Who rebuilt the minbar of Saladin at Al-Aqsa mosque?

By early 2003, Dr Minwer al-Meheid, the man tasked with the reconstruction of the minbar of Saladin, had assembled a motley crew of craftsmen from Türkiye, Egypt, Jordan and Indonesia. Sponsored by King Abdullah II of Jordan, the team congregated at a workshop at Al-Salt College, now the headquarters of the restoration of the minbar. The wood used to design and craft the thousands of pieces of walnut was a gift from the government of Türkiye, onto which Dr Minwer al-Meheid’s drawings were pasted as guides. All of the craftsmen were devoted Muslims: for them the reconstruction was much more than a simple job, it was an act of devotion which is an integral part of spirituality within a religious society. Muhammed Ali Uçar, one of the craftsmen from Türkiye, said: “This work reflects the highest level of Islamic symbolism. The minbar befits the status of the imam of the mosque. It is filled with geometric designs which all have great significance for Muslims.” - - 'Stairway to Heaven' is the story of an ancient and magnificent work of sacred art, whose loss not only shook the art world, but triggered the shocking realisation that traditional Islamic knowledge and skills have all but vanished. In 1969, Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem was attacked by a fanatic, and in the blaze that followed, one of the world's most precious works of art, the minbar of Saladin, originally installed in 1187, was destroyed. The minbar lay in ashes. Thirty years later, the royal family of Jordan, as the traditional guardians of Al-Aqsa mosque, decided to reconstruct the minbar. Fortunately, some black and white photos survived, which showed an intricately constructed pulpit from more than 16,000 hand-carved pieces of walnut, ivory and ebony, held together without glue or nails. Using sacred geometry and the richness of symbolism, the minbar was a masterwork of Islamic art. Narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Sir Kenneth Branagh ('Belfast', 2021), 'Stairway to Heaven' chronicles the journey to recreate the Saladin minbar and its final restoration in Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, as well as how the consequences of a tragic event have come to symbolise the renaissance of Islamic art around the world. With HM King Charles III (then The Prince of Wales), HRH Prince Ghazi, Sir Christopher Frayling, Dr Khaled Azzam, Professor Keith Critchlow and Dr Minwer al-Meheid. The film would not have been possible without the generous support of the King Abdullah II Foundation and Mohammed Jameel KBE, founder and chairman of Community Jameel. Made available to Community Jameel by kind permission of the owners, The Prince’s Charities / The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund / The Prince’s Foundation. To learn more visit: https://www.communityjameel.org/centr...