 His Muslim upbringing, the conflicts with external and local Christian forces and rival claimants to Islamic leadership all influenced Abd al-Malik's efforts to prescribe a distinctly Islamic character to the Umayyad state.Another manifestation of this initiative was his founding of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, the earliest archaeologically attested religious monument built by a Muslim ruler and the possessor of the earliest epigraphic proclamations of Islam and the prophet Muhammad.The foundations established by Abd al-Malik enabled his son and successor, al-Walid I (), who largely maintained his father's policies, to oversee the Umayyad Caliphate's territorial and economic zenith.