because of our sins this crescent has turned toward the east, which is an evil
omen to the Arabs.
"A workman climbed to the dome and turned the
crescent to its former position, but on the next day it was facing the east.
And the Arabs continued to shout and to weep as they vainly tried to turn the
crescent.
"Then I knew that it was time to leave Jerusalem,
for the wise men had told me, 'When you behold this sign, it is time to proceed
to Rome.'"
A Christian traveler who visited Jerusalem in 1652
tells of the crescent having changed its position, and of the fear this
instilled in the inhabitants of Jerusalem: "The leaden crescent on the
summit of the dome of their Great Mosque — an object large, thick, massive,
weighing more than three hundred pounds, and so firmly fixed that neither winds
nor storms can move it — on this day, ninth of April, it had of its own accord
turned four times from south to west, and had been restored as many times to
its former position by a dervish who had ascended for this purpose.
"A council (it was alleged) had been held to determine
the significance of this miracle. Some had supposed that God and Muhammad were
wroth against them [the Moslems] because they had allowed the monks to build [a
convent], and that they needs must demolish the whole to avert the threats and
the punishments of heaven.
"Others said that this prodigy had yet a further
significance — that it was a promise that their [Turkish] empire — so long
flourishing in the east — was now to stretch to the west; that all Christians
were to become Turks; and that they should begin with those who were in
Jerusalem — compel them to accept their law, or else expel and exterminate
them.
Yet another party said that the monks were whispering
in the convent that it was a good omen — that the [Turkish] empire was coming
to an end; that the Westerners and the Franks were to arrive in a short time to
make themselves masters of the Holy Land and of the whole East."
Sources: David ha-Reuveni, ed. Eshcoli, 1940, p. 26; Moses Bassola, Massa’oth Eret Israel, ed Ben-Zvi, p. 91; Kovetz al-Yad IV, 1888, pp. 27, 31; J. Doubdan, Le Voyage de la Terre-Sainte, 1666; Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement, 1923, p. 188.
Culled
from: Zev Vilnay: Legends of Jerusalem, Jewish Publication Society,
1973.
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