Sources describe different phases and compress them differently. Museum With No Frontiers gives 685–715 and names Abd al-Malik and al-Walid while noting debate; the custodial guide gives 706–714 under al-Walid, the Aga Khan summary uses 711, and Archnet distinguishes work under father and son. No single year is presented here as uncontested.[1][2][3][4]
The sources may be dating different events
A building can have a commission, a first construction phase, an expansion and a later rebuilding. Archnet separates an initial undertaking associated with Abd al-Malik from substantial work under his son al-Walid. A shorter guide may attach one range to the finished Umayyad campaign. Those statements are not automatically contradictions until the event each date describes has been identified.[2][4]
The present hall is not one Umayyad moment
Earthquake damage led to major Abbasid and Fatimid reconstruction, followed by later repairs and modern conservation. The Aga Khan project record documents twentieth-century work on the dome covering and interior paintings. A date for the earliest mosque therefore cannot be used as the age of every column, roof surface or decorative layer visible today.[2][3]
Use an attributed phase, not false precision
For a concise answer, it is safer to name the patron or building phase and cite the source than to force every account into one year. Learn keeps the custodial guide’s 706–714 range, the Aga Khan summary’s 711 date and Archnet’s father-and-son sequence visible. A specialist architectural review should compare their underlying bibliographies before narrowing that chronology further.[4][3][5]
Sources & references
References are attached to the passages they support. Dates below record source consultation.
- Aqsa Mosque · Yusuf al-Natsheh
Date, patrons and description
Museum With No Frontiers · Discover Islamic Art · Consulted 2026-09-14
- Jamiʿ al-Aqsa
Archnet · Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT · Consulted 2026-09-14
- Restoration of Al-Aqsa Mosque
Aga Khan Trust for Culture · Consulted 2026-09-14
- A Guide to Al-Aqsa Mosque / Al-Haram Ash-Sharif (2015)
p. 8
PASSIA · Jerusalem Awqaf · Hashemite Fund · Consulted 2026-09-14