The Dome of Yusuf ( ar, قبة يوسف ) is a free-standing

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

d structure on the

Temple Mount The Temple Mount ( hbo, הַר הַבַּיִת, translit=Har haBayīt, label=Hebrew, lit=Mount of the House f the Holy}), also known as al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf (Arabic: الحرم الشريف, lit. 'The Noble Sanctuary'), al-Aqsa Mosque compoun ...

, located south of the

Dome of the Rock The Dome of the Rock ( ar, قبة الصخرة, Qubbat aṣ-Ṣakhra) is an Islamic shrine located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, a site also known to Muslims as the ''al-Haram al-Sharif'' or the Al-Aqsa Compound. Its initial ...

. It was built by

Saladin Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سه‌لاحه‌دین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...

(born Yusuf) in the 12th century, and has been renovated several times. It bears inscriptions from the 12th and 17th centuries: one dated 1191 in Saladin's name, and two mentioning Yusuf Agha, possibly a governor of Jerusalem or a

eunuch A eunuch ( ) is a male who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millennium ...

in the Ottoman imperial palace.Qubbat Yusuf
Archnet Digital Library.Al-Aqsa Guide
Friends of al-Aqsa 2007.

Description

A rectangular semi-enclosed structure resembling an

aedicule In ancient Roman religion, an ''aedicula'' (plural ''aediculae'') is a small shrine, and in classical architecture refers to a niche covered by a pediment or entablature supported by a pair of columns and typically framing a statue,"aedicula, n." ...

, the Dome of Yusuf sits upon a solid stone wall and is supported by three pointed open arches. On the northern face of the southern wall, there are stone carvings and a marble-faced blind niche. The exterior of the dome is covered in lead sheeting, and the interior is decorated with a ribbed pattern. The structure has three inscriptions: * The prominent inscription on the lower panel, a green naskh Arabic text, is from 1191 (during the

Ayyubid dynasty The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni ...

). It calls Saladin by his kunya ("father of the Triumphant") and his

personal name A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is known ...

. It also mentions an

emir Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cerem ...

, al-Asfahasalar Sayf ad-Din Ali bin Ahmad (al-Asfahsalar Ali bin Ahmad al-Hikkari), for having supervised the construction of a defensive trench. * Two small, unpainted inscriptions are on the façade's

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...

s (above the arch). They are in two different languages, together forming a bilingual epigraphic text. Both panels end with "1092" in Eastern Arabic numerals (), which is the

Hijri year The Hijri year ( ar, سَنة هِجْريّة) or era ( ''at-taqwīm al-hijrī'') is the era used in the Islamic lunar calendar. It begins its count from the Islamic New Year in which Muhammad and his followers migrated from Mecca to Yathrib ...

that overlaps partly with 1682 CE. A version i
here, p. 10-12
but it misspells "piety" (should be ) as . ** The right one is in Ottoman Turkish, stating that Superintendent Ali Agha built this. ** The left is in Arabic, with mostly the same information. It indicates that Ali did it on behalf of Yusuf Agha. Both panels clarify that the reward for this effort should go to Yusuf. The white central panel inside the niche is blank.

Environs

It is one of several structures jutting out of the southern end of the raised platform (terrace) of the

. The Dome of Yusuf is between the Summer Pulpit (Minbar of Burhān ad-Dīn) and the an-Naḥawiyya Dome (Grammarians' Dome). To their east, one sees the main southern colonnade ''( mawāzīn)''. The less-ornamental

Dome of Yusuf Agha The Dome of Yusuf Agha ( ar, قبة يوسف أغا ) is a small square building with a dome in the al-Aqsa Compound (), in the courtyard between the Islamic Museum and Qibli Mosque, al-Aqsa Mosque (al-Qibli). History It was built in 1681 and ...

is a separate building, located in a plaza in the south of the compound.

References

External links

*
360-degree view
from under the dome * A 19th-century map of the area. It is labelled lowercase ''n''. The author, Ermete Pierotti, claims it was where Saladin prayed after winning the Siege of Jerusalem: "". {{Old City (Jerusalem) Ayyubid architecture in the State of Palestine Yusuf, Dome of Yusuf 1190s establishments in the Ayyubid Sultanate