The Sacred Sites of Islam
Islam recognises three sanctuaries above all others, the three mosques toward which a believer may set out in deliberate pilgrimage. They stand in Makkah, in Madinah and in Jerusalem, and each holds a place in the faith that has been honoured, without interruption, for more than thirteen centuries.
The Sacred Mosque in Makkah
At the heart of Islam stands the Kaaba, the House of God, within the Sacred Mosque, the Masjid al-Haram. It is the qibla, the direction every Muslim faces in prayer, and the focal point of the Hajj, the pilgrimage that each able believer is called to make once in a lifetime. In Islamic tradition the building is associated with the Prophet Ibrahim and his son Isma'il, raised as a sanctuary devoted to the worship of the one God. To circle it is among the oldest rites of the faith.
The Prophet's Mosque in Madinah
Madinah holds the Prophet's Mosque, the Masjid an-Nabawi, founded by the Prophet Muhammad himself after the migration from Makkah in the year 622. Beneath its green dome lies the chamber that holds his resting place, beside the first two caliphs of Islam. Pilgrims who come to the city visit the mosque to offer their greetings there, in one of the most beloved and revered spaces in the Muslim world.
The sanctuary of Jerusalem
Jerusalem holds the third of the sanctuaries, the Noble Sanctuary, the Haram al-Sharif, the wide platform that carries the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Built by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik and completed around 691, the Dome of the Rock is among the oldest works of Islamic architecture still standing, and the rock at its centre is tied in tradition to the Prophet's Night Journey. It was the first qibla, the direction the early Muslims faced before the turn toward Makkah.
A continuity of reverence
What these three places share is not only their antiquity but the unbroken devotion that has surrounded them. Across every change of dynasty, every rebuilding and repair, the care given to them has never lapsed. They remain, as they have been for the whole history of the faith, the points around which the prayer of the Muslim world is oriented.
The Sacred Spaces collection approaches these places with the reverence in which they are held.