The Dome of the Rock

Armenians learned the craft of ceramics from the Turks, developed it, and actually restored the dome of the Rock Chapel, with its external walls filled with ceramics, in a clever and handicraft way.

As for when Sultan Suleiman Al-Qanony, "the magnificent or the lawgiver," conquered Jerusalem in about 1517. He wanted to restore and maintain the dome of the rock, so he brought an Armenian man named David Ohansyan from the Turkish city of Kutahya, and he actually arrived in Jerusalem and saw the needs of the dome of the rock, secured all the restoration needs, and started the restoration process.

Ohansyan stayed in Jerusalem for two years. Then he decided not to return to Turkey and settled in the Holy land.

In 1919, Sir Ronald Henry Amherst Storrs, the then military governor of Jerusalem, brought three Armenian families—the Balyan, Karkchian, and Ohansyan families—to Jerusalem to renovate the sixteenth-century dome of the rock tiles in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. In those days, artisan families from the city of Kutahya in Turkey made crafts, geometric ornaments, and tiles in mosques, which occupied a special place in the hearts of many Muslim communities due to the prohibition of painting human portraits in them.
Tiles have been used to decorate mosques, holy shrines, palaces, tombs, and religious schools since the beginning of the ninth century. Today, decorative tiles are a tradition, and the dome of the rock is of particular importance for Muslims; they consider it a sacred place because it is the place from which the Prophet Muhammad was taken to heaven.

A 'the rock' pottery tile of square form, decorated in cobalt blue with black outlines on a white ground with a stylized split-palmette and lotus motif under a transparent glaze, and another 'the rock' pottery tile decorated in cobalt blue with floral arabesque motifs. 19.6 cm square.

Read more about The Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhra): https://smarthistory.org/the-dome-of-the-rock-qubbat-al-sakhra/