The Foundation Stone: Caliph Umar Allowed Jews to Remove Debris From The Temple Mount

Temple Mount during the Christian Byzantine conquest, under the direction of Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, was to be treated as a sewage and refuse dump. According to a letter written in the 11th Century from the Ge'on Ya'agov Yeshiva in Jerusalem to the diaspora communities, Caliph Umar allowed the Jews to clean Temple Mount.  

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The letter reads:

‘And from our G-d there befell His mercy upon us before the kingdom of Ishmael; at the time when their power expanded and they captured the Holy Land from the hands of Edom (referring to Christianity, whose roots are connected to Jacob’s brother Esau), and came to Jerusalem, there were people from the Children of Israel with them; they showed them the spot of the temple and they settled with them until this very day…’

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The Cairo Genizah Chronicle also stated: "‘Umar watched them all the time. Whenever a remnant was revealed, he would ask the elders of the Jews about the rock, namely the Even HaShtiyah (‘the foundation stone’ on which the Temples were built), and one of the sages would mark out the boundaries of the place, until it was uncovered…’

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This was also confirmed by a Muslim Chronicle mentioning Ka ‘b al-Aḥbār, one of the sages, who accompanied Umar to Jerusalem.

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