Acknowledgements
The research on the Arabic inscriptions in Palestine is carried out under the auspices of Israel Academy for Sciences and Humanities that also extends its financial support to the project.
The research project and its publication Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae are sponsored, and financially supported by the Fondation Max van Berchem in Geneva. The foundation has granted permission to use its archives and publish information and photographs from Max van Berchem’s files and carnets. The Palestine Exploration Fund, London, opened its archives and gave permission for the usage of material relevant for this project.
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has given permission to use its archives and publish information as well as original photographs of both locations and inscriptions in its possession.
Thanks are due to the Muslim waqf authorities for helping me in the 1970s to survey the whole Ḥaram and examine all its major and minor shrines. I was able to climb the scaffolding built inside the Dome of the Rock and examine closely the mosaic inscription (see the photograph lower down). I entered via a small door in the outer dome and walked in the space between the outer (golden) and inner (wooden) cupolas of the Ṣakhrah searching for inscribed wooden rafters. Among the architectural remnants that were scattered, at that time, in a few places on the Ḥaram, and in the Islamic Museum, there were also two copper inscriptions (on wooden boards) kept in one of the minor shrines that had been removed from the northern and eastern gates of the Ṣakhrah. I was able to touch and closely study, record, and photograph them.
Mardo Nalbandian of Jerusalem provided photography services to the CIAP, and supplied excellent photographs of the mosaic inscription in the Dome of the Rock.