Salmiya

The current, as ever marvellous, January - February issue of the Saudi Aramco World Magazine contains a virtual tour through the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, a site of great significance for Muslims (and maybe Jews and Christians, as well). For the first time, I could see the intricate and intriguing calligraphic inscriptions on the inner octagonal arcade, which are considered as belonging to the oldest Islamic inscriptions ever. It contains, apart from verses from the Holy Qur'an, strong polemic against Christianity, while stressing at the same time the Qur'anic doctrine that Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, was a true prophet. German scholar and professor for semitic and arabic languages Christoph Luxenberg had recently claimed that the text may in fact point to the Christian origin of the building. From the January - February 2009 issue of Saudi Aramaco World : "One hundred and fifty years ago, in 1859, M. J. Diness made the first known photographs ...