FAISAL WAS DEVOUT. He believed that he could defeat Nasser and exclude communism from Arabia by promoting Islamic values; this was a pillar of both his foreign and domestic policies. He supported Bin Laden’s work in Mecca in part because it promoted Saudi Arabia’s credentials as a steward of Islam. In 1958, shortly after he became prime minister (a professional-sounding title in a thoroughly unprofessional government), Faisal seized on another renovation project that promised similar visibility and prestige, one that appealed in addition to Faisal’s fervent anti-Zionist convictions: the refurbishment of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.
The Haram Al-Sharif, or “Noble Sanctuary,” is a large raised area at the southeastern corner of Jerusalem’s walled Old City. The platform is regarded as the third holiest site in Islam. It contains two important buildings, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, built in the late seventh century. The Dome’s gold-colored cupola soars ninety-eight feet above the sanctuary’s esplanade, atop what Jewish tradition identifies as a wall of the First Temple built by King Solomon a thousand years before Christ.
The Dome of the Rock’s place in Islamic tradition is more allusive and mystical than the historical narratives of war, politics, and law provided in the Koran about Mecca and Medina. Koranic verses and later interpretations by Muslim scholars hold that the Prophet Mohamed visited the rock outcropping beneath the Dome while on a “Night Journey” on a winged horse from Mecca to Jerusalem, then onward to heaven and finally back to Mecca. After Mohamed’s death, Jerusalem became the site of continual conflict among Jews, Christians, and Muslims; as the centuries passed, the Night Journey narrative, and the Dome itself, attracted powerful allegiance from Muslims worldwide. The more Jerusalem became a locus of religious war, the stronger this allegiance grew. European crusaders captured the Dome in 1099 and turned it into a church before the Muslim hero Saladin retook Jerusalem and restored the site to Islam. Much later, Jewish projects to recognize the site’s ancient temples, some of which dated to the earliest Jewish kingdoms, drew fierce resistance from Muslims.14
By the early 1950s, the Dome of the Rock had sunk into disrepair. Tiles were damaged or missing altogether, its roof was sagging, and its interior required fresh paint, carpentry, and metalwork. The Kingdom of Jordan then controlled the sanctuary, the Old City, and East Jerusalem. Young King Hussein, who had taken the throne after the assassination of his father, announced a pan-Islamic campaign to renovate the Dome in 1952, a project that had political as well as religious appeal amid the anti-Zionist feeling prevalent in the Arab world. Saudi Arabia and Egypt pledged financial support, but the project languished.
Four years later, Nasser announced his own plan to refurbish the Dome, and later that year, with Jordan’s agreement, he dispatched engineering and architectural experts to Jerusalem to prepare for contracting bids. Nasser’s initiative seems to have galvanized Faisal, for as soon as the crown prince took power in 1958, he worked to ensure Saudi influence over the project. His government backed Mohamed Bin Laden in the bidding. As Bin Laden prepared to make a proposal during the spring of 1958, he was buoyed by financial guarantees from Riyadh.15
Seven Arab-owned companies submitted bids by the May deadline—two from Jordan, four from Egypt, and Bin Laden’s. He passed an initial cut down to three bidders, but his submission was not initially the lowest in price. Bin Laden corresponded with the decision-making committee about switching materials so as to reduce his bid further. “First, this is a sacred Islamic project, and I am very pleased to participate in the construction of this holy Muslim site,” he wrote on July 8, 1958. He pledged to work “at any cost and provide any materials in order to do this great and honorable service to the Muslim community.” To ensure success, Bin Laden provided an aide with power of attorney and sent him to Jerusalem for the last round of negotiations. He dropped his bid further to ensure that his was the lowest. His final submission was for 276,990.2 Jordanian dinars, just below the 278,225.5 dinars proposed by the Ali Abrahim Company of Egypt. The narrow margin suggests that a decision to favor Bin Laden might have already been made privately. Bin Laden later said that he had deliberately accepted a loss on the contract, as an act of personal religious charity, so it is also possible that he was determined, on his own, to win the honor. In any event, on July 17, 1958, the committee announced that Bin Laden had won.16
“Your highness, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Laden, it is my pleasure to inform you that the Committee for the Reconstruction of the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque has awarded the work of the construction…to your company,” the committee’s Supreme Judge wrote. “I am hoping this work will be completed in accordance with God’s expectations, and I hope God will help us preserve this Islamic treasure.”17
For the next nine years, Mohamed Bin Laden oversaw construction and renovations at the sanctuary, first on the Dome of the Rock and the grounds around it, then on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and elsewhere in Muslim areas of Jerusalem’s Old City. He emphasized that the project was an act of personal devotion. “It is well known, Your Highness, that I care a great deal about the Dome of the Rock project,” he wrote to the Supreme Judge in 1959 while bidding on a contract for lighting and electrical work. “I will execute the plan…at my own expense. In addition, I will submit receipts without including any service or labor costs…This is not for financial gain, but for its religious significance.”18
Bin Laden’s Jerusalem workforce was multinational and multireligious; it included Italian marble specialists, Armenian Christians and Palestinian Christians, as well as Palestinian Muslims. When the call to prayer rang out, Bin Laden would join the Muslim workers in prostrated worship, but the Italians would carry on or take a coffee break. “We learned a bit of Italian,” recalled Nadir Shtaye, a workshop supervisor. “They learned a bit of Arabic.” Bin Laden imported aluminum and marble from Europe, sand and cement from Jordan, wood from Lebanon, and tiles from Turkey, all trucked in from the Jordanian port at Aqaba. He won popularity by sometimes tipping workers on top of their salaries—ten dinars per man. A photograph shows him standing near a bank of microphones at a Jerusalem press conference in the late 1950s; he is dressed in a long white Saudi robe and a fashionable pair of dark sunglasses, carrying a modern briefcase. Photographs taken by his American pilot toward the end of the project show an enormous crane rising above the sanctuary’s esplanade; nearby are turbaned workers hammering to repair the outdoor plaza, amid piles of white sand.19
King Hussein called for a celebration at the sanctuary after the first round of work was finished. Bin Laden flew into Jerusalem on his own private airplane on August 5, 1964, accompanied by a Saudi cabinet minister and notables from Medina. The Jordanian governor of Jerusalem and his military commander met Bin Laden at the airport. About five hundred Arab dignitaries crowded onto the sanctuary platform the next morning under a hot sun. A Koran reader sang out verses, and King Hussein presented Bin Laden with a medal honoring him for his work on Jerusalem’s behalf. As was by now a ritual of public Arab oratory, the king pledged to reclaim Palestine from Israeclass="underline" “Let me emphasize that the actual renovation of the Mosque and the Dome of the Holy Rock assumes significance far beyond the physical repair work,” the king said. The renovation project had also advanced the cause of “complete restoration of our full rights in our usurped land.”20