Importance of Jerusalem to Jews and Muslims

Reader comment on item: If I Forget Thee: Does Jerusalem Really Matter to Islam?

Submitted by Gerald (Jerry) R. Kotler (United States), Aug 1, 2004 at 08:51

I am told by some of my Muslim acquaintances that the reason the word "Jerusalem" does not appear in the Koran is because the Muslim holy book do not refer to that city as Jerusalem. They claim that there are 2 other words the Koran
uses to describe Jerusalem; viz., Al Gohds and Beth Moghadas.

I would appreciate any response you might have regarding the above matter.

Jerry Kotler
Dayton, Ohio

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

Daniel Pipes replies:

No, Al-Quds and Bayt al-Maqdis (to use the Arabic spellings) are not mentioned in the Qur'an. Do note this sentence in my article: "The Umayyads cast aside the non-religious Roman name for the city, Aelia Capitolina (in Arabic, Iliya) and replaced it with Jewish-style names, either Al-Quds (The Holy) or Bayt al-Maqdis (The Temple)." The Umayyads followed the (conventional) dating of the Qur'an's appearance by many decades