In 1929, the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem published a small English-language guidebook for tourists visiting the Haram al-Sharif (also known as the Temple Mount). Visitors could read about the buildings, the site’s history, and all the rules they were expected to follow. The council was headed by Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who was already a leading opponent of Zionism and would later collaborate with Nazi Germany.
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And there it was on page four, a sentence that would’ve given today’s Palestinian leadership apoplexy. The guidebook declared the Haram al-Sharif’s identification with Solomon’s Temple “beyond dispute” and even referenced David building an altar there.
The council was responsible for protecting Muslim holy places. Its guidebook explained the site’s importance to Islam while ALSO recognizing the Jewish history that came long before it. Earlier editions from the 1920s contained the same passage, and research comparing surviving editions indicates that it remained in the guides through 1950.
By 1954, the reference to Solomon’s Temple had POOF…disappeared from the editions researchers examined. The surviving booklets don’t tell us who ordered the revision or why.
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