The genesis of Islamic architecture in the few decades following the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 is still obscure. We know from textual and some archaeological evidence that, during the reigns of the four Orthodox Caliphs and the early Umayyads, a few communal buildings were constructed in the capital Medina and later Damascus, and in the new set-tlements or garrison towns (amsdr) in Syria, Iraq, and Egypt, but we know very little about their plans, struc-tures, and construction materials. We do know that they were all constructed to fulfill the immediate needs of the Muslim communities or the Islamic governments in these towns, and that meant they invariably belonged to one of two types, either congregational mosques, such as those at Kufa (638-39), Basra (638-39), and Fustat (642), or government houses (dur imdra, pl. of dar al-imara), like the ones in Kufa (638-39) and Damascus (after 644). 1 These first buildings were all of a straightforward utilitarian character lacking any architectural pretence, but the sources tell us that the second generation of Muslim governors paid more attention to appearance. MuCawiya ordered his dar al-imdra in Damascus torn down and rebuilt with more durable materials after he heard the comment of a Byzantine envoy that" the upper part will do for birds and the lower for rats." 2 In 665 Ziad ibn Abihi, MuCawiya's governor in Basra, ordered the congrega-tional mosque and ddr al-imdra in that town rebuilt in baked brick with stone columns taken from ancient sites. Although these new buildings represented a step up from the earlier ones, and may have shown a nas-cent Islamic style, they were still functional in nature and simple in form and meaning. Yet, only a few decades after these modest buildings were built, we find Caliph CAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan (683-703) ordering the construction of a sumptuous building-the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem-that had no precedent in the short history of Islamic architecture. In fact, not only did the Dome of the Rock, dated by an inscription to the year 72 (692), surpass all previous Islamic buildings, it even manifested a full-fledged stylistic, structural, and ornamental pro-gram which put it in a class apart as a meaningful architectural monument. The Dome of the Rock has no immediately discernible purpose or function other than the commemorative one, and even that is riddled with uncertainties. Muslims around the world believe it was built to com-memorate a decisive event in the Prophet Muham-mad's mission, namely his Night Journey (isrda) from Mecca to Jerusalem, and his subsequent Ascension (mirdj) from the Rock to Heaven, where he received from God the doctrinal principles of the new religion. 3 This belief dates from the beginning of the eighth century, when the earliest Arabic source, as far as can be ascertained, which connected the two events was codified by Ibn Ishaq (d. 761) under the title Sirat al-Nab. 4 However, neither the fact that there is a small dome next to the Dome of the Rock known as the Dome of the Ascension (qubbat al-miCrd), nor the Dome of the Rock's inscriptions, 5 nor early Islamic sources cor-roborate the ascription of this belief to the eighth cen-tury when the Dome was built. 6 CAbd al-Malik must have chosen this venerated site in the Holy City of the three monotheistic religions to build the first truly monumental Islamic building for a purpose, or pur-poses, other than just to celebrate the Prophet's Ascen-sion to Heaven, since such an association appears not to have been fully formulated by his time. Thus, modern scholarship is presented with the problem of explaining why this puzzling monument was built. Many attempts have been …