Great Mosque of Gaza
| Great Mosque of Gaza | |
The minaret of the Great Mosque of Gaza |
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| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Location |  Omar Mukhtar Street, Gaza, Palestinian territories |
| Religious affiliation | Islam |
| Region | Levant |
| Province | Gaza Strip |
| Functional status | active |
| Architectural description | |
| Architectural type | Mosque |
| Architectural style | Mamluk, Italian Gothic, |
| Year completed | 1344 |
| Specifications | |
| Minaret(s) | 1 |
| Materials | Granite stone, olive wood, plaster tiles |
The Great Mosque of Gaza (Arabic: جامع غزة الكبير, Jama'a al-Kabira al-Ghazza) also known as the Great Omari Mosque (Arabic: المسجد العمري الكبير) is the largest and one of the oldest mosques in the Gaza Strip,[1] located in downtown Gaza (the Old City) at the end of Omar Mukhtar Street.[2] A girls' school is located just east of the mosque and Gaza's Gold Market is adjacently south of it.[3]
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The Great Mosque was originally a large Byzantine church built on the site of a temple dedicated to Dagon (Marnas) — the god of fertility — in the 5th century CE. The church was destroyed by the Sassanid Persians in the early 7th century. It was transformed into a mosque after the capture of Gaza by the Rashidun.[1]
On December 5, 1033, an earthquake caused the pinnacle of the mosque's minaret to fall off.[4] In 1149, the Crusaders (who had conquered the Levant from Fatimid Egypt in 1099) built a cathedral dedicated to John the Baptist atop the ruins of the church upon a decree by Baldwin III of Jerusalem.[5][6] However, in 1187, the Muslims under Saladin recaptured Gaza and destroyed the cathedral, but it was reconstructed as a mosque under the Mamluks in 1344.[1]
More additions were made to the mosque, including its submergence with an adjacent library established by the Mamluk sultan Baibars in 1277.[1] The Great Mosque was severely damaged by Allied forces during World War I, but it was restored by the Supreme Muslim Council in 1926.[7]
According to a Biblical resource center, sometime between 1987 and 1993, a ladder or scaffolding was erected and the old carvings on the mosque's exterior surface was chiseled off.[8]
During the Battle of Gaza between the Palestinian organizations of Hamas and Fatah, the mosque's pro-Hamas imam was shot dead by Fatah gunmen on June 12, 2007, in retaliation for the killing of an official of Mahmoud Abbas' presidential guard by Hamas earlier that day.[9]
The Great Mosque has an area of 4,100 square meters.[1] It is well-known for its minaret, which is square in it's lower-half and octagonal in its upper-half, very typical Mamluke style. It is of solid stone to the upper-hanging balcony and it's pinnacle is mostly woodwork and tiles, but it frequently renewed. It has a simple cupola springing from an octagonal stone drum and is of light construction similar to most mosques in the Levant.[10]
The mosque forms a large sahn ("courtyard") surrounded by rounded arches. When the building was transformed into a mosque from a cathedral, most of the previous Crusader construction was completely replaced, but the mosque's western door and columns within the compound still retain their Italian Gothic style.[1]
- ^ a b c d e f Gaza Monuments International Relations Unit. Municipality of Gaza.
- ^ Travel in Gaza MidEastTravelling.
- ^ Winter, Dave. (2000) Israel Handbook: With the Palestinian Authority Areas Footprint Travel Guides, p.429.
- ^ Elnashai, Amr Salah-Eldin (2004) Earthquake Hazard in Lebanon Imperial College Press, p.23. ISBN 1860944612
- ^ Great Mosque Lonely Planet Publications.
- ^ m'Tsiyon, Eliyahu. Arabs in Gaza Have Destroyed Jewish Antiquities Paula Stern. 2007-09-18.
- ^ Kupferschmidt, Uri M. (1987) The Supreme Muslim Council: Islam Under the British Mandate for Palestine BRILL, p.134. ISBN 9004079297
- ^ Shanks, Hershel. "Peace, Politics and Archaeology". Biblical Archaeology Society.
- ^ Deadly escalation in Fatah-Hamas feud Rabinovich, Abraham. The Australian.
- ^ Sturgis, Russel. (1909) A History of Architecture pp.197-198. The Baker & Taylor Company.
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