visited Hebron on his nocturnal journey from Mecca to Jerusalem to stop by the tomb and pay his respects. For this reason the tomb quickly became a popular Islamic pilgrimage site. It was said that Muhammad himself encouraged the activity, saying "He who cannot visit me, let him visit the Tomb of Abraham" and "He who visits the Tomb of Abraham, Allah abolishes his sins." According to one tradition, childless women threw petitions addressed to Sarah, known for giving birth at an advanced age, through a hole in the mosque floor to the caves below. After the conquest of the city by Umar, this holy place was "simply taken over from the Jewish tradition" by the new rulers; the Herodian enclosure was converted into a mosque and placed under the control of a waqf. The waqf continues to maintain most of the site, while the Israeli military controls access to the site. According to some Islamic sources the cave is also the tomb of Joseph. Though the Bible has Joseph buried in Shechem (the present-day Palestinian city of Nablus), Jewish aggadic tradition conserved the idea that he wished to be interred at Hebron, and the Islamic version may reflect this. The Jewish apocryphal book, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, also states that this is the burial place of Jacob's twelve sons. According to some sources, the mosque is the 4th holiest in Islam; other sources rank other sites as 4th. A Fatimid-era minbar is kept at the mosque. According to an Arabic inscription written on the minbar, it was commissioned by Fatimid vizier Badr al-Jamali during the reign of Caliph al-Mustansir when he discovered the head of Husayn ibn Ali in 1092 CE (448 AH) at Ashkelon and kept it at a mosque and shrine there. See also List of burial places of founders of religious traditions List of World Heritage Sites in the State of Palestine The Cave – a 1993 multimedia opera set in the cave Tomb of the Matriarchs References Bibliography External links Cave of the Patriarchs The Cave of Machpelah Tomb of the Patriarch Jewish Virtual Library Tombs of the Patriarchs Article and Photos Sacred Destinations Demands for Equal Rights for the Jewish People at Ma'arat HaMachpela Hebron.org.il Aerial Photograph Google Maps Bible Land Library Photos and Diagram of Underground at Caves of Machpela Abraham Jewish mausoleums Arabic architecture Jewish pilgrimage sites Book of Genesis